Insights

The Covid-19 pandemic has swung the pendulum towards greater adoption of digital technologies such as Automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) at the workplace. Every change is an opportunity, and the lockdown warmed up workspaces to adapt to the new normal. Most have embraced the change to find new digital pathways to connect, explore dynamic structures and adopt agility in their processes. These changes have led to initiatives, which will have a long-lasting impact on the way we navigate the evolving workplace.

New Digital Pathways

Companies have modified internal communication strategies to keep employees connected digitally. The traditional official communication model – email and intranet groups are being supplemented in several workplaces with channels that allow for more than two-way communication. These decentralised communication pathways ensure that customers and their service providers can talk more frequently, and teams can connect transparently with the leadership.

Moving from employee communication to organisational structure, companies are trying to utilise ‘hybrid’ workforces, making employees come together with technological interventions to enhance productivity. It enables teams to maintain a structure, and at the same time, rely on technology to include independence and flexibility.

Insurance predominantly relies on face-to-face interactions with customers. Combining this with digital scalability during this uncertain time can demonstrate its value and reliability. Digital interventions enable handling and routing automatically, save time and can be present 24X7. Advancements in AI and ML have almost perfected processes like query resolution, identity verification, and responsive questioning.

Dynamic Skills and Working Structures

A big challenge for companies going remote for the first time is to measure employee productivity as measured by the work output for the hours put in. Asynchronous work has become the norm, as home environments are not always conducive for everyone to be present on their systems from 9 to 5. Designing deliverables around flexible timings may make businesses more accessible to their employees and customers without physical or time-based barriers.

This flexibility allows the incorporation of continuous learning, which can be a boon to the world's skill-gap crisis. According to a recent 2020 McKinsey report, 87% of leaders acknowledged skill gaps in their workforces, and less than half of them had a clear plan to deal with this. Upskilling and cross-skilling can create inter-disciplinary employees, making them fungible. Apart from multi-disciplinary employees, companies increasingly rely on a blended workforce, engaging a combination of full-time employees and on-demand talent. Concepts like the ‘gig economy’ and ‘extended enterprise’ are gaining popularity, enabling companies to smartly and cost-effectively employ the best available talent to meet their skill and work needs at any given time.

Variablisation of Employee Structures

History reminds us that with each crisis, the adoption rate of specific trends accelerates across industries, and variablisation is one of them. Many companies are changing the traditional method of fixed hiring, keeping flexibility as the key. With a variable structure, companies would continue to have their small core made up of permanent employees. All others would be outsourced workers, employees on fixed-term contracts, and freelance workers.

Agile Processes

Agility has emerged as an essential operating principle during the pandemic. Companies are finding it necessary to incorporate agile processes in their DNA as a proactive measure. They are no longer driven by scale and fast-paced growth alone and have shifted their attention to adapting to thrive. Agile processes give insurance companies the ability to support customers and distributors alike. Digital agility can be incorporated to provide invaluable insights and can have profound marketing implications.

Like the workplace design moves from a fixed brick and mortar structure to a dynamic model online, organisations have to remain nimble and incorporate flexibility with employment contracts, work timings, and measures of productivity. Real-time collaboration is the key to ensuring continuous success and growth.