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.

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 Top 50 list in 2009 and featured in Cranfield University's study of women in the boardroom. Our Group Marketing Director, Amanda McKenzie, was named in The Female FTSE Report as one of 100 Women to Watch in 2009. Our employee groups, including the Aviva Women's Network and Pride Aviva, our network for gay, lesbian and bisexual employees, are firmly established. They have evolved from small beginnings to become thriving networks, hosting events and contributing support for local community projects.

This year, we significantly improved our position in Stonewall's Workplace Equality Index, achieving 54th position, compared to 84th in 2008. Pride Aviva also received special recognition in the survey as a 'Star-Performing Employee Network'.

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 diversity sessions at our virtual conference in which external speakers, our HR specialists and CR team gave their insights and took part in a quiz to challenge their perceptions on global diversity challenges.

Results from our Employee promise survey confirmed our need to add even more impetus to our activities to promote our diversity agenda, as only 55% of our employees perceived that we are committed to attracting, developing and retaining a diverse workforce.

We are taking immediate action to address employee perceptions on diversity in Aviva and reinstate our commitment to being a respectful and inclusive organisation. We have set up a global diversity and inclusion working group made up of representatives from each region working collaboratively on three key themes in 2010:

1. Embedding Diversity and Inclusion into existing HR policies, systems and processes.
2. Training to recognise and value all types of difference to create an inclusive culture.
3. Working effectively across cultures.

Our Group CR Director hosted an open webex forum on our intranet, entitled 'Are we doing enough' where we encouraged employees to share their experiences and suggestions. The insights gained from this session will feed in to the working group to help steer the agenda going forward.