Shorter Weeks, Stronger Results: Embracing Efficiency or Courting Chaos?

Let's face it: the insurance industry isn't exactly known for its cutting-edge work practices. We're more likely to cling to our five-day weeks like a life raft in a sea of policy renewals and claims processing. But here's a wild thought – what if we could do better with less?  It's time to challenge our long-held productivity and work-life balance assumptions - enter the four-day workweek.

The Elastic Workday: Stretching Productivity's Limits

You've probably heard it before—"Work expands to fill the time available for its completion." This insightful observation, coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in 1955, continues to resonate in modern workplaces. The man knew how to nail the slow, inevitable creep of bureaucracy. If you’re in the insurance industry, though, this probably feels less like a humorous observation and more like a career in real time. Renewals that drag, claims that stretch beyond reason, meetings that somehow take up entire afternoons—sound familiar?

In insurance, this inefficiency is magnified by client expectations. Whether it’s a commercial renewal or a homeowner’s claim, clients expect you to be available five days a week, sometimes even seven. This means that tasks are not only expanding to fill the available time, but often stretching beyond it, encroaching on what should be your personal time. With everyone chattering about the benefits of a four-day workweek, it’s time to ask: could the insurance industry make the shift? Spoiler alert: maybe.

Reconciling Client Needs with Chronological Compression 

The first thing we have to admit is that insurance is uniquely client-driven. Clients expect you to be there, not just five days a week but, in many cases, whenever their particular crisis hits. You can’t just tell someone to wait until Monday because it’s “flex Friday” at the office. This dependency on client needs makes any attempt to reduce the workweek feel like a bold, almost foolish move.

But here’s the thing: Goal Setting Theory (Locke & Latham, 1990) tells us that employees tend to perform better with clear, time-bound goals. Tell someone they have five days to do a task, and they’ll probably take all five. Tell them they have four, and suddenly, they sharpen their focus and cut the unnecessary steps. And it's not just productivity—this has real implications for employee satisfaction and engagement. Aristotle (please don't side-eye me!), with his musings on balance, would argue that we could achieve more happiness and productivity by doing less—if we just learned how to do it right. 

Let’s not forget that Parkinson's Law isn’t just philosophical theory. From a psychological standpoint, the Yerkes-Dodson Law supports the notion that moderate stress—like the pressure of a shorter workweek—can actually enhance performance. In fact, people tend to perform best under conditions of moderate arousal, rather than no stress at all.

The insurance industry may need constant availability, but that doesn’t mean internal processes can’t be optimized with a little extra pressure. In fact, by condensing the workweek, insurance professionals may actually find they perform better, delivering higher-quality work in less time.

Consider the claims process. How often have you seen claims drag out for days, not because of complexity, but because of slow, bloated processes? By shortening the workweek, tasks like claims handling, policy renewals, and client follow-ups could be completed in less time, forcing teams to prioritize and focus.

Global Experiments in Temporal Optimization 

Now, it's not just a theory; others are already proving that Parkinson's Law can be beaten. Take Microsoft Japan, for instance. They cut their workweek to four days and saw a 40% boost in productivity. Employees didn't become superheroes overnight; they just started working smarter because there was less time to waste. New Zealand's Perpetual Guardian found the same thing—when people know they have less time, they do more. In fact, after trialing a four-day workweek, their employees reported higher job satisfaction, lower stress levels, and—most importantly—no drop in output.

Now, I know what you're saying (and you know who you are): just because it worked elsewhere doesn't mean it could work here in the US. Fair point, but let's look closer to home.

Several American companies have successfully implemented shorter workweeks:

1. Shake Shack, the popular US burger chain, expanded its four-day workweek trial for managers in 2023 after seeing positive results.

2. Kickstarter, the crowdfunding platform based in New York, adopted a four-day workweek in 2022 and reported maintaining productivity and improved employee satisfaction.

3. Buffer, a social media management company with a largely US-based workforce, has been operating on a four-day workweek since 2020, reporting high employee retention and sustained productivity.

