Could the four-day work week apply to claims?

In an industry fighting to bring candidates through the door and keep them there, the four-day work week might sound tempting. But it’s also unlikely, claims execs say.

Disasters strike at a moment’s notice and so the P&C insurance industry’s claims segment is not conducive to a modern, four-day week, experts said at the CIAA’s 4th annual Canadian Claims Summit.  

But that doesn’t mean there’s no room to reel back hours, as long as productivity remains steady, panellists during a discussion on Staffing Challenges said.  

“The emergency nature of some of what we deal with is going to make [a four-day work week] tricky,” said Adam Tuori, head of claims at Starr Insurance Companies. 

Claims departments must be ready to respond to policyholders 24/7. And so they aren’t generally designed to handle a shorter work week. 

Yet the four-day work week schedule has increased in Canadian businesses by 34% over the past year, according to recently released data by software provider BrightHR. 

For the insurance industry, the success of it would depend as much on an individual’s role, as much as it would their department, panellists said. 

“I think it depends on the role. We played with that, and it worked for some and it didn’t work for others,” said Juliet Gagnon-Leaker, senior vice president of the corporate services division at Sedgwick Canada. 

“It also depends on the colleague as well. If it’s someone who’s incredibly organized and answers phone calls and delivers emails, it won’t be a bigger issue [than] for the one that doesn’t.”  

About 91% of insurance professionals report working in a hybrid office, defined as working from home at least one day a week, according to a survey of more than 600 respondents by Canadian Underwriter last year. Just under a quarter of P&C professionals (22%) said they still work purely remotely. The number who work in the office five days a week increased to 17%, since CU last surveyed respondents.

Though the four-day work week might apply to specific departments and not others, it’s the responsibility of leaders to ensure teams are adequately covered, emergency claims situations aside.  

“We have a responsibility to say, “Are we appropriately staffed for our workloads? Can our staff comfortably take the week off and not still be on their laptop while they’re supposed to be on vacation? Can they take the week off and know that it’s not going to be a disaster when they get back?” said Sarah Langdon, Sovereign Insurance’s manager of eastern region claims. “So, it works both ways.” 

Panellists agree there’s room for better work-life balance at insurance companies. And that the expectation for young professionals to stay late to advance their careers should be dropped. 

The average hours worked in Canadian businesses decreased 0.3% per year on average between 1997 and 2022. Yet, in that same period, labour productivity (as measured by gross domestic product per hour worked) increased annually by 1.2%, according to Statistics Canada. 

“If [entry level employees] want to leave at five, then we can’t penalize them for not staying until eight like we did when we started out,” said Paula Kargas, chief claims officer at Berkley Canada. “We can’t say, ‘You have to be here X years to get to this role.’” 

 

Feature image by iStock.com/Moor Studio