Return to Office - A Snap Poll for the Celent Executive Panel

Snap polls reflect questions posed by members of the Celent Executive Panel, a group of C level executives in the insurance industry. This insurer insurer that has been talking a lot at their Sr. leadership level about return to work / workforce arrangements lately and have been curious how others have been handling RTW.

This deck provides a summary of the responses to a Snap Poll conducted April 9 - 16, 2024. Questions for a snap poll come from one of the other members of the panel. The snap poll was fielded to select members of the Celent Executive Panel, a group of C level executives in the insurance industry. 39 insurers responded to this survey

If you are an insurer and are interested in participating and receiving these snap polls, please email kcarnahan@celent.com to verify eligibility.

The question that was posed was:

Background:

The insurer is looking for information about how other insurers have designed their return to office strategy. They see three options - 1) All back; 2) Stay completely virtual; or 3) Deploy a hybrid model.

This insurer is looking at these options for returning employees to the office and wondering how others are thinking about the different models and would like to understand how others think about the realized or anticipated challenges encountered when making the strategy shift. They are particularly curious about what others are doing to build or maintain their corporate culture when some employees are remote,how to assure career development especially for early career employees (especially when more senior experts are remote), and they’re curious if others have reduced or eliminated their brick and mortar real estate due to remote employment practices.

Questions:

What percentage of your company’s workforce will be required to be physically located in the office at least one day a week by year end 2024?

If you are bringing folks back to office, is it full-time or hybrid?

• If full time, is it for all employees or just certain roles? Which roles?
• If hybrid, is it focused on the same days in / out?

Which roles are most critical to be in the office at least some days?

If your company is going to be maintaining a hybrid model what are the conditions?

• A minimum number of days in the office - how many?
• Employee choice.
• Employees come in when the company asks for a meeting/social event only.

How are you thinking about your brick-and-mortar locations?Have you reduced the number of locations or the amount of space as more employees work from home?Are you planning to?

How are you thinking about building and maintaining your corporate culture?

If you are full-time in office or mostly full-time, have you had any challenges recruiting?

Do you have any concerns about career development for your employees? If so, what are you doing to overcome these concerns?