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The Workforce Revolution
- 1. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
The Workforce Revolution
Sharon Emek, Ph.D., CIC
Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
20 Tower Lane, 3rf Fl
Avon, CT 06001
www.wahve.com
646.807.4372
- 2. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
The Increasing Rate of Change
Agricultural
Age
10,000 BC to
1700 AD
Industrial Age
1700 -1970
Information
Age
1970 – 2010
Virtual/Connected/Creative Age
2010 – 2020?
•The value lies in the creative output,
rather than purely the productive output
of human labor.
•The value lies in open sourcing and
finding and creating relationships.
This new virtual/connected/creative age will add to the
challenges already being faced by insurance firms.
- 3. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
Changing Employee Dynamics
The aging of the baby boom generation along with declining fertility
rates is changing America’s age structure. The number of people
over age 65 will rise substantially beginning in 2011 as the oldest
members of the babyboomer generation reach 651
About one in five Americans are age 55 or older and by 2030, one
in five Americans will be 65 or older1
While the older population is increasing dramatically, America’s
current young population has zero growth1
82% of the nation’s young population growth from 2005 to 2050
will come from new immigrants and their children1
The industry is predicting a 50% babyboomer retirement over next
eight years
1 U.S. Census, Next Four Decades, May 2010
- 4. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
Challenges to Insurance Firms
36 % projected boomers
population with “zero”
growth in young
population
Generational work ethic
differences among
Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y,
Millennial and future
generations
Brain-drain of
experienced, educated
and well-connected
employees
Employers competing
for the same labor pool
& lack of talent
Thousands of back-
office processes
completed by highly
paid staff
Challenges of a multi-
cultural workforce
Declining margins
Increasing staff costs
Constant new
technology challenges
- 5. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
What Has Changed?
Insufficient
Local human
capital
Diminishing
client loyalty
New workforce
values and
talent loyalty
Sophisticated
client service
and
knowledge
demands
Expectation of
immediate
responses
Cost pressures
of the “new
normal”
market
Multi-cultural,
multi-
generational
workforce
Increasing
challenges of
global and
complex risk
social networks
smart phones
and virtual
relationships
- 6. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
What does this mean for
businesses?
This workforce revolution is challenging our current structure:
• The way we view the workforce will have to change in dynamic ways –
from a closed, controlled community to an open, collaborative
community and from production focused to creative focused
• The step-by-step, top-down command and control management
methods we use to build monolithic firms will need to be re-thought
focusing on creative output and relationships
• The linear fashion in which we design jobs will need to be transformed
encompassing a variety of methodologies
• Once we adopt new technology, we never return to old technology and
the impact that makes on:
– the amount and type of workforce we need
– how jobs should be done
– who should do the job
– where the job should be done
Management needs to see their world in 3D and focus on strategic
workforce planning to optimize the value of their companies.
- 7. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
The Perfect Example of the
Production Model
Most CSRs/AMs still spend a majority of their time on back office tasks.
Back Office
Tasks
52%
Client
Phone/Email Time
24%
Carrier
Phone/Email Time
15%
Client Face to
Face Time
7%
CSR Time
HighReturn,HighValue
LowReturn,LowValue
Rough Notes, “Foundations of Customer Service,” August 2005
- 8. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
How can insurance firms flourish
in this new arena?
Need to re-define the work that needs to be done and the
best methodology to get the work done
Need to consider a world with a combination of virtual and
physical employees/offices
Need to identify the type of talent needed to do the work
and provide the appropriate tools that will enable them
Need to maximize use of technological tools
Need to envision management styles, procedures and jobs
that fit this new model, e.g., an open, collaborative culture
Need to create a sales model that maximizes the
virtual/social network world with the physical network world
- 9. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
How to Prepare
• Parse out job descriptions based on high
value creative, customer contact and low
value production work, not the position
• Re-name work positions to reflect this new
approach, e.g. instead of producers use
connectors, social networkers
• Re-assess your staff and align them with the
appropriate type and level of work
• Effectively use technology, aligning it with
human capital
• Enhance the quality and quantity of work
by being open to flexible arrangements,
e.g., job-sharing, telecommuting
• Consider firms that offer lower cost onshore,
contract, knowledge workers and offshore
process workers
- 10. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
The Right
Job
The Right
Skills
The Right
Resources
The Right
Moment
The Right
Quantity
The Right
People
The Right
Price
How to Plan for the Staff You Need
Anywhere
- 11. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
Why is this different from what
I do now?
Hiringbasedonnewparadigm
Hiringbasedonoldparadigm
• Stagnant Job descriptions
• Predominantly focused on
process work
• Mostly present focused, not
future focused
• Limited consideration for
how to best utilize available
talent
• Limited to local talent,
which has been readily
available
• Limited consideration for
the streamlining capabilities
of technology
• Production focused
• Dynamic, iterative job
descriptions
• Focused on
creative/relationship
development
• Considers rapidly
changing terminology
• Considers job sharing
• Considers insourcing &
outsourcing
• Seeks talent wherever
available at the right price
• Anticipates demographic
changes
• Core staff combined with
flexible staff
• Considers Generational and
ethnic differences
- 12. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
What’s Available to Make This
Model Work?
• Cost-effective and sophisticated remote/outsourced talent
domestically and globally
• Productivity tracking software
• Virtual training tools
• Virtual meeting tools
• VoIP / Internet phones
• Dashboards with analytics and live chat
• Exchange technology which simplifies client acquisition and
retention
• Social networks/avatars
• Smart phones, tablets, mobile applications
- 13. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
Overcoming the Fear of
Outsourcing & Remote Workers
Drivers
• Broader access to talent
• Reduced cost
• Increased flexibility
• Moves account managers to front line
• Shared risk
• Increase resource availability
• Greater efficiency/higher quality
• Keeps business operating when disruptions
• Maximum use of available technology
Inhibitors
• Security & confidential Information
• Communication concerns
• Fear of loss of control
• Trust
• Employee backlash
• Loss of knowledge capital
• Ability to physically supervise
Adapted from Gartner, IT Director’s Community of Practice, August 14, 2007
- 14. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
To Maximize the Use of
Outsourcing & Remote Workers
Create a
Paperless
environment
Employ Real
time, straight-
through
technology.
Overcome
fear of not
seeing and
managing
staff in an
office
Trust that if
the right
procedures &
technology
are in place,
people can
be managed
anywhere
any time
- 15. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
The value of any firm is in the
Customer
• Firm’s resources should be set on “core competencies” where they
can provide unique value for customers
• Think of what is not critical to insource & strategically outsource those
activities
• Consider creating jobs/titles that match the generational and ethnic
differences within the firm and with the customer
• Consider access to talent & consider offering talent the ability to
work remotely if they need to
• Look to see where you have misemployed/misdeployed talent
• Use technology to deploy the strategy
- 16. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
The Insurance Office of the
Future
- 17. © 2011 Work At Home Vintage Employees LLC
Organizations who do not adopt a more flexible
management and staffing approach supported by
technology and social networks will not keep or
acquire talent. The fear of change inhibits
innovation.
Think differently. Imagine the future!