Many people over here in Europe are tired of hearing the phrase "opportunities from the corona crisis." Especially because nobody knows how the pandemic will continue to play out. Nevertheless, an aspect is emerging that strongly affects the economy and our industry. The new world of work is no longer fiction but reality.
What will the world of work look like in a few months?
It is clear to everyone involved (employers and employees) that there will be enormous changes. We will completely say farewell to the antiquated ways and rigid mechanisms of everyday office life as we knew it.
There is a preliminary study in Germany by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT, which launched a home office survey on the internet in April 2020.
The results are astonishing: 80% of those surveyed (79% of women and 85% of men) are satisfied with working from home. However, social and professional exchanges between colleagues and the support and solidarity within the team were rated rather poorly.
What does this mean for a company in the insurance industry?
In the future, my company wants to permanently offer the home office model for 30% of all employees and expand online sales formats such as trade fairs, webinars and roadshows rapidly. Employees will be happier, and the company will save on office space and travel expenses. In travel costs alone (trade fairs, events and seminars), we expect to see a decrease of around 60% to 70%.
The additional financial resources thus gained would offer flexibility for investment in digital infrastructure and in training. That will be money well spent.
A further advantage: With this modern working model, OCC can attract talent and specialists throughout Germany and the rest of Europe. Nobody has to move to our headquarters (located in the beautiful, but a little remote, city of Lübeck) to work for us any more. Nobody has to give up his group of friends or uproot children from familiar surroundings just to move for a job. There is more time for the family; satisfaction and productivity also increase.
Many bosses certainly wonder how to measure productivity when they no longer see the employee at work. We need to get away from antiquated thinking: Superiors still often measure performance by attendance and working hours rather than by the actual result. In some areas, even time clocks are still in use. But there are better ways to monitor employees.
The well-known German entrepreneur and startup investor Carsten Maschmeyer recently said that people who are not productive in the office are not productive at home, either. He nailed it. I think that working from home unleashes creativity. We need creativity and innovation to survive in a market that is constantly changing.
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Besides, commuters spend an average of 46 hours a year in traffic jams, according to a recent analysis by Inrix. That's almost six complete working days -- or holidays. The economic damage is running into billions. The damage to the environment caused by harmful emissions is serious.
In Germany, we have the problem that rents have skyrocketed in urban areas. This means that more and more people are moving to the countryside or to small towns where rents are still affordable. But it also means that they often have to accept traveling long distances to work. Working from home will solve such problems for many.
We are currently preparing the first online trade fair for classic cars in Germany, which will start on June 19. There has never been an online trade fair for classic cars like this before. In April, we launched the first webinars for our brokerage partners, which were very well received. We will continue to expand these types of customer loyalty events,. A minimum amount of technical and financial investment is required, and the return is very high in terms of corporate image, knowledge transfer and competence.
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Let me think a bit further, maybe even dream a little. Wouldn't a company be more powerful as an underwriting agency if it had not just one large head office but many small branches? These would then be the new home offices of our employees. Many small OCCs instead of one large, central office. All offices connected to each other with the latest IT as if in a neural network where everything comes together and is distributed.
Hopp-de-Bäse! That is Swiss German, and it means: Let's go!
