May 4, 2020 — After nearly two months of having its staff work from home, U.S.-based insurance company Nationwide isn’t just surviving, it is thriving. This week, the auto insurer announced plans to have the vast majority of its employees work-from-home on a permanent basis, and to sell-off most of its considerable office space.
Could auto insurance providers in Canada begin to operate in a similar manner after social isolation comes to an end? What about other businesses that conduct regular operations with repair facilities? If the results of a Collision Repair survey are to be believed, such shake-ups seem inevitable.
According to a recent survey from Collision Repair, half of collision businesses are reporting that auto insurance staff have been able to operate in a way causing only mild delays for repair facilities.
The other half of businesses report auto insurers being unable to meet the needs of auto repairers while working from home, though there is an important caveat. Included in this group is one-in-ten repair industry members who say that the reduced interactions has been beneficial to both repairers and to auto insurers.
Oddly enough, though, some businesses appear to be better equipped to handle the needs of repair businesses if employees begin working-from-home on a permanent basis.
Half of franchised collision facility operators have told Collision Repair that franchise corporate staff working from home has not presented a significant obstacle to operations.
Another quarter said their franchise representatives served the needs of their facilities more effectively while working-from-home. As many of the surveyed franchised repair business owners described their franchise representatives as having let them down during the work-from-home period.
While transitioning franchise operations away from expensive office towers might be a benefit to the collision community, OEM certification groups appear less likely to be able to capitalize on such a switchover.
While 60 percent of respondents said that their dealings with OEM certification authorities had experienced only minor delays, 20 percent of respondents said the delays had been disastrous. Another 20 percent said their had been no notable change during the work-from-home period.
