Aviva 2013 Annual Report Download - page 49

Aviva plc
Annual report and accounts 2013
47
Strategic report Governance IFRS Financial statements Other information
Our wider impact continued
Living wage
We are proud to be a
partner of the Living Wage
Foundation. We’ve been a
London Living Wage (LLW)
employer since 2005 and,
in 2013, we became an
accredited London Living
Wage employer. For the rest
of the UK, our minimum pay
for direct staff exceeds the
UK national living wage.
We are discussing payment
of the Living Wage for
onsite contractors with our
suppliers, following the
value the LLW has brought to
our contracted relationships
in London.
Our people
Being a responsible business is a vital
differentiator. We want to recognise exceptional
performance in our people and invite
collaboration – key components of our people
thesis. Building our leadership capability is critical
to achieving this.
Organisational change has had a signicant
impact on our people. Engaging them is a priority
for rebuilding pride.
We focus on attracting the best talent
and making the most of their potential. We
understand people need to be recognised and
appreciated, so we encourage our employees to
tell us how we’re doing, through regular dialogue
and our annual Employee Promise Survey (EPS).
Our commitment to ensuring consistency in
our people management is reected in our
business standard.
Values-based culture
In 2013 we challenged ourselves to ensure we
have the right values as a company in light of the
environment in which we operate, the culture
which we wish to nurture and our strategic
priorities. Following extensive consultation with
our employees across all levels of the organisation
in November 2013, we introduced four new
values with associated behaviours as part of our
people thesis: care more, kill complexity, never
rest, create legacy.
Our values will be reinforced throughout the
organisation, not only through demonstration
by our leaders, but also by their integration into
key internal processes, such as performance
management. The desired culture will be further
enabled through the development of our internal
communication channels, to provide employees
with effective ways to enter into dialogue about
the things that are most important to them.
Learning and development
In 2013, we focused on supporting our leaders
at transition points in their career, so 15% of our
senior leaders enrolled in our new Leadership
Transitions programme with the Saïd Business
School, University of Oxford.
Ireland, Canada, Singapore and the UK now
use a common Learning Management System.
This enables 20,000 employees to access shared
learning materials and create and track personal
development plans online.
Attracting talent
We take a long-term view of the people we
need to meet our future priorities and assess
individuals’ performance and long-term potential.
We consider our apprenticeship programme
in the UK to be a credible alternative to higher
education. We better aligned our recruitment
advertising to the university application calendar
and local schools outreach programmes. A further
17 apprentices joined our programme this year.
Diversity
We aim for a culture which respects difference
and recognises individuality. We support people
who think and act differently which is essential
to reaching our full potential.
Women make up 51% of our employees
globally. We still have some way to go to reect
that in our senior management. In 2013, the
percentage of women in senior management
remains at 21%, 21% of our Group Executive,
and 18% of the Board were women. We’re
committed to achieving 25% female Board
membership by the end of 2015.
In 2013, 75% of employees reported that we
are an organisation where people from diverse
backgrounds can succeed. We are the only
insurer in the 2014 Stonewall Workplace
Equality Index which benchmarks Britain’s
most gay-friendly employers.
It is important that we appoint the most
appropriate person for the job and that
opportunities for development and promotion
are available to everyone. Full and fair
consideration is given to applications for
employment by disabled persons. We are
committed to supporting employees who
become disabled during their employment
including any adaptations to their working life
and providing suitable training. All employees
are encouraged to agree a training plan with their
manager to help them achieve their career goals.
Our fairness and equality policies ensure that all
employees adhere to these principles.
Employee engagement
Our annual engagement survey helps us to
understand our people and identify where we
can do more. This year it told us our employees
understand our vision, what is expected of them
(93%), and they feel safe to speak up and
challenge the way we do things. In 2013, we
saw the biggest decline in pride in working at
Aviva following a period of restructuring and
job losses. There was also a clear request for
opportunities to grow and develop their careers.
People managers are required to have honest
conversations with their teams about their results,
and work together to prioritise areas of focus.
Aviva’s senior executives have an objective
focused on taking action against the EPS results
to improve engagement and enablement, and