Farmers Insurance the latest to send employees back to the office

While many Americans happily celebrate the three-year anniversary of working from home, and despite persistent labor shortages, some property and casualty insurers are mandating a return to the office.

Farmers Insurance recently informed its employees that anyone located within 50 miles of a Farmers' office is required to be in that office at least three days a week beginning in September.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Farmers is a private company. The insurer writes more than 19 million individual insurance policies across all 50 states through nearly 48,000 exclusive and independent agents and approximately 21,000 employees, according to the Farmers' LinkedIn profile.

The move back to the office will allow employees to work together again in person, said Luis Sahagun, director, external communications for Farmers.

"We believe this will drive greater collaboration, creativity and innovation while also providing better opportunities for learning, training, mentoring and career development," he wrote in an emailed statement. "Over the course of the next few months, we’ll be finalizing details and working with our teams to make this transition smooth."

Meanwhile, P&C insurers continue to battle fiercely for talent to fill positions such as underwriter, claims adjuster and agent. Lengthy employment ads can be found for these positions in nearly every urban area.

Working from home is proving to be an attractive and popular perk for employment seekers. Many workers value the flexibility, while others are happy to shed a stressful commute to the office.

'Not necessarily'

Mary Schmid is a consultant who works with businesses on communication and leadership training. She authored the book, "Make or Break Conversations: How Smart Financial Professionals Land New Clients and Keep Them for Life."

Schmid is not convinced that in-person collaboration should be a high priority.

"When we're in person, we read each other's energy and it's true, and that's a little more difficult to do on the screen," she said. "Although we can if we're being intentional and being focused on what is going on in the meeting. We can read each other's eyes. We can read our body language. We can get some of the nuances, perhaps not the same way that we do in person.

"Does that make us not able to collaborate better? Not necessarily."

Taking away the right to work from home is more difficult for the employees to accept the longer time goes on, Schmid said.

"It's almost become part of our life to have that flexibility and I realize that there's some positions that you can't have that, but it's almost become the way things are," she said. "And when you take that away from people, you're gonna get all sorts of pushback."

The P&C insurance world is very competitive and the big players are taking different approaches to the remote work question. InsuranceNewsNet reached out to several big insurers and here are their responses:

Allstate

Just 1% of Allstate's 40,000-member workforce is classified as "office-based," said Ben Tobias, senior public relations consultant for the insurer. Through surveys and focus groups, Allstate learned that 95% of its workers desire more flexible work.

Allstate sold its sprawling Northbrook, Ill. headquarters late in 2022 and has repeatedly stated no interest in finding another home.

Tobias shared a quote from Allstate CEO Tom Wilson: “We found out flexibility really sells and, you know, nobody wants to drive to an office to do a Zoom call, and they don't have to. And commuting is way overrated.”

Seventy-five percent of Allstate employees work from home, 24% are hybrid, and 1% are office-based, Tobias said. Before the pandemic, 20% worked remotely.

State Farm

The largest auto insurer in the United States, State Farm leaned into the hybrid model early on. In the spring 2021, the insurer announced that about 40,000 employees would be hybrid, and the remaining employees either remote or in-office.

Based in Bloomington, Ill, State Farm has about 58,000 employees, including 19,200 agents.

Travelers

Travelers Insurance also gives employees the option to work from home up to two days per week. Travelers is home to 30,000 employees and 13,500 independent agents and brokers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Based in New York City, Travelers has "no plans to change" its present work model, a spokesperson said.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.

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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.