The current 2022 Qorus-Accenture Innovation in Insurance coverage Awards are a strong, sensible illustration of the developments shaping the insurance coverage business. Sustainability and workforce transformation have gotten central to insurers for retaining relevance in a altering market. Insurers have to embed sustainability into their technique and worth proposition, and so they must embrace workforce transformation within the mild of things reminiscent of a good labour market, ability shortages, rising human-machine interactions and hybrid work preparations. Each are additionally turning into key concerns for folks when choosing their insurance coverage provider of selection and/or a spot the place to forge a profession.
Social, sustainable and accountable
Accenture’s 2021 Insurance coverage World Client Research illustrated that sustainability in all types has change into more and more essential for shoppers, with 67 p.c of millennial and youthful generations saying that sustainable services are interesting. This curiosity stands to have a double profit to insurers, who can construct sustainable threat administration mannequin, whereas on the identical time demonstrating to youthful shoppers that sustainability is a shared worth.
In a earlier collection on sustainability, I mentioned how we now interact with a wider definition of sustainability inside insurance coverage. Sustainability not solely pertains to defending the planet, however defending our future by constructive socio-economic practices, caring for underserved and susceptible communities.
Built-in, proactive sustainability is not going to be potential with out implementing the best know-how. As our newest analysis Uniting Expertise and Sustainability discusses, know-how is a key enabler for creating holistically sustainable companies and for that sustainability and know-how methods have to change into tightly aligned. In reality, in Accenture’s Notion to Actuality: Closing Stakeholders Consensus Gaps to Form Sustainable Organizations we illustrated that 43% of executives point out accessing the best know-how on the proper value as a key barrier to creating sustainability objectives.
On this yr’s awards, we noticed how insurers are overcoming these challenges by connecting sustainability to their objective and imaginative and prescient and utilizing applied sciences reminiscent of AI to trace their very own ESG necessities or construct progressive merchandise that add worth to prospects, in addition to to society and the broader surroundings.
Class winner – PZU (Poland)
This was actually the case with this yr’s winner of the Social, Sustainable & Accountable 2022. PZU received the class for its AI Pores and skin Most cancers Prevention device, which empowers prospects to entry pores and skin most cancers pre-screening shortly and simply by an AI-enabled cellular app.
Marcin Kurczab – Head of Innovation Lab at PZU explains how the device got here to be: “When implementing the challenge, we recognized the problem of low consciousness of pores and skin most cancers threat among the many workers of our company shoppers. For that reason, we provided them a easy and fast resolution that routinely reminds them to carry out common self-examinations.”
Over 3,000 folks registered within the app within the first months of the pilot programme, with 5 pores and skin most cancers instances recognized by the app and being confirmed by dermatological evaluation thus far. PZU acquired constructive suggestions from customers, who shared that the device made pores and skin most cancers prevention simpler and extra accessible.
Kurczab provides, “Two folks informed us about their medical consultations, throughout which medical doctors had been impressed by the effectiveness of the app, which proves its reliability. That’s our mission as an insurer – we’ve the distinctive functionality to guard and assist folks in residing higher and longer. It takes solely takes a minute for PZU prospects to verify their pores and skin situation at dwelling and, if there’s a concern, to escalate this by seeing a health care provider. Prognosis at such an early stage will increase the possibility of a profitable restoration.”
PZU noticed a rise in buyer sentiment on account of the device, noticing a statistically vital distinction within the analysis of PZU’s innovativeness (+13 p.p. as compared with the management group) and the notion of the corporate as trendy (+10 p.p. as compared with the management group) of their annual advertising and marketing survey.
“It’s generally recognized that healthcare companies are overloaded, and sufferers typically have to attend a very long time for a health care provider’s appointment and therapy. New applied sciences reminiscent of AI have an enormous potential for revolutionizing healthcare by addressing its foremost ache factors. AI-based instruments can tackle a variety of challenges by checking signs, optimizing healthcare processes, conducting triage but in addition predicting threat of a given illness (like cancers) or enabling early detection of such diseases which can end in decrease mortality charges. Fashionable AI instruments can act as a assist of medical doctors throughout examination (there are already purposes with medical certification which are prescribed by medical doctors identical to medicines or different types of rehabilitation) or allow self-examination choices as a part of prevention – identical to our challenge. AI doesn’t really feel fatigue, it’s higher in avoiding biases, and might see what is just not at all times seen by people. These options might make AI an inseparable aspect of medical analysis sooner or later.”
