Don’t kid yourself – Our way of working is changing as we work – we can complain about it or shift the way we work to adjust to the new reality – OR we can get out and make room for those who have no problem with WFH.
The way most of us learned to work is to get up early, dress, and fight our way to work through whatever weather conditions are prevalent in our respective parts of the country. Arriving at our agencies we meet with our co-workers or call our friends who had the same experience and share war stories over coffee talking about dealing with our families and getting to work before settling down to answering the phones, opening and dealing with the snail-mail from clients and carriers and then dealing with all the email that needs responses. By the time we caught up to where we were when we left last night it was likely close to (or passed) lunchtime. Out we would go to spend more (and more time) than we expected for a lunch that was not particularly good for us to return to the office, somewhat logy and wanting a short nap to face whatever was important for us to handle before we could leave for home – to begin again tomorrow.
Over the last two decades, we began seeing more remote workers in insurance agencies — remote work-at-home service employees (working moms, CSRs whose families moved to other parts of the country, and worldwide service companies with qualified processing and, sometimes, technically qualified and licensed insurance professionals performing agency tasks when local, experienced staff members couldn’t be hired). We also saw more diverse branch offices of agencies in different parts of the country.
Then came the Pandemic. THE EVOLUTION BECAME A REVOLUTION enforced by the mandated closure of many businesses.
2020 saw the closure of businesses that forced us to reinvent the way we worked. Luckily telephone, database, general IT, and internet technologies had advanced far enough to support work-from-home insurance agencies in many parts of the country. Interestingly, the move to remote work is much less and slower in the geographic areas that were not mandated to close during the Pandemic.
The result proved that we were able to renew policies respond to our customers and handle and settle claims without the need for in-person contact. Sales slowed down as businesses drew down and closed or shrank to react to the economic issues of the Pandemic.
However, the major event that would affect business far beyond the Pandemic was the government assistance to businesses and individuals to relieve them of the financial stress of the Pandemic. Many businesses that would have closed were able to remain open. Some (like many agencies) even thrived as a result of the additional funds. Individuals who lost their employment or had severe limitations were also provided newly printed money as the government went even further into debt to provide extra funds to the individuals involved. We or our children will, undoubtedly, pay dearly for this debt creation in the future. But politically, we are known for “kicking the can down the road” and this is no different than we have historically acted.
Unfortunately, the largesse became a crutch for many as businesses tried to return to normality only to find that the labor force had changed and shrunk since families continued to get government-provided funding sufficient to avoid their return to the workforce as long as they felt physically threatened by the Pandemic or its ramifications.
Further, the younger workers found that working from home was easier and less expensive than working at a central location. It was easier because it was more relaxed, less expensive (no commuting and eating out), and required less formal attire. Although the computers are smart enough to provide productivity information regarding the amount of work being done, many businesses (like smaller, less technically managed agencies) allowed less time to be spent on work-related activities and, as a result, found productivity slipping in their stay-at-home workforce. It was obviously less time-consuming and more cost-effective for employees to avoid the morning and evening rush hours and to get an extra half hour (or more) of sleep and still be at the computer or available on the phone at 9:00 AM customer service time.
The Pandemic occurred just as companies large and small were already considering flex time and split time in-office and at-home work schedules. A large bank in our area took advantage of this work-time change to send ALL of their office workers home with their computers and separate phone lines and relieved the company of substantial leased space. Three and four years later, all employees still work from home and it has become the norm, rather than the exception. Management caught up quickly to determine who was actually productive (via systems reports of transactions done and time taken on the phone) and those management techniques are quickly migrating down to the smaller companies, including insurance businesses.
As a matter of fact, the conversion to at-home work was driven in great part by the workers, themselves. The younger generations seem to much prefer working at home to working in common areas. And, hereby lies…
THE DOWNSIDE
With all the talk about convenience and continued productivity, studies show that employees are less productive at home than at work – sometimes MUCH less productive. It appears that socializing at work has certain positive results as teams work together to cross-train and build expertise that remote workers don’t have the opportunity to build. In-office work results in exposure to career building and career pathing that also doesn’t happen if your employee is at home – locally or geographically remote.
The jury is still out. Certainly, the WFH Revolution is not over. The retail industry is feeling it now with record numbers of stores and malls empty. The service industry will feel the effects, as well, as the public learns to live without visiting service providers. However, large corporations (most recently IBM) are again requiring employees to come back to the office – at least part of the time.
But the fact is that agencies are among the types of businesses that can easily have split (part-time at office and part-time at home) or fully remote workers. We need to learn how to manage our workflows using a remote workforce in order to maximize productivity and profitability. The agency industry is NOT going away – but it is changing in front of our faces every year. We must flex to those changes or turn the reins over to the next generation who have no problems with the concept.