Although none of the 22 fulltime employees—plus threeinterns—that make up the IT department at Celina Insurance Groupare remote workers, Rob Shoenfelt, senior vice president and CIO atCelina, believes strongly that such an option is important forcompanies that operate in small communities such as Celina, Ohio(population, 10,400).

As a small property & casualty carrier, Celina has to doeverything it can to find talent.

“There are advantages to moving to Columbus or Cincinnati orCleveland (all within a few hours' drive of Celina), but there areadvantages of living in Mercer County, Ohio,” says Shoenfelt.“We've been able to attract pretty bright people that otherwisewould have had to go somewhere else. We are the biggestwhite-collar employer in town.”

It is always the company's preference that employees move toCelina, but the ability to hire good people who prefer ametropolitan lifestyle is alleviated by remote working.

“It has opened us up to hire more people,” says Shoenfelt. “Oursales manager doesn't have to be here. He lives in Columbus. Wewouldn't have been able to hire him if he had to move to Celina. Weare looking for someone high level for our compliance department.Finding someone with those skills that wants to move to Celina isnot easy. Some of that work can be done remotely.”

Today's employees often judge whether they want to work for acompany based in part on the company's policy toward remoteworking, according to Frank Petersmark, CIO advocate in theconsulting area of X by 2.

“They always ask…how are we set up for remote working? Can Iwork from home or do I need to sit in the office?” says Petersmark.“When I was looking for a new job, the standard question used to beabout healthcare benefits. Now it is what kind of remoteconnectivity do we have? If nothing else, insurance companies haveto be in the game as they try to recruit younger workers.”

He adds, “The insurance industry isn't exactly the sexiestindustry in the world. You need to recruit extra hard because evendeveloping software architecture doesn't sound sexy for some youngpeople. The insurance industry certainly faces somechallenges.”

Celina places its trust in employees to get their taskscompleted, whether in the office or in a remote location. Itremains the discretion of the manager, though, if employees canwork out of their home.

“We feel they have enough work to do—you are either going to getit done or not,” says Shoenfelt. “Some people need the structureand we are able to figure that out. Others work just fine. It goesboth ways. It has worked well for us. We've been able to be moreflexible in our hiring. Even the local people occasionally have theopportunity to work at home. That works very well for us.”

Some millennial workers see remote working almost as a right,according to Laura Kerekes, Chief Knowledge Officer, Think HR.

“They want to be able to work when and where they want to workin order to get the job done,” she says.

Technology company Yahoo is in the process of ending remoteworking and bringing all its employees back to its officebuildings. This action reminded Petersmark of the old adage: pennywise and pound foolish.

“I understand that a lot of ideas and innovation happenspontaneously, but I also agree with the notion that you can'tforce that either,” he says. “Our industry is a good example ofthat. How innovative is insurance compared to other industries? Forthe most part, insurance people have been gathering in the samedomiciles for the last 500 years. You work with 1,100 of yourclosest friends and then you go home.

“My big thing is that [innovation] happens if the environment isright—a stimulating environment where people have time to franklylet their minds wander, to daydream, and talk about ideas. Peopleare sometimes afraid to bring up ideas because they think they willget laughed at or put down.”

Management Issues

Celina implemented Instant Chat more than a decade ago and itremains one of the important communication devices available to thecompany.

“We were one of the first adopters,” says Shoenfelt. “[The tool]allows management to see if the employees are online or not andallows us to communicate with them, whether they are here orsomewhere else.”

That's been a huge benefit in terms of employees working fromhome, explains Shoenfelt, as it has become the insurer's primaryinternal communication tool as opposed to the telephone oremail.

“You can see if they are there or in a meeting,” he says. “Youcan just ping them. It has allowed us to work from anywhere. Inormally sit with my group, but I also have an executive office sopeople don't always know where I am, but it allows me to work fromanywhere. Each member of my staff has a laptop and they work fromhome occasionally. If some of my managers are putting out employeeevaluations they can do that at home with no interruptions. If theyhave a kid sick or a repairman coming they can still get their workdone”

Shoenfelt maintains remote working lends itself well to the ITdepartment because it is a project-based department.

