The hybrid life

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

Among 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 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 home, and where they’ll benefit from the collaboration and innovation that can come from informal, face-to-face connections”.

Keeping connected: Suncorp says its office at Shelley Street in Sydney maintains traditional workstations and is designed to “foster social connections, innovation and collaboration”

Over at IAG, staged trial returns to offices have been in progress since October last year, but not before a shake-up of the office space, including providing personal protection equipment and hand sanitiser, COVIDsafe organisation of the workplace, mandatory desk booking prior to entering, enhanced cleaning and signage promoting distancing, and other safety practices.

“Since the start of the trials, 72% of our Australiabased employees have returned to their work site at least once,” a spokesman told Insurance News.

“From February, our teams started to review how and where they will work in 2021. We know not all teams are the same, and we recognise the need for different work models that involve some people being based on site, others from home, and the remainder a hybrid of both.”

Like Marsh, IAG says its approach to flexible working arrangements pre-dates the pandemic.

“To understand the best way forward in terms of working arrangements, we are adopting a ‘consult, test and learn’ approach to our flexible working models until June 30. During this time, we will explore what works and what doesn’t in terms of long-term impact on customer experience, productivity, culture and employee engagement.

“Following this, we will consider and discuss with our people any proposed ongoing changes to working arrangements.”

Marsh says its staff are returning in line with the various state government guidelines, with “some offices close to full occupancy and others that could be at 20% on a particular day”.

Most workers have been back in the office this year, with the broker’s current guidance being for two days in the office a week, “but this varies based on individual circumstances”.

“We have flexibility in start and finish times to accommodate off-peak travel schedules [and] we have made changes to our offices to allow for social distancing and limitations on the number of people in particular spaces, in line with government guidance,” its spokeswoman says.

“Since March last year we have significantly scaled up the cleaning in our offices and have protocols in place for guest check-in.”

The broker believes “office working is integral to certain forms of collaboration. Our offices are our hubs for teamwork and innovation and our business thrives when we are together.

“Our hybrid working model allows for flexibility by combining working from home with office-based collaboration and working.”

Two of the leading industry associations are also getting back to the office.

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says it is striving to find “the balance between working from the office and working from home; supporting the worklife integration of our staff and mitigating risks in either environment. ICA surveyed its staff in late 2020 to understand their work environment preferences and any related concerns.”

At time of writing, ICA staff work three days in the office and two days from home if they want, which a spokeswoman says “suits the majority of staff. For those staff it doesn’t suit, we have discussed options.

“ICA remains flexible of extenuating circumstances potentially affecting our staff, such as the Northern Beaches Christmas COVID outbreak; our team seamlessly transitioned back to full remote working for the majority of the staff, and again some staff worked from home during the recent severe weather event [the March floods in NSW].”

ICA says it remains difficult to provide a definitive structure for its future work environment, but “it will involve remaining mindful of the circumstances and challenges faced by all our staff and how we can best support them and our members”.

At the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA), staff are back in the office for three to four days a week.

“The team has been impressively productive in the past 12 months, with many significant achievements, and we will continue to review the situation as circumstances develop,” Chief Executive Dallas Booth tells Insurance News.

As Marsh’s spokeswoman notes: “You can’t go through an experience like COVID and revert to exactly as you were.”

Change has been thrust upon us. But if there can be an upside to a global catastrophe, it may be as the catalyst for positive shifts – for staff and businesses alike.

“We know from speaking with and surveying our colleagues that they appreciated the flexibility of managing work and home in a way they needed, particularly with different responsibilities that came from COVID,” Marsh says. “We have proven many things, including the ability to be innovative and find ways to meet client needs in differing circumstances. It’s also shown when interactions can help with relationships and outcomes.”

IAG’s spokeswoman tells Insurance News the pandemic has “taught us that working from home can be both productive and beneficial” in finding a healthy work-life balance.

“However, we continue to see the value in communication and collaboration that is done in person, as well as the importance of face-to-face meetings and events for general employee camaraderie.

“Our task now is to harness what we learned in the past year and apply it constructively to benefit our people and our business.”