Workforce transformation
Expertise is the lifeblood of the insurance coverage business. It’s only with the best sources and information that insurance coverage carriers will be capable to remodel and realise their imaginative and prescient.
Nonetheless, expertise and expertise shortages are a rising concern inside the insurance coverage business. Talent gaps ensuing from the introduction of recent applied sciences and rising digitization of operations, coupled with an ageing workforce and big retirement looming are notably worrying. For instance, expertise administration (succession, planning, recruiting, retention, and coaching) was highlighted as rising problem by underwriters in The Institutes-Accenture’s 2021 underwriting survey.
A key rising problem and alternative for insurers is the rise of the distant workforce. On the one hand, the distant workforce opens up new alternatives for efficiencies. In Accenture’s 2021 Expertise Imaginative and prescient for Insurance coverage 88% of insurance coverage executives shared the idea that the distant workforce opens up the marketplace for difficult-to-find expertise and expands the competitors for expertise amongst organizations. Alternatively, optimizing the sources that guarantee a wholesome and productive workforce, no matter bodily location, might be difficult. Working remotely additionally makes a cohesive and collaborative office tradition tougher.
Class winner – Zurich Insurance coverage Firm
Zurich addressed the actual challenges which have come about by the hybrid workforce, with an all-in-one cellular software for Zurich workers that simplifies the day-to-day expertise whether or not they’re at dwelling or within the workplace.
Oscar Escudero Sanchez, Head of Digital Supply, Zurich Insurance coverage Firm discusses how the group approached the creation of the app, “Zurich has about 56,000 workers globally and so they deserve the most effective and best instruments to assist navigate their work life. We initially launched the app in a number of Zurich enterprise models with a concentrate on workspace reserving however have come very far since and are going international this yr. With One Zurich, we’re turning our previous mannequin of functional-based digital experiences on its head. The place we beforehand had totally different platforms for, let’s say, HR or IT assist, now our workers have it multi functional place.”
Liz Oswald, Head of Expertise Transformation, Zurich Insurance coverage Firm provides, “One Zurich goals to offer our workers with a holistic digital expertise. We frequently interact our workers by a number of channels reminiscent of focus teams, interviews, polls and in-app suggestions types to grasp their desires, wants and preferences, and use these inputs to outline and prioritize a backlog of app options and user-experience flows. As soon as these are in manufacturing, we observe their utilization and observe up with workers to grasp what’s working effectively for them or what they want to see improved – after which we take these adjustments and enhancements into our backlog.”
This method aligns to a hybrid manner of working. Escudero Sanchez explains, “Zurich has embraced the brand new post-pandemic manner of working, together with providing expanded flex and distant working choices to workers. This mannequin creates many alternatives for each the corporate and workers on how you can keep linked in a hybrid working world. At a tactical stage, the One Zurich app helps workers in managing their on-site days with user-friendly, visible instruments that permit to see when their colleagues are planning to return into the workplace, guide close by workspaces and handle their reservations. Extra broadly, One Zurich serves as a channel for participating workers with related updates and actions once they matter most and to assist them really feel linked regardless of which office mannequin they select.”
Workforce transformation doesn’t occur in a vacuum, however as a part of a deeper strategic dedication. Oswald concludes, “At Zurich, our ambition is to be one of the accountable and impactful companies on this planet. We all know {that a} key aspect of attaining this might be offering our prospects, brokers, and brokers with trendy, streamlined and intuitive instruments and person flows that interact and delight them, and which are tailor-made to their particular person wants. Nevertheless it’s not sufficient to concentrate on innovating for our exterior audiences – all of it has to start out on the core! Our workers make Zurich. With One Zurich, we’re offering an instance for our workers by remodeling their very own expertise and sharing our findings to tell our group’s broader digitalization journey.”
As these two winners present, a holistic dedication to sustainability and workforce transformation from the within can have a widespread, highly effective impression.
See the complete 2022 Qorus Accenture Innovation in Insurance coverage record.
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