This article first appeared on Insider Engage on Oct. 16, 2021.
By David Benyon
The sudden shift to mass remote working was brought about by the pandemic, but now companies are making more deliberate choices for long-term flexible working.
The Covid-19 pandemic created an abrupt change in working culture among city firms that otherwise might have taken decades to achieve. Now that the immediate crisis is over, companies are reflecting on lessons learned during lockdown, and coming up with longer term strategies for flexible working.
“Agility is always important for any business to thrive, never more so since the pandemic,” says Nick Cook, CEO, BMS Group, a London-based (re)insurance broker. “In a matter of months, a new age of workplace has emerged; goodbye traditional office, hello modern hubs, reliant on technology to handle much more fluid situations.”
Before the pandemic struck, many firms had already made strides in adopting flexible working, in a bid to improve their diversity and inclusion, as well as to attract and retain staff, by improving their work-life balance.
“We’re all grownups and I think there was already considerable leeway. That’s just become more enhanced,” says James Cooper, director, Damhurst & Co, an insurance executive recruitment consultancy. “Some US-parented companies had obstructive cultures that would turn people off, but those have been kicked into touch.”
Working (very) remotely
But allowing everyone the freedom to choose when or where they work – including even moving countries – can work against a company’s interests.
“We have seen some senior candidates move abroad, and, on the broking side, some have been successful, so far, in running teams [who remain] sitting in London,” Cooper says. “However, a potential downside to that is talent retention: you’ve got overseas executives trying to keep hearts and minds in London and building those vital relationships between brokers and underwriters.”
Some might think these managers are abusing the privileges of rank, Cooper suggests, which could harm team morale and lead staff to desert in the years ahead.
“The reality is that they probably aren’t lying on a beach somewhere, but their remoteness doesn’t do much for keeping their people committed to the cause. I’m not commenting on whether it’s right or wrong, but it’s a factor,” says Cooper.
He describes one instance of a senior property underwriter who wanted to relocate to Latin America as part of his conditions for taking up a new position managing a property book of business at a London market insurer.
“It became a regulatory issue,” Cooper says. “You can’t have an underwriter taking decisions in that country for a London market portfolio unless you have approval to underwrite from that jurisdiction.”