“[Remote working] is not nearly as feasible for the productionstaff,” he says. “Some of the underwriters do it. We have 12 claimspeople work here in the office, but another 20 away from ouroffice.”

Having laptops for employees is necessary to allow everyone toremain connected to the network server.

“We are probably up to 70 percent of employees with laptops,”says Shoenfelt. “We stopped buying desktops. It allows employees todo their email from home at night—even production people. We havefound it extends the workday.”

Celina only supplies an Internet connection to employees whoseprinciple job involves working out of their home. For theteleworkers and others, the carrier just began providing wirelessaccess points that are VPN enabled.

“It's our own router so they go right on the network,” saysShoenfelt. “They don't have to log on to the VPN separately. It hasimproved security and control and allows us to manage it. It's justanother device on our network. We have three or people working inIowa and we can support them easier by giving them the tools theyneed to have.”

Petersmark hasn't seen many insurers develop a strategy aroundthe benefits of a mobile or semi-mobile workforce and how theyleverage that, but he believes carriers should develop a strategyaround how to support mobility and whether those working remotelyare productive.

“Forward thinking companies look at how to help their employeesbe productive—virtualization, Wi-Fi access to mobile apps,” hesays. “Some companies are doing it strategically, particularly withclaims adjusters. There have always been mobile workers, but thedifference is they used to have a notebook pad and laptops, now fora few companies they have mobile apps and smartphones that allowthem to work in real time. There certainly are strategic ways toleverage mobility and what it can bring.”

Collaboration

Celina has learned to deal with employees not being face toface. The carrier conducts a lot of business over the phone withits agents. Agents can instant message theCelina underwriters.

“Sometime you just have to be there, though,” says Shoenfelt.“At least a few times a year we bring them in for group meetings;sales meets three or four times a year. That's the minimum they arein here.”

When describing the actions of CEO Marissa Mayer to end remoteworking for Yahoo, Kerekes uses words like “bold” and “courageous”to go against the grain of current thinking about remote workers.But Kerekes is not sure it was the wisest move, even in the techfriendly Silicon Valley.

“Was it the right thing to do? She's probably been given acharter to go in and change things,” says Kerekes. “Some feel Yahoohas been complacent and not keeping up with other companies to stayfresh and on top of things—so she had to do some bold things. Thiswas clearly bold. Is it going to work? I don't know. Could itbackfire? Possibly. How was it handled from an HR perspective?

“I would have done it differently if I were head of HR. Don'tsend a memo that anyone could pick up and the media could get holdof. Have town hall meetings. Have community discussions to explainwhy you are doing it.”

The decision with Yahoo and with other companies—includinginsurance carriers—is to get sparks of creativity back, to be moreinnovative, and collaborative.

“That's possible when you have impromptu meetings in thelunchroom or in cubicles,” says Kerekes. “That is why many SiliconValley companies offer great benefits and services for theiremployees to keep them at the office so they can hang out and chatover the proverbial water cooler and bounce ideas off each other.That can't happen with teleworkers even though the current thinkingis teleworkers in some industries are more productive because theydon't have the impromptu distractions in the office. For somecompanies, teleworkers are a good thing, but if you are trying tochange the culture—make it more collaborative or innovative—youneed the people in the office to play off each other.”

Collaboration tools have been around for a while with GoogleApps being popular today or dating back to when SharePoint wasconsidered “cool,” according to Petersmark.

“It's almost like a matter of perception or perspective,” saysPetersmark. “I remember using SharePoint early on and it seemedcool, but if you grew up at a certain time you are more hard-wiredon the way you collaborate with people mostly face-to-face or byextension on the phone. If you are millennial or a Gen X, they arequite comfortable—and maybe even more comfortable—working nonface-to-face. Another challenge coming for IT involves smallerprivate clouds. People literally creating their own clouds withpeople they work with and collaborate that way. Then the questionis where does the data end up and how do we reconcile that sort ofthing.”

