Nationwide to make COVID-19 'work from home' permanent post-lockdown

US-based insurance and financial services provider Nationwide is planning to close five offices across the country and permanently transition to remote working, having tested the operating model during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown.

The company plans to exit most buildings outside of the four designated campuses by November 1, 2020, including Gainesville, Florida; Harleysville, Pennsylvania; Raleigh, North Carolina; Wausau, Wisconsin, and Richmond, Virginia.

The permanent transition to a hybrid operating model will include primarily working-from-office in four main corporate campuses and working-from-home in most other locations.

The four main campus locations will include central Ohio (including downtown Columbus and Grandview Yard); Des Moines, Iowa; Scottsdale, Arizona; and San Antonio, Texas.

"We've been investing in our technological capabilities for years, and those investments really paid off when we needed to transition quickly to a 98 percent work-from-home model," said Nationwide CEO Kirt Walker. "Our associates and our technology team have proven to us that we can serve our members and partners with extraordinary care with a large portion of our team working from home."

Walker added: "Our goal is to ensure that when a recovery comes, we're prepared to win business with competitively priced solutions while enhancing our resiliency and operational efficiency. We're technology-enabled, people-connected and mission-driven. I remain extremely optimistic about our future."