Tim NeCastro, CEO of Erie Insurance, occupies the same office that once belonged to company co-founder H.O. Hirt.

It's located in the company's East Sixth Street building, built in 1966 and designed to resemble Philadelphia's Independence Hall.

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But NeCastro likes to slip out of his office and cross the street to the newly occupied Thomas B. Hagen Building.

The reason is simple.

"It's the people," he said. "There are a lot more people here."

Working with and around people has always been the default position for NeCastro, who was named CEO of the Fortune 500 company, Erie's largest employer, in 2016.

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Still, few companies anywhere took a more cautious approach to employee health following the arrival of COVID-19 in March 2020. It was only this past April that the slow, methodical return of employees to the workplace began in earnest.

For nearly two years after the pandemic began, NeCastro had been consistent in his message: The company's employees, about 6,000 of them in 12 states, were helping the company to run smoothly. But working together, in the same buildings, was the shared goal once concerns about the pandemic eased.

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In an interview published two years ago, he said. "The truth is we are living at work," he said. "The world needs us to stay home right now, but I want us to get back."

Things have changed

Time, experience and the reality of what employees want have prompted Erie Insurance, including NeCastro, to reconsider the best way to do business.

Asked about his previous insistence that Erie Insurance employees would work from a common space, NeCastro told the Erie Times-News, "I am getting over it. I am virtually over it."

It's been months since company employees, most of them working hybrid schedules, began returning to the office, some for as little as one day a week, some for five days a week.

On the Wednesday before Christmas, hundreds of people were at work in the company's new $147 million Hagen Building that sat empty for months after its completion.

But the building was not full. In-person attendance tends to be highest at mid-week and lowest on Friday, NeCastro said. What had been the company's main building, the Perry Square Building, is empty as a $45 million renovation continues.

Erie Insurance, which announced plans for its new 346,000-square-foot building long before the pandemic, has never publicly second-guessed the decision despite the reduced need for office space.

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"We don't need all of our space today," NeCastro said. "But we firmly believe we are going to need it all tomorrow for our business."

New model for work

This is the new reality of the hybrid work model, or at least the one at Erie Insurance.

NeCastro hasn't given up on the notion that there are benefits to a shared space, but he acknowledges that the company has found ways to realize many of the benefits of in-person work.

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The video screens in the conference rooms of the Hagen Building are one example. Employees in different places, some at home, and others at the office, are able to see each other and read one another's reactions.

It's almost like being together.

Traditionally, "The way that people learn to trust each other is by being together," NeCastro said. "It has always been a demonstration of loyalty to show up at work and be in meetings."

In this new era of the hybrid workforce, "Those conversations can still happen and you can be with people in moments that really matter," he said.

Sean Dugan, the company's executive vice president of human resources and corporate services, has been looking for ways to meld what's best for the company with the work experience employees are seeking.

Along with employers around the world, Erie Insurance transitioned virtually overnight to working remotely, Dugan said. The process of returning to the office has been as slow and deliberate as that process was sudden, Dugan said.

It began early last year with a call for volunteers and led, eventually, to 200 or so employees being called back each week.

Even now, some departments haven't yet been asked to return to the office. As of late December, about 88% of the company workforce had been asked to return to in-person or a hybrid work schedule.

"We were trying to figure out what hybrid would look like," Dugan said. "We learned a lot about how important that connection was. Tim always says we are a relationship company. There is no doubt about it."

What the company's leaders seem to have learned is that maintaining what it saw as a special culture didn't require every single person to be in the office every day.

It was helped, however, by seeing familiar faces at least part of the time and by the chance to meet in person some of the 1,000 or so employees who had been hired since the pandemic began.

Dugan said company officials recognized that working at the next desk or being in the same meeting isn't the only way to foster a sense of unity.

It can be just as easy getting to know each other while decorating cookies at lunch, working together on a craft project or at a cooking demonstration at the Erie Insurance Events Center.

The company has held 47 separate events since summer, said Jeff Brinling, senior vice president of corporate services.

"I think that coming out of the pandemic, people were looking for an opportunity to interact," he said. "People love seeing each other. We have had people come to an event and be shy at first. At the end, the room is loud and they don't want to leave."

Lunchtime Bingo, where participants compete for a $20 Erie Downtown Partnership gift card, has been popular Brinling said.

"It's not about the lunch and it's not about the gift card. It's about being with each other," he said.

He said the company also has made an effort to interact with the local business community. A florist offered a session on how to make a holiday centerpiece and sent participants home with a centerpiece of their own. A local restaurant offered a session on how to make a charcuterie board.

Brinling said the events might change, but he expects them to continue.

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For the most part, the ideas have come from employees. Dugan said.

"We have been open to just about anything," he said. "I don't know if we are going to (offer) a bourbon tasting, but we are listening and staying true to who we are."

More opportunities

In an era when more employees have options about where they do their work, a handful at Erie Insurance have dug in their heels when asked to return.

"We had a few cases, but nothing out of the ordinary," NeCastro said. "I think most of the initial reticence disappears once they start coming back. It's like that pit in the stomach at the end of the summer."

One thing has changed since the beginning of the pandemic. The company's list of unfilled jobs is longer than it was beforehand. Some employees have been lost to competitive offers from other companies, while even more have retired. NeCastro said 290 people were honored at a recent retirees luncheon.

That's creating opportunities for new employees and for a surprising number of employees who have found their way back to the company.

They're sometimes referred to as boomerang employees.

"We have seen an incredible number of people coming back to us," Dugan said. "We are trying to understand why that is. The theme over and over has been the culture, even though I left for an increase in pay."

Erie Insurance is battling the same headwinds as employers across the country: the Great Resignation and competition not just from other businesses in Erie, but from employers everywhere.

NeCastro sees it as a great opportunity to work for a company that has great benefits and has never had a layoff.

"A lot of times people believe I could never get into Erie Insurance," NeCastro said. "I would say there has never been a better time for people who want a great career."

Contact Jim Martin at jmartin@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie Insurance finds success with hybird work model