Getting Work Done

Kerekes explains the current thinking—at least before the Yahoosurprise—was for more mobile working and telecommuting,particularly with the tools that are available to free people froma desk and a time of day that has to be worked.

“So much can be done via electronics,” she says. “If there wereconcerns of liability or from a work comp perspective, it was stillless expensive than an office, You also hear about allowing peopleto work a day or two from home to help balance work and familylife. If I was a betting person, I would say this change inthinking might be temporary. Some of (Yahoo's) top talent mightleave and it is going to change the culture and create a differentcompany.”

Most companies are moving away from supplying their remoteworkers with Internet access as they have become wiser to the factthat for the most part Internet service providers and Wi-Fi ispretty ubiquitous.

“We started [supplying remote workers] at Amerisure with adiscrete Internet connection via VPN or some type of protocol,” hesays. “There's still a fair amount of that around, but morecompanies are looking to virtualize their own infrastructure andlet people connect to the server. There are many ways toauthenticate. From wherever they are they can connect with the homeoffice and do their thing.”

Petersmark remembers the days when remote workers would bring intheir monthly telephone bills to the office and highlight some forreimbursement.

“Companies have figured out there are easier and less expensiveways to do that,” he says.

Celina has found both ends of the spectrum when it comes to theproductivity of remote workers.

“We have found some people who won't let work go,” saysShoenfelt. “They go right to their computer when they get up anddon't stop when they are supposed to. We also have some employeeswhere we wonder if they are really being effective. There's abalance, but you get that in the office, too.”

Remote working also tends to extend theworkday, points out Shoenfelt.

“It used to be like a factory here—8 to 4:30,” he says. “Youwould walk out of here with nothing under your arms. You would comeback the next day and pick it back up. We've changed that paradigm.Now it is work anywhere. We push things to their smartphones sopeople can pick up their email anywhere.”

The negative side of that is the lines have blurred betweenemployee time and company time, adds Shoenfelt.

“For IT employees, that's more of the norm; they are used tothat,” he says. “For other employees it's been a bit of aneye-opener. The agents can get to underwriters anytime. There's nowall anymore. “

Of course, that means no one has to show up at the office onSaturday morning to wait for calls.

“We can support the employees even if we are not officiallythere,” he says. “We are available by phone, email or chat. We'vebeen able to do that without requiring people to be in the officeon Saturday morning.

Measuring the productivity of remote workers depends upon thebusiness itself and the kind of culture within the company,according to Kerekes.

“Some businesses that are numbers oriented or where thework is repetitive—such as a call center operation where it is easyto quantify and pull the stats—there is concern about keepingemployees on task,” she says. “The numbers are softer for knowledgeworkers.”

When Petersmark served as CIO at Amerisure, the discussion overremote workers settled on who can and who can't. Fortunately, muchof that discussion has been resolved to the satisfaction of many ofthe managers that were nervous about “letting the genie out of thebottle,” he explains.

“That has loosened quite a bit as companies have discovered thedata supports the idea that on the whole, employers tend to getmore work out of people that work remotely than if they weresitting in the office all day,” says Petersmark. “That's not to saythere shouldn't be some guidelines, but we had people that workedremotely and they might not be working all though the day, but theymight still be going at it at 1 or 2 in the morning.”

Petersmark believes today's discussion of remote workers shouldcenter on what tools are remote workers using and how the ITdepartment can support that.

A Harbinger

Is the public move by Yahoo a harbinger? Kerekes believes theactions at Yahoo won't change the way other companies dobusiness.

“Other employers may step back and see what the fallout lookslike, if it makes a difference, and whether they are trying toreinvent their products,” says Kerekes. “They may consider it, butwill it be a wholesale move back to the office? I'd be surprised ifthat was the case. In today's war for talent the competition is sogreat that anything an employer can do to get a leg up on thecompetition, whether it is remote or teleworking, it's one morearrow in the quiver of benefits or services that you can makeavailable to employees. So why not use it if it makes sense.”