Hybrid office: Centre for collaboration, or inefficiency?

Canadian property and casualty insurance professionals generally believe they work more efficiently in a hybrid office than at home — although some of this depends how you define workplace “distractions” in a sales culture.

In an online survey conducted last month, Canadian Underwriter asked more than 600 P&C industry professionals to rate the efficiency of their work performance in the office.

Fifty-four per cent reported they were either efficient (36%) or very efficient (18%) when they worked in the office. Twenty per cent felt neutral about their work efficiency in the office, while 26% said they were either inefficient (18%) or very inefficient (8%) when they attended the office.

“In this new era, being in the office can be of benefit to team-building and engagement,” one industry professional summarized. “As it is, being in the office is a distraction to getting work done, compared to work from home. But that distraction has benefits, in small doses, and is likely required. Finding the right balance is going to be critical.”

Answers about efficiency in the hybrid office seemed to turn on how P&C workers felt about the balance between the need to socialize at work, and the need to get tasks completed.

Those who said they worked efficiently in the hybrid office tended to believe necessary distractions and interruptions flow from the process of socializing, team-building and collaboration.

Sometimes, working in-person with people leads to more efficiency because of the cohesion of the team members, one survey respondent said.

“It’s nice to have people drop in to chat about the hockey game, a TV show, or what my plans are for the weekend,” said one respondent. “That is the stuff good teams are made of, because [the team members] know each other personally.”

And the more cohesive the group, the faster the decisions get made, added another. “When we are all in the office, the work flows much easier and the energy, as well as the engagement, is much better,” said one industry professional.

One P&C worker said people make fewer mistakes when they are collaborating in the office.

“I feel that there is a level of risk of misunderstanding of scope of tasks or projects or conversations in general [working from home], because quick check-ins are supplanted by arranged Teams/Zoom calls. The result has been slow down in work as a result of ‘do-overs,’” the employee said.

Related: Why “hotel” offices are not making P&C employees feel at home

One senior leader said it’s easier to share knowledge and provide guidance to employees in person rather than digitally. “As a managing owner, I believe it is important to be in the office. I do get interrupted, but I want my employees to be able to come to me with questions or concerns.”

CU‘s survey found this a debatable point. Asked if they learned more in the office than when working from home, 53% of P&C professionals answered no.

For those who felt less efficient when working in the office, those same distractions and interruptions affect their concentration, meaning less productivity at work. Some doubted the education value of many hybrid workplace discussions.

“Water cooler chats, drop-ins, walking between meeting rooms — it’s all (mostly) wasted time,” said one. “Some socializing is important, but at some point, it just becomes a distraction.”

Those with their own workspaces were more likely to be efficient in the office, the survey found.

“I have a designated office with a door that closes,” said one P&C professional. “I have my computer, printer, etc. set up the way I want it, with no worry about crammed workstations, listening to other people’s phone conversations (TMI—too much information), etc.”

Said another: “I have very efficient meetings in person, but probably work more efficiently in ‘deep work’ when I’m at home.”

And perhaps for that same reason, most in the survey preferred to work in a hybrid office arrangement anywhere between one day (22%) and three days (20%) in the office, with two days (27%) being deemed the optimum number of days to appear in the office each week.

Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/JackF