The underwriting department at the Newcastle branch consists of thirteen clerks, of whom one is a section head and one a head of department. The nature of the work in the department has fundamentally changed over the last twenty years, from book-keeping and an accounting process to clerical processing. There are various types of policy, the main difference being between 'commercial' and 'personal'. The vast majority of policies taken out are personal. Until late 1991, the underwriting department was divided into personal and commercial sections, but in January 1992 these were combined. Although clerks vary in the mix of commercial and personal policies they deal with, the variety in the work of each clerk is small.

Before 1988, the process of policy issue at branch level was manual with the premium being calculated by the use of manuals and charts. Details of the policy would be sent to head office and issued from there. Head office introduced a mainframe computer for this process in 1983, but the procedure at branch level remained much the same until mid-

1988, when the VDTs were installed in the underwriting department.

At first the department was not 'on-line' and premiums still had to be calculated manually.

Policy details, however, were to be keyed in directly and the VDT was used to check the details of any given policy. In 1989 the system went 'on-line', details of the policy being keyed in direct at branch level. In 1991, the computer was programmed to calculate premiums automatically. Management's aim was to computerize as many policies as possible through complex programming and standardization of product. This reduced the processing time. For the majority of policies it was necessary only to transfer details from form to screen and to use the right classification as specified in the manual. Before on-line computerization a clerk could do 35 policies a week and after computerization 80 policies a week could be processed.

Clerical staff numbers were reduced to a third inside three years and the previously separate departments of commercial and personal were combined into one. The division of work in the branch was divided into four functions, underwriting, claims, cash, and accounts. In addition, the clerks were divided into two types of employee, those knowledgeable on insurance, capable of answering enquiries and dealing with nonstandard cases, and those who processed routine policies. In terms of knowledge required, standardization had reduced the differences between the policies and for some had reduced the knowledge required. Many of the policies are now offered on a 'take it or leave it' basis and the processing of the policy is routine and repetitive, requiring little knowledge of insurance. Details of the customer and cover required are keyed into the computer in the specified order and the premium is calculated automatically. Some knowledge of insurance is still required nonetheless for dealing with the enquiries.

The underwriting clerks are beginning to show signs of frustration, as much of their working day is spent on routine processing. There is also tension between the clerks doing the routine processing and those clerks working on the non-standard and more interesting cases. These factors are resulting in serious morale problems, high absenteeism and increasing mistakes in the processing. The manager of the department and the HR manager realize that changes are needed, but it is not clear to them how to improve the situation.