The hybrid life The COVID-enforced shift to working from home may have forever changed the way we do business, but major insurance companies still see a role for the office
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mong the many bold predictions and prognostications voiced during the darkest days of the coronavirus crisis, one of the most prevalent was the “death of the office”. Remote work was working well, tilting the work-life balance for employees and giving employers a chance to cut their overheads; the home office and Zoom meetings were the new normal, or so the narrative went. But as the vaccines roll out and we take our first tentative steps towards a post-pandemic, post-lockdown world, it seems those reports (or their headlines, anyway) were greatly exaggerated. According to some of Australia’s leading insurance industry players, the office still has a key role to play. And if there is a buzzword for the new era, it is not so much “home” as “hybrid” – aiming to combine the best elements of remote and office-based working. “As teams move back [to the office], we’re embracing a hybrid working environment, blending both office and remote working,” a Suncorp spokeswoman told Insurance News. “We know there’s a strong link between flexibility and positive wellbeing and our hybrid model will continue to support this.” And as major broker Marsh notes, this is an
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April/May 2021
evolution in working practices that in many cases predates the pandemic. “We have a flexible hybrid model, allowing colleagues to combine WFH [work from home] and in-office days,” a spokeswoman said. “How this works varies based on needs of individual roles and the client relationships they support … we had flexible working arrangements in place before COVID, so expect this to continue.” Suncorp has been bringing staff back to its offices since September last year “through a phased approach that has prioritised the health and safety of our people and taken into consideration the government health advice”. In doing so it has implemented “a range of hygiene and safety measures to allow for social distancing, and supported scattered start and finish times to assist with lift [capacity] limits. Each employee was asked to complete a COVID-safe workplace checklist, and our desk booking system helps to manage density across our footprint.” Suncorp’s vision for the office is as “the home base for collaboration, brainstorming and problem solving”. The insurer is “encouraging people to plan out their week and think about what tasks are best completed at
