Insurance Industry Transitioning to the Office of the Future

This is an excerpt from the 2020 Connecticut insurance market brief, Insurance Now: Ready and Resilient, by the Connecticut Insurance & Financial Services and PwC.

A flexible work-from-home model is likely to become the norm, and everybody benefits. Employees avoid lengthy commutes and spend more time with their families. Employers have access to talent regardless of location, improve resiliency through a distributed workforce, and reduce expenses by optimizing their real estate footprint. Even the environment gets a break thanks to fewer people commuting, less business travel, and less heating and cooling of office space.

As a result, the corporate office is on the brink of a major renovation and companies will need to figure out their own path, given the scale of potential changes. Organizations should consider the following four steps to navigate changes to the workplace:

1. Redefine the role of the office — whether it’s a space for creating work products, collaborating and communicating, or building community and corporate culture, companies will need to define the purpose of the office for their organization.

“As carriers navigate from their initial response to a longer-term strategy, they’ll need to adjust their approach based on shifts in consumer behavior. Financial stress correlates with dissatisfaction — but insurance carriers can improve customer satisfaction by introducing alternative pricing, bundling plans and upping their digital game.”

2. Define work-from-home guidelines — evaluating employee activities, requirements, and propensities for home or office working, and developing guidelines based on specific roles will be key for creating workweek flexibility for employees.

3. Remodel the office — companies will need to optimize office space to serve its new and more specific purpose of enabling collaboration and community building.

4. Update your ways of working — deliberately establishing ways of working that allow for serendipity will help companies make an office-wide shift to flexible work.

Investing in the future

The insurance industry is facing enormous challenges as a result of COVID-19. It’s time for carriers to develop new business strategies, prioritize investments, rethink what industry verticals and customer segments to target, and develop products, services, and pricing strategies for prioritized segments. Doing so can help to drive revenue.

We believe the right strategy for carriers, if they believe their roadmaps are directionally correct, is to invest in the future—in the digital capabilities, talent, and other strategic resources needed for long-term success.

Companies that invest today in their capabilities and strengthen the bond with their customers have the potential to emerge from the crisis ahead of their competitors.

Connecticut Insurance and Financial Services (CT IFS), formed in 2003, is a statewide initiative of the MetroHartford Alliance comprised of 27 member companies in Connecticut’s insurance and financial services sector. PwC has approximately 900 partners and staff in Hartford and Stamford offices, serving Connecticut industries including insurance.