Aviva 2009 Annual Report Download - page 71

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Performance review
Aviva plc Corporate responsibility continued
Corporate responsibility
Annual Report and Accounts 2009
transformation. We have a clear purpose – to drive a talent
leadership and culture-led transformation to deliver exceptional
business performance. We have approached this by
implementing strategies designed to:
— Encourage talented people to join Aviva and stay
— Match the right people to the right roles and take action
where there are gaps
— Empower people to be the best they can be
— Build pride in Aviva
We will do this by focusing globally on:
— Developing leaders capable of winning for Aviva in our
chosen markets
— Embedding the ‘One Aviva, Twice the Value’ culture
— Building engagement and commitment by living the
employee promise
— Strengthening our CR performance by engaging employees
and influencing our communities and stakeholders
— Making it easier to work by simplifying and de-cluttering
HR tools and processes
— Building strong global HR and CR functions.
Locally, the use of global tools and ‘One Aviva’ processes
supports the delivery of our business strategies.
Our employee promise
We want every employee to be able to say ‘At Aviva I am
recognised for who I am and my contribution matters’. This is
the cornerstone of our employee promise, developed after
extensive research and consultation with our people on what
matters most to them at work.
By implementing ‘One Aviva’ we are well on the way to
becoming a global brand recognised wherever we operate. For
example, in 2009 we reached a key milestone in the UK when
Norwich Union completed the name change to Aviva. It is vital
that we take our employees with us by inviting them to
question, discuss and co-create the future. To support our line
managers in leading their people on the brand journey, we
organised a series of ‘This Is Our Story’ cinema events, featuring
the experiences of employees in different parts of Aviva’s
business. Managers were equipped with practical tools to help
them to be effective in bringing to life the behaviours asked of
all of us.
We want to create an employment brand that attracts and
retains the best talent and differentiates Aviva as an employer
of choice. Over the last 18 months we have introduced new
management and leadership programmes to nurture talent and
create proactive dialogue with leaders and their teams. New this
year is the ‘Learn Your Strengths’ interactive tool, taken up by
more than 7,000 employees. We also enhanced our induction
programme and created recognition schemes, including
Spotlight and Aviva Achievers, which give employees credit for
exceptional performance.
We are changing the way in which services are delivered to
employees and a wide range of supporting tools and materials
are now available to all on our global intranet, Aviva World,
which is fast becoming our first port of call for information.
Aviva World includes news features and forum sites, it gives
employees worldwide the opportunity to learn more about
different businesses, discuss issues and get to know each other.
Listening to our employees
We rebranded our annual employee survey in 2009 and
included new questions to reflect the areas our people said
were important. An extensive communication programme was
implemented in the lead-up to the launch of the Employee
Promise survey and our overall participation rate increased to
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76% (2008: 74%) with eight business units achieving 100%
participation. Senior management pay continues to be linked
to the survey results through clear benchmarked targets on
leadership and engagement.
Visibility of our survey results has increased with most team
managers receiving their own localised team results. Senior
leaders are also engaged, taking the time to speak to employees
about the survey results, sharing their personal reflections and
taking direct questions on the survey outcomes. For every survey
completed we gave a donation to our new ‘Street to School’
charity programme raising £37,000 for Save the Children
in India.
We invested in an online planning tool to help teams record
and monitor action plans arising from the survey results. We will
share progress on these plans at several stages before the next
survey. In 2010 we will produce a global results booklet
providing our employees with a clear picture of what we have
done well, where we can improve and the steps we will be
taking to address their concerns.
Strengthening our leadership capability
During 2009 we continued our twin-track approach to
developing leadership capability. We ran collective, regionally
based summits for our top 500 leaders focused on our ‘One
Aviva, Twice the Value’ vision. A continuation of the culture
change started in 2008, these events have helped to increase
the resilience of our senior leaders, improve understanding of
the internal and external brand and create a global identity. We
have designed a new approach to individual development that
seeks to strengthen leadership capability by focusing specifically
on career transition points. Associations with global partners
including The Centre for Creative Leadership, INSEAD and
FranklinCovey are providing innovative methods that enhance
the quality and variety of development opportunities available.
For 2010 we have already committed to bring the senior leaders
together under the banner of Vision into Performance to
strengthen the day-to-day actions being taken to achieve
our vision.
Talent management
Our Talking Talent programme has been running for two
years and Aviva now has a consistent method for assessing
individuals' performance and long-term potential. The process is
used at all levels and is providing excellent visibility of the talent
within our business.
Recruiting and retaining the best people in an increasingly
competitive market is a strategic priority for Aviva and we have
launched a new website (www.aviva.com/careers) to showcase
career options across our worldwide markets. The site describes
what it is like to work at Aviva, with video profiles of employees,
information on our culture and values, career management
insights and an overview of our hands-on approach to CR.
Diversity, equality and human rights
Aviva’s diversity programme promotes a fair and respectful
culture in which differences are valued. Our policy and practices
are aligned with United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and International Labour Organisation’s core labour
standards. Gaining a detailed understanding of diversity issues is
crucial in bringing our employee promise to life. To this end we
have refreshed our training, beginning with a virtual conference
in which external speakers and our HR specialists and CR team
gave their insights. We will continue to focus on key diversity
challenges in 2010.
Within our senior management group, representation of
female colleagues was maintained at 22% in 2009. We were
recognised in The Times/Aurora Where Women Want to Work
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