Moreover, the insurance industry itself is global, with many US companies operating internationally and vice versa. Practices that work in one country often translate well to others, especially in our interconnected business world.

But why hasn’t the insurance industry jumped on this trend? Well, the entrenched systems resist change because it threatens the status quo. Insurance, with its never-ending grind of policy reviews and claim processing, seems permanent, like some bureaucratic form of eternal recurrence. While some US insurance firms are experimenting with increased flexibility, widespread adoption of the four-day workweek is far from the norm.

This lag presents an opportunity for forward-thinking US insurance companies to gain a competitive edge in terms of employee satisfaction and productivity. By learning from both international and domestic examples across various industries, US insurers can tailor the four-day workweek concept to fit their specific needs and market demands.

Implementing Efficiency: A Roadmap for the Time-Conscious Insurer 

So, how can insurance companies begin to transition to a four-day workweek without compromising client service or productivity? 

First, staggered schedules are a no-brainer. By alternating which teams are working, you can ensure there’s always someone available for client needs while still giving employees a break. It’s a little like the Pomodoro Technique, where tasks are broken into focused, manageable chunks. By compartmentalizing work, you can keep the wheels turning while avoiding burnout.

Automation is the second key strategy. You don’t need a human to handle every client interaction—especially for routine tasks like renewals or basic claims. Implementing AI or automated systems for these tasks can free up your workforce to focus on more complex cases during their four-day week. For example, some firms have started using automated systems to send reminders, process renewals, and even respond to simple claims inquiries, allowing employees to devote their attention to more pressing issues.

And let’s bring the concept of Utilitarianism into play: the greatest good for the greatest number, right? A four-day week improves employee well-being without sacrificing client satisfaction, making everyone a little bit happier. It’s a win-win scenario for companies looking to retain top talent while continuing to meet client expectations.

For candidates, this shift means you need to market yourself as adaptable, efficient, and excellent at managing your time. Being able to get the job done in a compressed schedule is a valuable skill, and you’ll stand out in a competitive market. Time is short, so why waste it working inefficiently for five days when you could get the same work done in four and enjoy life a bit more?

For employers, it's time to take a hard look at your processes. Are you really maximizing your team's potential, or just maximizing their time at the office?

Start by analyzing your current workflow. Where are the bottlenecks? What tasks seem to take forever but don't add much value? These are your targets for improvement. Maybe it's time to bid farewell to that daily team meeting.

Consider running a pilot program with a small team. Let them work four days a week for a month and measure the results. You might be surprised to find that they're not only maintaining their productivity, but actually improving it.

While these strategies lay a solid foundation for a shorter workweek, the insurance industry faces unique challenges, particularly in maintaining constant client availability. This is where cutting-edge technology comes into play, offering solutions that were once the stuff of science fiction.

For the skimmers… 

• Candidates: start positioning yourself as someone who thrives in a time-constrained environment. Highlight your ability to focus, prioritize, and deliver results in fewer hours than most.

• Employers: it’s time to rethink how you structure your teams. Experiment with staggered schedules, introduce automation, and—most importantly—stop expanding the workweek and start expanding productivity.

The AI Revolution: The New Timekeepers of Productivity

Enter the world of Agentic AI – not just a futuristic concept, but a present-day game-changer for the insurance industry. This advanced AI goes beyond simple automation, acting autonomously to achieve goals, make decisions, and interact meaningfully with clients and systems.

Here's how Agentic AI could revolutionize the insurance workspace: 

• 24/7 Customer Service: AI-powered systems can handle routine inquiries, policy questions, and even initiate simple claims processes around the clock. These aren't your typical chatbots; they learn from each interaction, continuously improving their responses.

• Intelligent Scheduling and Claims Processing: • AI can manage client appointments, ensuring human staff are available for complex cases. • For claims, AI can handle initial assessments, documentation, and even approve straightforward cases, freeing up human adjusters for more nuanced situations.

• Proactive Policy and Risk Management: • Routine policy renewals and standard quotes can be handled autonomously. • AI systems can continuously monitor and assess risks, alerting human staff to potential issues even on their off days.

