We moved into a new, smaller London office a few weeks ago. This is usually a stressful experience, but this time everything went smoothly because we were lucky enough to be able to swap with a neighbour who wanted more space.

As in many other companies, since the pandemic, our people have tended to choose the most appropriate location for the work they need to do on any given day. That means that most aren’t in the office every day, so when they did come in, it was a slightly odd experience – people were dotted about here and there, with lots of empty desks and space between them.

But the new, smaller place is great. Since the move, we’re seeing more people coming into the office because it’s got a welcoming atmosphere that’s well suited to a collegiate way of working. It sounds weird, but although it’s smaller, it feels like we have more space. It just works for us better and it’s helping to bring people back together.

The move has been a learning experience for me too. I’ve realised I relish the time I spend with everyone in the office, and the time I spend having face-to-face meetings with colleagues and clients, but I also relish the time when I’m working at home.

Covid made people realise that they didn’t need to go to an office to work, so there have to be other reasons to go in. Following our move, people are rediscovering those other reasons, and I hope, like me, they’re feeling better and have better balance in their life because of that.

This is really important to me, because one of the major concerns I had about the pandemic was the impact of the enforced isolation on people’s wellbeing and mental health. Now we’ve got a situation where people can see the attractions both of being in the office and of working remotely, and that sense of choice and flexibility is giving them a sense of ownership and control.

This isn’t unique to Charles Taylor, of course. Recently I found an article that quoted some interesting research from Gallup about hybrid working. Among other things, 76% of employees they surveyed said it had improved their work-life balance, 64% said it allowed them to make more efficient use of their time, and 61% said it had reduced burnout or fatigue at work.

To me, the key point is that we’ve moved on to something better. The world was never going to go back to the way it was before – it never does – and we’ve found a way of adapting to the new ways of working. That feels good.

This resonates with me because I can see so many parallels between what’s happened to us internally, as a group of colleagues, and what we try to do as Charles Taylor for our customers, especially on the claims side of our business. In areas like medical and travel assistance, or worker compensation, our role is to help people deal with a bad situation, find a route to recovery and move on. It’s not about turning the clock back; it’s about helping people move forwards with confidence, feeling better and stronger than before.

This is the secret of our success as a company. Most of our customers are insurers all over the world who hire us to be there when their policyholders need help to get them back on their feet. So having a mindset that is all about finding the route to recovery and regaining strength is critical for us, because that’s what will sustain and strengthen these insurers’ relationships with their customers. It’s a win-win all round!

But that mindset has to grow naturally from within Charles Taylor, and this is why it is so important that we also continue to concentrate on our own employees’ wellbeing and happiness at work. It’s all about fostering a spirit of doing the best we can for each other and for our customers, looking for ways to fix things so that they’re better than before. The positive changes I’ve seen in London since we made our office swap have been another powerful reminder of the importance of constantly adapting and moving forward.

Rob Brown
Group Chief Executive Officer