Aviva 2014 Annual Report Download - page 53

Our people
Our people strategy is about changing our
culture and supporting our people to
achieve their potential, so they can best
serve our customers and enable us to
achieve outstanding performance. Our
people thesis sets out how we will be
different to other employers.
Transforming our culture
In our 319 year history, the important
things have never changed – people
matter to us. There are a number of social
and demographic trends affecting
workplaces across the globe and these are
having an impact upon our global
workforce.
These include increased cultural
diversity, ageing workforces and a scarcity
of talent in some areas. Digital trends
include the ubiquity of mobile technology
and a culture of constant connectivity.
To meet these challenges, we need to
continue recruiting talented colleagues,
improving performance management and
boosting employee engagement.
Engaging with our people
We want our people to feel valued and
ensure they can help shape Aviva’s future, so
we encourage open, two-way conversations
with our people. In 2014 we used new ways
of engaging with our people through digital
channels. This included a series of live events
presented by members of the Group
Executive team, who spoke informally about
key elements of our strategy and answered
employees’ questions. Videos and transcripts
of these events were made available to all
employees via the intranet.
We have introduced quarterly surveys
– called Snapshot – asking a randomly-
selected group of employees for their
direct feedback. These surveys give us
insights which we have used to help make
positive changes for our people.
We have taken the same approach into
our annual, all-employee survey, ‘Voice of
Aviva’. This helps us to understand our
people and identify what we need to keep
doing and where we can improve. This
year over 25,000 colleagues took part.
We measure progress in this area
through levels of employee engagement.
2014 saw engagement improve 9% points
to 65%, driven by a double-digit uplift in
trust of our senior leaders, as well as
advances in levels of pride, motivation and
advocacy. Our engagement rating is now
3% points above the norm in the global
nancial services sector.
The survey told us that 87% of our
employees feel informed about important
events (26% points above global nancial
services’ norms), 81% understand our
business priorities, 92% understand what
is expected of them, and 82% feel it is
safe to challenge the way we do things.
The survey also identied areas where
we need to make further progress. Only
two in three employees say that they feel
recognised, highlighting the importance of
individual and team praise. Additionally
our people asked for more practical
opportunities to collaborate with
colleagues to benet customers.
Our people managers across the world
held open conversations with their teams
about the survey results, and agreed actions
they can take together. Aviva’s senior
leaders spent time hosting ‘town halls’ and
all-employee calls where they shared their
response to results and announcements,
and committed to actions they would take
as leaders. We also held employee
consultative forums in the UK and Europe
to support further conversations about how
we develop the business.
We are changing
our culture and
supporting our
people to achieve
their potential, so
they can best serve
our customers
and enable us to
achieve outstanding
performance.
—
Christine Deputy
Group HR Director
(pictured left)
Our people in action
Embedding our
purpose and values
In 2014 we focused on embedding our
purpose, values and their associated
behaviours across Aviva. We believe our
customers, communities and shareholders
will benet as we simplify our business,
challenge the status quo, and tackle the
issues that are important to them. We
started with a “Leading Our Strategy”
event for all our 3,500 Aviva leaders
globally to help them focus on what our
purpose and values mean both for the
organisation and for each employee.
Those leaders then delivered a training
programme to allemployees, called
“Exploring Our Strategy”, to immerse them
in Aviva’s strategy. This was designed to
support our people to set goals for their
work and personal lives, to help them make
a more personal connection with Aviva’s
values and strategy. When we measured
progress at the end of 2014, 83% of our
people agreed they know how the Aviva
values apply to their role.
Strategic report
Aviva plc Annual report and accounts 2014 |49