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We want everyone to see us as an organisation that develops exceptional leaders. We believe that everyone here has talent, so we want to create an environment where all our people feel valued and can develop their skills. In 2007 we will be putting a common framework in place to describe our talent in terms of current performance and future potential. This will help us to identify how we can best match individuals to roles and development opportunities.
Our global development programme and our investment in training demonstrate our commitment to developing our talent. Our Leadership Academy plays a key role in building and retaining leaders. Its programme, which collaborates with renowned international business schools, emphasises experiential learning, networking and the development of genuine everyday leadership skills. The programmes are progressive and reflect the changing needs of our employees as they move through the organisation.
We are a leading member company of the Centre For Executive Development (Cedep) located in Fontainbleau, France, and work in conjunction with this organisation and leading internal business schools including Columbia Business School, The Centre for Creative Leadership, Wharton, INSEAD and Yale to design and develop cutting-edge programmes that respond to our changing environment.
Read more about INSEAD http://www.leadershipandresponsibility.com
Aviva Leadership Academy
Our business units also run local development programmes. Some examples are outlined below.
Our Dutch business, Delta Lloyd, has a four-year management traineeship for graduates and a range of management and executive development programmes.
In 2006, Aviva Canada invested C$5.9m in learning and development initiatives, putting us in the top quartile nationally for training and development funding. Aviva Canada is also launching two new leadership programmes for supervisors and middle managers.
Our Sri Lankan business won the national HR award for Best Training and Development Strategy and Practice and it has the only Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) certified sales training centre in the country.
Aviva India also has a range of development programmes, including an accelerated leadership programme for people showing particular potential.
We also recognise the value of professional skills development, with initiatives around core insurance sector requirements, such as underwriting and actuarial skills, in many countries. Our Irish business, Hibernian, is working with the Insurance Institute and the Life Insurance Association to offer foundation courses and diplomas, while Morley, our fund management business in the UK, helped another 70 people to gain relevant professional qualifications in 2006.
In Norwich Union, 2006 saw major progress in the provision of Leadership and Management development training across the Life business. Leading in Life was the senior leadership development suite of programmes introduced for Directors and Heads of department it reached over 600 people with a focus on “coaching for performance”, “investment in excellence”, “everyday acts of leadership”. The Managing in Life programme provided development options for over 400 middle and frontline team leaders around the essentials of their people management role. All were delivered with a mix of online packages to the desktop computer to cover information and knowledge, and face-to-face training to cover skills development.
Promoting internal employee mobility paid great dividends in France last year. Putting vacancies on the intranet, discussing change at annual review and using career committees to identify candidates, all helped to increase retention, improve awareness about the group and avoid compulsory redundancy.
Aviva France is more mobile
