Other parts of this series:
Since the beginning of the pandemic, insurers have embraced remote work, with many reaping productivity and efficiency gains. However, chief human resources officers (CHROs) have been more skeptical than their C-suite peers about whether organizations were really prepared to support a remote workforce. And many organizations still lack the technology and infrastructure to sustain a distributed workforce in the long term.
Is it too late to adopt cloud capabilities?
The good news is that insurers have time to decide on a path of action. If they take the necessary steps, they’ll have the agility to scale technology and workforce resources so they can respond to future disruption. They could also gain a competitive advantage in the near term.
Adopting technologies in an ad hoc manner, however, is not the best approach. As Kit Friend, a senior principal with Accenture’s Technology Strategy & Advisory practice, says,
“We want people not to just chaotically and randomly try stuff, but to see this as an opportunity to implement things properly. Whether it’s agile frameworks or proper use of digital tools.”
Why start with cloud-based organizational analytics?
The journey to the cloud will differ for each insurer, depending on their existing technology architecture and maturity. For those that have not yet started their cloud journey, we believe a great place to start is with cloud-based organizational analytics that provide meaningful insights into the human workforce. Why?
People or organizational analytics can answer key questions around workforce planning and optimization, diversity and inclusion initiatives, productivity, engagement and satisfaction. Nicole Knott offers three examples of questions that can be answered with people analytics:
- What percentage of my current workforce is in jobs that are going to be obsolete in the next five to 10 years?
- How does my company identify what lines of business would be the best group to reskill?
- How ready is my workforce to pivot to new offerings and sources of revenue?
Cloud-based analytics can also help you identify and respond to people’s personal concerns and daily struggles. Workers may have the IT tools they need and be engaged in their work, but it’s important to consider what else is going on in their lives that affects their ability to perform at their best.
For instance, many people are uneasy about their children going back to school. Should they keep them home or send them into the classroom? And if they do go to school, will they be safe? They’re also concerned about whether or when they themselves will be required to return to the office and whether measures will be in place to minimize the spread of the virus. And some worry they might lose their jobs if organizations choose to reorganize their workforce.
Using people analytics in the cloud, you can make your people a priority, quickly gathering these types of insights so you can respond appropriately—perhaps even building an “employee genome” that tracks the entire employee journey. We think modern HR leaders elevate people, making sure they are “net better off”. See our just-released report to learn about our view of the modern HR mindset and five sweet spot practices that we recommend.
A cost-effective and low-risk entry point
As well as helping you answer important questions about the business, cloud-based organizational analytics are a cost-effective and low-risk way to test the value of cloud capabilities. Unlike changes to customer interactions or new product offerings, which are very visible, they’re working in the background. You can tweak them, continuing to make iterative and incremental changes until you’re getting the insights you need.
As with all the cloud capabilities, cloud-based analytics are scalable. You can begin with a small pilot project and then extend rapidly when the value is proven. And you don’t need to be concerned about technical debt or the ongoing cost of maintaining your own technical infrastructure to support your efforts.
In the cloud, your data and analytics are easily accessible from anywhere in North America or around the globe. They also have better protections compared to those hosted at on-premise facilities. Cloud-based solutions are more secure, and they enable better business continuity, disaster recovery and data archiving.
If you read the recent CBI Insights article, Insurers Face a Crisis. Now, Innovation Is No Longer Optional, and you’re feeling concerned that your organization has left it too late, don’t be. There’s still time to choose the right path. Embrace a cloud strategy and the peace of mind that comes of knowing your technology infrastructure can grow with you, at your pace.
If you’d like to talk about how your organization could take advantage of cloud-based organizational analytics, feel free to reach out.
