Companies had to make quick and decisive moves to preserve operational integrity when COVID-19 struck in early 2020. These moves had major implications and needed to cut through organizational “noise” given the pandemic’s clear dangers. Yet, in retrospect, the decision to move to a “work from home” mode seems straightforward and surprisingly simple in contrast to what comes next. The black-and-white thinking of 2020 has been replaced with a palette of grays.
To be clear, WFH was never simple: Hard work, shared responsibility, and a willingness to take calculated risks made it a generally rousing success. But companies must now contend with if and how to “return to office.” Organizations face an array of options, changed realities in labor markets, a recognition that there were tangible benefits from the great WFH experiment, and a concurrent desire to leverage investments that recognize that humans are social beings.
A recent “RTO” Research Council study explores the complexities of what comes next as part of a Virtual Panel Discussion earlier this month. The study illustrated no singular right answer to future planning. Rather, there are a series of trade-offs that insurers are considering.
Many organizations became remarkably effective at recruiting talent nationally during the pandemic, which changed employer/employee relationship paradigms. At the same time, face-to-face interactions remain high-value. The hardest part may prove to be finding the correct balance in light of different operating models and corporate cultures.
The challenge all insurers will face going forward is finding the right mix given all available options. The emerging post-pandemic world will thus be a hybrid one, with some employees at home, some in the office, and more events, previously in-person, being held digitally. These changes have social and technological implications that insurers will need to work out quickly in the coming months.
Many have noticed that (video) conference calls work well when everyone has a camera and microphone. However, the experience decays significantly when some people share a conference room, and others are online or on the phone. An insurer CIO who attended last week’s Virtual Panel on Return to Office said their company was investing in in-room conferencing technology that ensures everyone has a microphone to allow clear audio during hybrid meetings.
Much of the adjustment goes beyond technology, however. Many field workers reported they no longer felt “out of the loop” during the pandemic. How can insurers maintain this? On the flip side, how can companies bring back serendipitous “water cooler” discussions that fell by the wayside since the shift to work from home? Should insurers encourage teams to work from the office on the same days to boost efficiency and team collaboration? Or should insurers enact policies that attempt to break down team silos by encouraging members of different teams to work from the office on the same days?
The panelists discussed some other considerations as well, including what constitutes professional attire and how much office space is necessary in a hybrid world. The panelists agreed that dress codes had relaxed slightly during the pandemic. Working from home made it easier for employees to “dress for the audience,” e.g., donning formal attire for meetings with the board or AM Best and more relaxed garb when mixing internally.
Messages are mixed regarding office space. Some insurers are looking for opportunities to consolidate; others used the pandemic to lock in lower rents on larger or improved spaces. It’s worth mentioning that if the post-pandemic world makes remote work “table stakes,” employers may want to coax employees to collaborate in the office with upgraded spaces and improved amenities. The next few months are likely to feature a great deal of experimentation in working models. It should prove an exciting time, no matter where the desks are.
For more discussions like this, please visit our events page. We have a full list of events running through 2021 and are planning for hybrid and in-person events in 2022. The first in-person event will be our Silicon Valley Innovation Tour “reboot” in January.
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