Carrie Bell, Head of Claims Operations at AEGIS London Managing Agency, said as a Lloyd’s of London syndicate, the company followed the marketplace’s protocol on remote work when the Covid-19 pandemic distancing measures came into effect. Despite the marketplace’s tendency towards office-based working, the pandemic enabled AEGIS London to set employees up to work from home. And the benefits were clear: work productivity increased.
In an effort to build cohesive teams and a strong work culture, AEGIS has since transitioned into a hybrid work environment where employees are required to come into the office 50 per cent of their work week and have the flexibility to decide when that is.
“The Lloyd’s marketplace was traditional before Covid, in that the majority of work was in office, some people didn’t have laptops or remote meeting resources, so the change was huge,” Bell said. “There was a natural uncertainty as to how people would work but it revealed some positives like a bigger focus on productivity versus hours of work. And productivity soared and absences were down.”
She said focusing on building a strong work culture means ensuring her staff are set up for career development and progression. In her experience, this has been challenging to manage remotely. She works primarily from AEGIS’ Canadian location and meets the claims team of 18 staff, in person, up to five times a year.
“For personal and professional progression, providing constructive feedback and clear goals is required, even when productivity is consistent,” Bell said. “This is more difficult when you don’t see your employees in action and, as a manager, you have to be aware of that and seek out that information and manage expectations of yourself and others.”
She added that managing a lean team means that everyone’s plate is full, which requires even more transparency, trust and communication so team members have each other’s backs.
“This takes self-awareness for employees and managers,” Bell said. “Making sure work culture stays alive is necessary in any work arrangement and it can be achieved remotely, but it needs extra effort.”
Neal Jardine is Global Director of Cyber Risk Intelligence and Claims at Boxx Insurance, a cyber risk insurer, which has a fully remote workforce of about 100 employees across Canada and the U.S.
He said regardless of whether workplaces are setting employees up for fully remote work or hybrid, providing physical resources and cyber training is important.
“We have to set people up to work effectively at home and look at ways to spend more money on them being comfortable there,” Jardine said, adding that cyber security training and having strong cyber practices are a must, for example ensuring people know how to respond to a suspicious email or link.
“Employees need to be trained on this, reminded to follow protocol, and rewarded for flagging suspicious items,” he said. “We have to encourage behaviour that works with cyber security, not just punish mistakes.”
He said another challenge with fully remote work is employees can find it hard to disconnect.
“It can cause issues with work-life balance because work is always available,” Jardine said. “It’s the responsibility of the company to communicate expectations around replying to emails and make it very clear when actions and responses are expected.”
BOXX Insurance was founded in 2018 and has had a physical office in Toronto since. But soon after the company became fully remote as leaders found that arrangement opened up a pool of skilled workers otherwise unavailable to them, giving them a competitive edge.
Jardine, who joined in 2022, said being limited to hiring in one urban area, for example, companies tend to hire from the same pool of employees as competitors in that specific location. Hiring remote employees allows the company to choose skill over location.
“This opens up our ability to work with different people who, under different circumstances, could not work for us, whether it be physical abilities, commute length and cost, or other reasons,” Jardine said.