Aviva aims to attract and retain the best talent available for our operations around the world and we believe that our commitment to diversity, inclusiveness and human rights results in better business decisions and high performance throughout the business.
Aviva aims to attract and retain the best talent available for our operations around the world and we believe that our commitment to diversity, inclusiveness and human rights results in better business decisions and high performance throughout the business.
Aviva supports the aims of Lord Davies’ report and reaffirms its commitment to the Women on Boards review.
- We are committed to achieving balanced leadership in Aviva and currently have three female directors on our board constituting 23% of the membership. In line with the Lord Davies’ report, it is Aviva’s intention to maintain a minimum of 25% female representation on the Board by 2013.
While we have not set a public target for gender diversity on our executive committee, we have made improvements over the last year with the appointment of chief information officer Cathryn Riley to the committee. We believe in appointing the best talent to open roles and should vacancies need to be filled on the executive committee in future, we are confident that our improved succession planning processes will ensure a balanced slate of candidates (both internal and external).
At the moment 20% of senior executives at Aviva are female. We intend to increase this number as we recognise that for more women to reach board level we need more women throughout the higher levels of the organisation, creating a stronger talent pipeline.
- We will be disclosing as part of our Corporate Responsibility Report, contained within the Annual Report and Accounts, the proportion of women on the board, in senior executive positions and female employees in the whole organisation:
o As a percent of the whole workforce; 50.4%
o At junior management level; 45%
o At middle management level; 29% (Head of population)
o At senior management level; 20%
o At the level just below the board (ie Executive Committee); 18% - In the last year, we have been working on a series of initiatives designed to promote gender diversity across the organisation. Many of the initiatives are still in the pilot stage, but early results suggest that we are well on track to make good on our public commitments.
o Gender diversity in succession planning: We are ensuring that we have a balanced pipeline of internal talent across the Group and that we identify high-potential women across all functions and roles.
o External candidate sourcing: We are working with our senior executive recruitment partners to identify a pipeline of senior women external to Aviva that we view as likely candidates for future roles in Aviva.
o Subsidiary board placements: We actively encourage senior female employees to take on non-executive director roles and are considering the development opportunities that could be realised by appointing senior female employees to the boards of Aviva subsidiary companies. In our Asia Pacific business, members of the regional executive sit on two subsidiary boards.
o Reciprocal mentoring programme: Each group executive member is paired with a high potential woman within the organisation. The senior women benefit from career development advice while the group executive gain valuable insights about the challenges that women often face as they move up the career ladder
o The Aviva Women's Network is firmly established and we are continually building on this with endorsement from the Aviva board. One example is the support provided by Euleen Goh, non-executive director, to the networks being developed across Aviva’s Asia Pacific businesses.
o Aviva has signed up to the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles and featured in Cranfield University's study of women in the boardroom.
o We are raising awareness of and building engagement around, the principles of balanced leadership and are using technology to hold Group wide conversations on the subject of balanced leadership.
o We are supporting the creation of a talent pipeline. Aviva is sponsoring the Young Ambassador Programme bringing together 100 school sixth formers and 100 senior women ambassadors from across the UK into mentoring and networking relationships. Through our Aviva Investors business we are supporting the 100 Women in Hedge Funds events. We are also joining up with corporate partners on women’s networking and developmental events such as International Women’s Day.
We are proud of the progress that we have made. However, we recognise that this is only the beginning and we have a lot further to go. Diversity makes common sense, and it makes business sense for Aviva.
If you would like further information about balanced leadership at Aviva, please contact: cr.team@aviva.com