Insurance is one of those businesses where the ability to work from home makes as much sense as working full-time in an office. And insurers — and to a certain extent, some insurance agencies — like the idea of some sort of a set-in-stone hybrid work from home/work from the office set up.
That’s the conclusion of the Flex Index from an analysis of collated data and responses from 4,500 businesses and 30,000 offices. Those offices employ over 100 million people.
Insurers — says the Flex Index and the software firm Scoop CEO, Rob Sadow — said 52% favor a structured hybrid work environment that mixes set up times for remote work and work in the office.
“This isn’t that surprising, especially considering the size of many of these insurers,” he said. “There’s just certain parts of the job that can’t be replicated at home. Rather than giving employees the freedom to come into the office if they choose, [insurers] are now mandating in-person work for set days, the average being 2.53 days.”
Sadow that this is particularly important for new employees and younger, inexperienced workers.
“There’s just certain parts of the job that can’t be replicated at home,” Sadow said. “Being shoulder to shoulder, having unscheduled conversations that create opportunities for learning — these things are more organic but still effective.”
That said, companies with less than 500 employees are seeing some huge benefits from allowing workers to work remotely all the time.
“Real estate is very expensive, and start-ups or smaller businesses don’t have the capital to stick to an in-office plan like that,” Sadow said. “Full-time office work is becoming increasingly less relevant.”
Defining less relevant, in May of this year, just 16% of the participants in the survey required full-time office attendance. That’s an 8% drop from the information gathered in February.
Another thing to think about is employees. These days most are more attracted to a flexible workplace than one that is rigid.
Source link: Insurance Business America — https://bit.ly/3raoOLR
