Google Tanslate

Select Language

Sign up and be the first to know

About Hugh Terry & The Digital Insurer

Hugh Terry & The Digital Insurer Video

Contact Us

1 Scotts Road
#24-10 Shaw Centre
Singapore 228208

Write an article

Get in touch with the editor Martin Kornacki

email your ideas at [email protected]

Pre Registration Popup

itcasia2020 Registration Popup

Share Popup

Prime Member: Find out more

Access a unique programme!
  • 56 pre recorded lesson of online content from industry experts over 7 courses
  • The best in digital insurance for practitioners and by practtioners
  • Online MCQ after each lesson
  • Join the discussion forum and make new friends
  • Certificate upon completion to show your expertise and comitment
  • 3 months to complete
  • Normal price US$1,400 Your Prime member price is US$999
  • Access to future versions included in your Prime membership!
Become a member

Prime Member: Contact Us

Reach out to us. Please fill up the form below
Let us know how we can help. You can expect a response within 24 hours
Services of interest
Untitled

Arthur D. Little

Arthur D. Little has been at the forefront of innovation since 1886. We are an acknowledged thought leader in linking strategy, innovation and transformation in technology-intensive and converging industries. We enable our clients to build innovation capabilities and transform their organizations. ADL is present in the most important business centers around the world. We are proud to serve most of the Fortune 1000 companies, in addition to other leading firms and public sector organizations. For further information, please visit www.adlittle.com

Library: BCG – What the insurance workforce wants

April 2022 featured report:

The global insurance industry coped better with the COVID-19 pandemic than many other industries.

 The Digital Insurer reviews BCG’s Report on What the insurance workforce wants

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed workers’ expectations

People adapted quickly to remote working and fewer jobs were lost. Remote working highlighted not only the shortcomings of insurance technology, but the absolute necessity to accelerate the transition towards digitalised and automated working.

But it’s not just about the tech, say the authors of this report, as workers – or talent – have also changed the emphasis of what they expect from their own working lives.

This report is based on a survey of 3,000 respondents in late 2020 shows how you workplace values have become more important. These include diversity, inclusion, and environmental matters. There’s also become there’s been a great concern about the march of digitalisation and what that means for people in other words, will they be replaced by machines?

The point of this report is that if insurers wish to recruit and retain the best staff, they need to be thinking about how they’re going to accommodate the expectations of that future workforce.

Remote working has been a success

The march of digitalisation had to a greater or lesser extent in every business already begun before the pandemic. Before. COVID, 37% of insurance workers worked outside the office for some or all of the time this more than doubled by late 2020 to 75%, well above the 51% cross-industry average (see exhibit 2).

 

This was possible, because insurance work is largely knowledge based and more agile insurance teams were more successful at remote working.

The transition was so successful, that 94% of respondents said they’d prefer to work remotely some or all of the time compared with the 89% cross-industry average.

More than two thirds (69%) said they prefer a hybrid work model combining on site and remote work, while one quarter 25% would prefer to remote work all the time.

These preferences are being taken into account and in the US, Nationwide Mutual Insurance has put in place a hybrid work strategy allowing HQ staff to work remotely several days a week or every other week, while closing some satellite offices and asking field workers to work remotely. Other companies are giving teams authority to make their own decisions.

Almost half (45%) want to have a say over when they work, with a combination of fixed and flexible hours. This will require some to work the same hours every day, or on specific days. However, almost a quarter (24%) would prefer to have complete control over the hours they work. Fewer than a third (31%) want to have set hours.

Not only where, but when is important

Flexibility about when and where work gets done isn’t just about satisfying people’s requirements, say the report’s authors. It helps them to create a better work/life balance by fitting fit work around their lives, instead of the other way around.

There has been a continued fall in the desire to travel to different countries to work, but working for a foreign company is not a problem. Fewer than half (47%) would move abroad work, but 58% would be happy to work for a foreign employer remotely.

Those who work within digital areas of the business are even more likely with almost two thirds (64%) saying they would be happy to do that this may open this openness or this willingness to work remotely for foreign employers may open up new pools of virtual talent to the insurance industry. This will have implications for operations and reward structures.

Personal relationships remain important

Despite the desire to work remotely, or in a hybrid sense, the most important thing is maintaining good relationships with colleagues (see exhibit four). Work life balance is still amongst the top priorities, but in an environment where they are able to fit work around life, this is not no longer considered the most important.

 

Instead, good relationships with colleagues, then the boss, then work life balance. Financial compensation, appreciation of work and job security have all jumped up the chart since the pandemic, along with job security.

The insurance industry is no different when it comes to certain global issues. Insurance workers are just as concerned about certain social and environmental trends, with 71% believing that diversity inclusion is important while more than half (55%) would reject jobs at businesses that didn’t have diversity and inclusion policies that aligned with their views.

More than two thirds (69%) see environmental responsibility as more important now, while 51% would reject a company they felt didn’t have views that aligned with their own.

Fear of obsolescence

While the shift to remote working was largely successful, many insurance workers feel threatened by increased automation and digitalisation. Almost half (48%) are concerned their jobs may become redundant. Only financial services workers are more concerned as that industry goes through its own digitalisation process (see exhibit seven).

Those most concerned are in customer service (56%) and administration (53%), two of the key areas targeted for automation.

The vast majority of insurance workers are willing to reskill (71%), making it one of the most willing workforces, yet they spend less time than all but two other sectors on training in a year.

Insurance hworkersare also willing to adopt online and app based methods of learning, so insurers must work at this to ensure they maintain good relationships with their employees, train the valued ones for future roles and thereby retain them on the staff.

 

What insurers must do

There are a number of key tasks insurers need to do to develop their workforce for a digital future:

  1. They need to look at strategic workforce planning. What jobs are people are doing now, what skills might they need in the future and develop a strategy to ensure these needs are met.
  2. Devise a hybrid or remote work plan with policies that support both business goals as well as workers wishes.
  3. Develop a Culture that supports trust and flexibility and which also recognises that some jobs need more flexibility than others.
  4. Empower people and ensure that the leadership teams lead by example, because all culture starts at the top.
  5. Recruitment strategies can also start looking for people operating in different countries.

Build a bionic business

Increased automation doesn’t mean teams need fewer skills, but rather by reskilling and upskilling,  workers can fill jobs that are unlikely to be replaced by automation.

This may allow the business to release good employees with valuable experience into areas that require more specialised knowledge, such as data analysis, project management, coaching. Actuaries can become data scientists, for instance.

Where career development has become less important, an ecosystem that integrates learning into daily work may actually help them to find new objectives.

Social responsibility is going to be key, say the authors if insurers wish to appeal to both existing workers and to attract talent in the future.

Key performance indicators on diversity and inclusion and the communication of guidelines for social and environmental responsibility should be extended into every part of the business, especially, to investments and underwriting.

Ultimately, say the authors, become a bionic insurer, by building a business that combines human capabilities with technology.

By building a hybrid with the best of both worlds, you’re more likely to create a business that is going to be able to weather future shocks as a truly sustainable business.

For more, see the full report.

Link to Full Article:: click here

Link to Source:: click here

Livefest 2019 Register Popup Event

Livefest 2019 Already Registered Popup Event

Livefest 2019 Join Live Logged-in Not Registered

Livefest 2019 Join Live Not Logged-in