Instilling a team mindset for a remote work environment

Everyone in the industry has taken a hit in various ways in the past two years. After COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, many workplaces began having their employees work remotely, creating a whole new environment and set of processes for teams that were used to close, consistent, in-person collaboration.

“Once agents [in the logistics industry] had to begin working remotely, they lost that team support that they had before so they had to learn to navigate on their own, and that was something that Varstar stepped in right away and helped with. We made investments that would accommodate everyone,” said Emanuel Patrascu, sales and logistics manager at Varstar Alliance. 

Founded in 2018, Varstar Alliance is a freight brokerage company offering all-in-one transportation solutions. The company uses automation to streamline redundant and mundane day-to-day processes for brokers in the industry.

“We wanted to make sure that our agents didn’t endure burdens associated with operating and performing their daily tasks and weren’t weighed down by the fact that they were no longer connected physically with their team,” Patrascu said.

He added that consistent feedback is important for an organization to retain employees and grow.

“We are getting a lot of agents that come over to us and claim they were getting very little support from their previous companies. This is all a part of a feedback loop that helps us understand our agents’ needs,” Patrascu said. “Varstar seeks to accommodate each agent individually.”

He believes that another of Varstar’s strengths is the fact that the founders were all agents before Varstar, creating a space where there is compassion and understanding. 

“We truly are a company that was created by agents, for agents in order to better serve their customers,” Patrascu said. “A lot of companies have problems because they don’t invest properly in their agents. At the end of the day, if you take care of your people, they take care of your customers.” 

According to Patrascu, it’s important for employers and administrators to continuously be in conversation with their agents and other employees in order to know how to grow their business, their employees and themselves. 

In recent years, Varstar has seen an increase in employees and a 0% turnover rate, while others in the industry are struggling to combat a labor shortage. 

“We went from having a handful of agents to 60 agents and 87 total employees over the last four years,” Patrascu said. “Our goal is to always invest in the agent. We want to make sure they always have what they need to be successful.”

In order to find out more about Varstar and grow with them, visit www.varstaralliance.com or connect with Emanuel Patrascu via LinkedIn to get more information.