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Work Teams in the Life Insurance Industry
1996
Permanent work teams can improve customer service, increase productivity, and boost employee
job satisfaction. Or they can create more problems than they resolve. The outcome generally
depends on the commitment of top management to work teams and their willingness to
allot adequate time, talent and resources for the conversion.
That's what LOMA researchers discovered in their interviews with 155 people at nine insurance
companies that have introduced work teams. They spoke with 95 team members; 26 team
leaders; 27 senior executives, department heads and senior managers; and 7 human resources
department staff members. A 90-page report, Work Teams in the Life Insurance
Industry, reveals the findings of these interviews.
According to author Jean Crooks Gora, the life insurance industry is adopting the work team
concept later than many other industries. This is partly due to the nature of the work--the
specialized knowledge, functional separation and careful monitoring critical to some jobs in
financial institutions. But faced with increased competition in financial services, pressure for higher
profits, and technology that quickly becomes obsolete, insurers are going back to the drawing
board to recreate their organizations. The adoption of work teams is an option.
LOMA wrote this report to help insurance companies meet the challenges and avoid the pitfalls
of introducing work teams by looking at the experience of companies that have already gone that
route.
Visiting companies and conducting interviews were Stephen W. Forbes, Ph.D., FLMI, Senior
Vice President, Research; Jean Gora, Director, Research; Barbara Kruse, Assistant Vice
President, Employee Selection Products and Research; and Gail Haney, SPHR, Senior
Associate, Employee Selection Products and Research. They brought back examples of what
works and what doesn't from these companies, then analyzed the information for trends, and
organized it using case studies to reinforce important points.
The nine participating sites included both stock and mutual companies in the United States and
Canada. The teams at these companies handled a wide variety of assignments in group and
individual life and health insurance operations. They ranged from teams less than one year old to
teams that had existed for 10 years. To encourage candor, all companies and individuals involved
in the study were guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality.
The report examines the benefits and costs of work teams, the importance of management
commitment and goal setting, and good and bad reasons for launching work teams. It looks at the
importance of establishing leadership roles, structuring a transfer of authority and responsibility,
and involving team members in decision making from the outset.
Other chapters focus on the needs of work team members for technical cross-training and
team-building skills such as negotiation and conflict resolution, an open office architecture, and
systems to handle related needs--for measurement, compensation, process reengineering, and
computer networks.
Companies can introduce and operate teams successfully, but to do so they have to work at it.
There is no magic way to generate the required changes in behavior quickly. Companies should
expect the successful conversion to teams to take up to several years, the report concludes.
The report costs $50 for employees of LOMA member companies and $250 for nonmembers.
To purchase Work Teams in the Life Insurance Industry, access LOMA's Research Report
Order Form, print it out, fill it in, and fax it to us at 770-984-6417. You can also call
1-800-ASK-LOMA (Press 3) or 770-984-3784; or e-mail it to orders@loma.org.
For more information on the contents of the report, send
e-mail to research@loma.org.
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