• Smart Communication: • AI can send proactive updates to clients, manage email responses, and ensure urgent matters are escalated to on-call staff. • It can provide instant responses to client queries, reducing wait times and improving satisfaction.

• Compliance and Reporting: • AI can handle data analysis, generate reports, and monitor regulatory compliance, flagging potential issues for human review.

By implementing Agentic AI, insurance brokerages can maintain a 5-day (or even 7-day) client-facing presence while operating on a 4-day human workweek. This technology acts as a bridge, ensuring that when human expertise is truly needed, it's available and focused.

Of course, adopting such advanced systems requires careful planning, staff training, and clear communication with clients. It's crucial to position AI as a complement to human workers, not a replacement. The goal is to offer clients the best of both worlds: the efficiency and availability of AI, combined with the nuanced expertise of human staff when needed.

The insurance industry has a unique opportunity to redefine work-life balance without compromising client service. It's not just about working less; it's about working smarter, with cutting-edge technology as our ally.

Insuring Progress: Balancing Tradition with Temporal Innovation 

Let’s face it: the insurance industry is a little set in its ways. But that doesn’t mean it can’t change. A four-day workweek isn’t just some whimsical idea for hip tech firms; it could genuinely increase productivity, boost employee morale, and even improve client satisfaction—if done right. It’s about working smarter, not longer.

Incorporating time management techniques from organizational psychology and embracing philosophical perspectives on work and balance can help us rethink how we manage our workweek. Nietzsche would tell us to stop the eternal recurrence of bureaucracy, while Aristotle would insist on finding balance. Meanwhile, the Yerkes-Dodson Law and Goal Setting Theory back it up with hard data: limiting the time we have to work forces us to focus on what matters.

And if you still think a four-day workweek won’t work in insurance, maybe Darwin’s theory of natural selection will take care of that skepticism for us.

Because really, the only thing that should be endlessly growing is your client base, not the number of days you spend working.

Deep breath…

1. Parkinson, Cyril Northcote. Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress. John Murray, 1955.

2. Locke, Edwin A., and Gary P. Latham. A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance. Prentice-Hall, 1990.

3. Yerkes, Robert M., and John D. Dodson. "The Relation of Strength of Stimulus to Rapidity of Habit-Formation." Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, vol. 18, no. 5, 1908, pp. 459-482.

4. Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by W.D. Ross, Oxford University Press, 350 BC.

5. Microsoft Japan Experiment. “Microsoft Japan’s 4-Day Workweek Boosts Productivity by 40%.” The Guardian, 4 November 2019. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/04/microsoft-four-day-work-week-trial-japan-productivity)

6. Perpetual Guardian Experiment. “Perpetual Guardian’s 4-Day Workweek Experiment.” New Zealand Herald, 29 October 2018.

7. Shake Shack’s Four-Day Workweek. “Shake Shack Expands Four-Day Workweek Trial for Managers.” QSR Magazine, 15 March 2023.

8. Kickstarter’s Four-Day Workweek. “Kickstarter’s Shift to a 4-Day Workweek: Lessons from Year One.” Fast Company, 27 July 2022.

9. Buffer’s Four-Day Workweek. “Buffer’s 4-Day Workweek: What We Learned After 2 Years.” Buffer Blog, 2022.

10. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Will to Power. Translated by Walter Kaufmann, Random House, 1967.

11. Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. Parker, Son, and Bourn, 1863.

12. Cirillo, Francesco. The Pomodoro Technique. Cirillo Consulting, 2006.

13. AI in Insurance. “How AI is Transforming the Insurance Industry.” Forbes, 17 March 2023.

14. Agentic AI for Insurance Has Arrived – Liberate - ( https://www.liberateinc.com/blog/agentic-ai-for-insurance-has-arrived)

15. Preparing for Agentic AI in Insurance – Insurmi - https://www.insurmi.com/insights/preparing-for-agentic-ai

16. Insurance 2030: The Impact of AI on the Future of Insurance - McKinsey & Company ( https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/insurance-2030-the-impact-of-ai-on-the-future-of-insurance)