From the need to have one employee stay home to take care of a sick child, to closing an office due to a natural disaster like COVID-19, employers are looking for innovative ways to support their staff. With the cloud-based capabilities of Qualia, companies and employees can thrive during adversity.

Tennessee Title is one such company that was faced with such challenges recently and was fully prepared. After a tornado struck down in Tennessee halting most business activity and closing down offices for days, Tennessee Title was able to quickly mobilize their business by allowing their staff to work remotely while conditions were made safe for travel.

About Tennessee Title

Tennessee Title is a large title company based in Brentwood, Tennessee. With seven offices located across the state, Tennessee Title takes special measures to ensure their employees are well taken care of and empowered to provide outstanding, consistent customer service to a large pool of clients.

Josh Terry, Partner at Tennessee Title, developed a plan with his team to ensure business continuity in the event of a natural disaster or public health crisis. Due to the simplicity of the cloud-based system and the organization of the Tennessee Title team, employees are not only prepared for remote work in the event of a crisis, but they are also able to enjoy the benefits of remote work when otherwise wanted.

Business Continuity: How to Keep a Business Operating Through Adversity

Prior to implementing Qualia, Tennessee Title hosted files within an on-premises software. The files were extremely difficult to access remotely. If an event occurred that prevented employees from coming to work, an additional office would have to carry that workload for the company. With an already large workload, this meant overloading other employees and causing material delays or complete work stoppages for their clients. The preparation and planning Terry’s team has implemented since implementing Qualia allows for business to continue as usual, from anywhere, in the event of an emergency.

Terry credits Qualia’s cloud-based system with much of their ability to continue business as usual during an office closure. Qualia’s simple and remote accessibility is just one part of their playbook though since successful business continuity also requires the preparation of the Tennessee Title team so employees seamlessly transition to working remotely at a moment’s notice.

In the Qualia platform, all files and documents can be accessed with ease from anywhere with an internet connection. For instance, title work, release tracking, surveys and notaries can be ordered online and accessed through the Qualia Marketplace. Additionally, the Connect app ensures communication with clients (lenders, realtors, buyers, borrowers, sellers) does not get disrupted, and features like built-in e-signing allows for documents to be signed from anywhere. Because their work is centralized on a secure, cloud-based single system of record with their clients, the Tennessee Title team can be completely mobile, whether or not it’s by choice.

We are simply empowering our team to do what they need to do and give them the tools to do it.

Josh Terry, Partner at Tennessee Title

Security While Working Remote

With staff working outside of a typical office environment, security becomes top-of-mind. Qualia’s cloud-based platform is SOC-2 and ISO 27001 certified and has been recognized by ALTA for security best practices, safeguarding all data on the platform. Employees can enable two-factor authentication for employees when logging into Qualia, adding another layer of protection for their files. Qualia’s secure built-in communications keep client messages and information private within the Connect app. Qualia prioritizes security and permits users to work safely from the physical location of their choosing.

Building Community While Working Remotely

Working remotely, whether by choice or due to adverse circumstances, can present company culture challenges. Terry and his team took careful measures to ensure a vibrant office culture was maintained even with remote employees.

Tennessee Title’s leadership has worked to build a positive company culture and has practices in place to continue to build community when employees are working remotely. The Tennessee Title team hosts structured quarterly team outings to cultivate a strong community and family atmosphere. This, coupled with daily team huddles via Zoom, promote a positive, energetic culture throughout the company.

Recruiting Top Talent, an Additional Benefit

Tennessee Title found that their focus on seamless operations had a magnificent secondary benefit: it enabled them to hire high-quality candidates that they previously couldn’t. With the remote capabilities of Qualia, Tennessee Title was able to widen their hiring pool by removing the hurdle of a commute. Terry states that his team is now able to hire and retain amazing talent because employees are able to work from wherever needed.

From a hiring practice, location limits who you can hire because you’re asking that person to drive to a certain geographic location. We realized that traffic patterns were becoming more challenging and we were missing hires that were great candidates, but didn’t want to commute. We knew that Qualia was the path we needed to be on in order to allow employees to work remotely.

Josh Terry, Partner at Tennessee Title

Preparing for the Future

Terry’s team has worked diligently to prepare for success in the event of an emergency. With that preparation, comes the added benefit of employees having flexibility in their location for work. Terry shared, “With what we have built out, we didn’t miss a beat [after the Tornado]. We could have everyone work from home right away, with the exception of the actual closings”.

Employees are able to tend to sick children, avoid a tedious commute, or work from the safety of their home in the event of a natural disaster or public health crisis. Because of their forward thinking, the team has been able to continue to provide outstanding service to their clients and community in light of a natural disaster. The Tennessee Title team hopes to continue to advance their efforts and inspire other companies to take a similar lead.