Moxxy Marketing, a leading full-service marketing agency that works with fresh food and ag businesses across the country and the Americas, gave up its brick-and-mortar office space at the end of 2019 to take operations virtual.

"With frequent trips across the country to attend industry events and work with clients, as well as long commutes for some employees, this transformation is enabling us to better serve clients and be more productive while giving employees an opportunity for better work-life balance," said Karen Nardozza, Moxxy president and chief executive officer.

"We knew nothing of coronavirus when we made the decision to go virtual last November, but now with so many businesses taking emergency measures to safeguard the health of employees and the community at large, we’re glad we made the change months ago because we’re efficient and able to continue operations relatively unaffected," she said. "The only adjustment has been seeing everyone’s kids on video calls, which is fun!"

Half of Moxxy’s workforce was already working remotely from as far away as Portland, OR, and Atlanta, and as of December 2019, the rest of Moxxy’s account management and admin team members, some of whom previously commuted up to 90 minutes each way to the Salinas office, are working remotely too. That’s an extra 750 hours, or over 31 days per year, that Moxxy employees will have to spend with their families, doing things they love, and recharging so they can be more strategic and creative when they are working.

"Today’s communications technology makes it all possible," said Molly Briseño, vice president. "Our file servers are now 100 percent cloud-based and securely accessible from anywhere, and our daily scrum check-ins are video calls, as are our creative and strategy meetings. We can collaborate in documents and spreadsheets in real-time, and we even have an online whiteboard. It’s very exciting."

Trish James, chief marketing officer at Moxxy-client Shuman Farms, said, "Moxxy has supported our East Coast team remotely from the start of our relationship, with some of their team on the West Coast and some in Atlanta — and it works great. In today’s business environment, virtual teams make sense."

Nardozza discussed other benefits, saying, "Going virtual also allows us to recruit and keep the best talent, wherever new team members might live. Our clients win, our employees win, and my dogs and parrot win because when I’m not traveling, I’ll be working from my home office so be prepared to see them on video calls."

Moxxy also recognizes the value of in-person meetings and has arranged to use shared-workspace conference facilities around the country for client and team meetings.