the workforce revolution

© 2012 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.


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 eight Americans are age 65 or above today and by

2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older1

While the older population 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

ten years

1 U.S. Census, Next Four Decades, May 2010


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


What Has Changed?

InsufficientLocal 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


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 a 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.


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

Hig

h R

etu

rn,

Hig

h V

alu

e

Low

Retu

rn,

Low

Valu

e

Rough Notes, “Foundations of Customer Service,” August 2005


The Increasing Importance of

Workforce Planning

•Aging of the population with 50% of the industry retiring over next ten years

•Generational differences – Gen X, Y and Millennial

•Multi-cultural differences

•Baby Boomers redefining retirement (“phased”)

•The rapid advancement of technology and social networks

•Proliferation of rules and regulations with new legislation often competing and colliding with existing legislation

•The sheer number of educated people globally


So What’s Strategic Workforce Planning?

It is, “The systematic approach of aligning business strategy, human capital strategy, and budgets in order to ensure that

talent with the right skills and competencies are in place to

support anticipated and unanticipated future business scenarios…”

(Mollie Lombardi and Justin Bourke Strategic Workforce Planning – Winning

Scenarios for Uncertain Times, Aberdeen).


The Right Job

The Right Skills

The Right Resources

The Right Moment

The Right Quantity

The Right People

The Right Price

Stated More Simply…

“Strategic Workforce Planning” identifies:

Anywhere


Benefits of Strategic Workforce

Planning

Strategic Workforce Planning should be an important strategic

element in corporate management as it:

• Reduces labor costs

• Helps companies become more client/creative-focused

instead of process/production-focused

• Optimizes staffing and systems to achieve the greatest

productivity at the lowest possible labor cost

• Utilizes technology to mange human capital

It’s about working smarter, not harder, to create staff, both insourced

and outsourced, who perform their duties in the most efficient manner!


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


Why is this different from what

I do now?

Hirin

g b

ase

d o

n n

ew

pa

rad

igm

Hirin

g b

ase

d o

n o

ld p

ara

dig

m

• 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

• Retirement rates

• Generational differences

• Ethnic differences


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


What’s Available to Make This

Model Work?

• Human capital management technology, which aligns

people and strategy

• Cost-effective and sophisticated remote/outsourced talent

domestically and globally

• Productivity tracking software

• Virtual training tools

• Virtual meeting tools

• VoIP / Internet phones

• Video conferencing technology

• Exchange technology which simplifies client acquisition and

retention

• Social networks/avatars

• Smart phones, tablets, mobile applications


Overcoming the Fear of

Outsourcing & Remote WorkersDrivers• 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


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, peopl

e can be managed anywhere any time


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


The Insurance Office of the

Future


Organizations who do not adopt an iterative

strategic workforce plan based on an open,

collaborative environment supported by technology

and social networks will languish in fear in a world

where change feels like it happens faster than the

speed of light.

Think differently. Imagine!


Reinventing retirement in America by helping people stay

productive longer in a more balanced and rewarding way and providing businesses continued access to their talent

and experience in innovative ways.

Contact: Sharon Emek, [email protected]

646.807.4372 ext. 501

mailto:[email protected]


Here's to the Crazy Ones…http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8rwsuXHA7RA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8rwsuXHA7RA


What Is WAHVE?

Work at Home Vintage Employees (WAHVE) is an innovative remote staffing solution for insurance firms

to optimize their workforce.

We help firms realign business strategy to focus on customer service, customer retention and growth by providing the right

talent to perform support work at a significant savings.

WHAVE is the repository for the industry’s retiring talent and has a significant database of retired baby-boomers who want to

continue to work from home to supplement their retirement income.

Back office knowledge

process work

Trainers, Consultant,

Mentors

Full service CSRs

Project

work to

clean up backlog

the workforce revolution

Career