Executive Outlook 2021: Paul Martin, KRGInsure/RRJ Insurance Group

Paul Martin, President, Chief Operating Officer, KRGInsure/RRJ Insurance Group Limited

Employee engagement will be one the biggest challenges we face in 2021. Managing a remote workforce for a long period of time is a skill set many of us do not have. It has always been my belief that in-person interaction tends to yield better business decisions and a more engaged workforce.

I think using Zoom and other visual communication tools have really helped, however they do not take the place of in-person engagement. The impromptu meetings and water cooler chats do help solidify teams and nurture out-of-the-box thinking and solutions.

The present remote work environment has made us realize that with the proper tools it does work, but there’s still a continued investment required to increase the efficiency in this new world.

The future of your daily work environment will probably look more like a hybrid model between two and four days in the office each week. Flexibility of the work environment will be one of the greatest selling points in attracting new talent to any organization.

As we all know, the bid to attract and retain top talent to our organizations will be another great challenge for 2021 and beyond.

COVID-19 has challenged brokers to find better ways to service our customers. I do not think COVID-19 itself will change the fundamentals to the Canadian P&C marketplace. I do think that it will bring increased focus on wordings, coverage and pricing but those tend to be normal market cycles.

Regarding the hard market, it would seem that we’re in for another year of price increases, capacity challenges and service issues. There seems to be no baby steps with regard to getting rate adequacy, however, I think we should be close. The consolidation in the marketplace will continue to add its own challenges, but as always, we will rise to the occasion and do what’s best for our customers.