COVID-19 Cluster Infections Continue in Insurance Industry... "Stop the Fear"

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun visited the screening clinic at Korea Building in Guro-gu, Seoul, a site of a COVID-19 cluster infection, on the 12th to receive a briefing on the quarantine situation. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] As a cluster infection of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred at an insurance company’s outsourced call center, concerns are growing among insurance companies already struggling with a downturn in sales. Although an emergency has been declared for the operation of call centers and telemarketing departments, anxiety is increasing over how far the impact of COVID-19 will extend.

Following the COVID-19 cluster infection incident at the Ace Insurance outsourced call center in Guro-gu, Seoul, 12 employees at the DB Insurance Daegu call center also tested positive.

Given the call center work environment, where many employees work closely together in confined spaces, there is a vulnerability to cluster infections, and the possibility of outbreaks at other call centers also exists.

Currently, there are about 350 call centers nationwide operated by domestic insurance companies, with approximately 30,000 employees working there.

In response, insurance companies are making every effort to disinfect call centers. Basic COVID-19 prevention measures such as wearing masks and placing hand sanitizers are being implemented, along with dispersing call center employees or conducting work-from-home arrangements.

Samsung Life Insurance has divided its call centers into three regions to implement dispersed work shifts and conducts disinfection once a day. The cafeteria is operated in time slots. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance has introduced staggered working hours and floor-based dispersed work at its subsidiary call centers located in six regions nationwide.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Kyobo Life Insurance, which operates call centers in Gangnam and Gangbuk districts of Seoul and in Daegu, relocated employees from the Gangnam call center to the Gangbuk call center.

DB Insurance has equipped call center employees’ homes with access to the headquarters’ call system and has shifted to a work-from-home system. Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance has dispersed counselors across four call centers nationwide and limited attendance to two-thirds of employees.

Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance divided call center employees at its directly managed offices in Busan and Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, into 5 to 6 groups for dispersed work early this month.

COVID-19 has also brought significant changes to insurance sales operations. Since last month, when COVID-19 spread nationwide, insurance companies have recommended exclusive agents refrain from sales activities, making a sales gap inevitable.

As face-to-face sales centered on agents have become difficult, companies are greatly expanding non-face-to-face processing methods to compensate. They are also increasing the introduction of non-face-to-face sales support measures such as mobile-based product analysis and subscription.

However, since non-face-to-face sales have limitations in acquiring new customers, there are concerns that poor performance will accelerate. An industry insider said, "Although non-face-to-face sales are being expanded due to weakened face-to-face functions, sales performance is expected to worsen further in March compared to February."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.