Our success depends on our ability to attract, support and retain high-quality people.
“We are dedicated to developing a global team who are passionate about providing a high quality service to our customers. Our success depends on recruiting and retaining high-calibre people at all levels. This includes our self-employed agents. To achieve this and ensure we have a sustainable growth model going forward, we need to inspire, develop and recognise the achievements of all of our employees and agents as well as help to foster a safe, supportive and empowering working environment in which every individual can grow and maximise their potential.
"Together with our colleagues across all markets, we are continuing to embed a range of initiatives, including resourcing, talent management and succession planning, leadership development, induction programmes for our customer-facing colleagues and incentive and recognition schemes, as well as acting on the results and feedback from our employees and agents via our global engagement survey.”
Helen Thornton, Group HR Director
Employee numbers at the end of December 2012 were 6,330, of whom 7% work part time.
Development
We're committed to providing our people with the knowledge, skills and experience that they need at every stage of their careers.
We believe that our people should have opportunities for learning and development that both support business goals and meet their needs. Our aim is to provide an environment in which people can improve their performance and prepare for future responsibilities with us.
We ensure a high level of training and development through:
- Six-monthly performance and development reviews for each employee to identify their learning and development needs and review progress
- Leadership and management training and development programmes
- Learning and development managers who identify training needs required by the business, develop internal training programmes, set up personal development reviews and help identify candidates for the talent-management programme
- Sponsorships and study leave for appropriate professional and further higher education qualifications
- Job shadowing and on-the-job work experience for those looking to consider other roles
- Effective induction programmes for employees and agents to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to perform in their new roles
- Coaching and mentoring programmes which encourage individuals to discuss their current and future development needs on a one-to-one basis and identify development options that are pertinent to them
International working
International working is a development opportunity for employees, and experiencing other cultures supports cohesion in our business. We promote global mobility among our employees through secondments to other areas of our business and language tuition, as well as by advertising international positions internally. Our reward structure facilitates global mobility. As at the end of 2012 we had 31 expatriates and individuals working internationally as secondees.
Reward and benefits
We offer attractive and fair remuneration and benefits packages to all our employees. For example, in the UK benefits include:
- Bonus
- Pension
- Healthcare
- Private medical insurance
- Childcare vouchers
- Travel card scheme
Each of our businesses provides reward and recognition tailored to their own cultural and market environment, but aligned to our common reward principles and values (fairness and consistency). Benefits typically include:
- Holiday in excess of statutory requirements
- Bonus and incentive schemes
- Insurance
- Health and wellbeing benefits
We exceed minimum wage requirements in all our operating locations.
We have a reward strategy and guiding principles which apply across the Group. Reward is linked to the assessment of competencies that are aligned to the visions and values of the business as well as achievement of objectives. This means employees are rewarded not only for what they achieve but how they achieve it, ensuring that business is conducted in a responsible, respectful and straightforward way. We apply a consistent and internationally recognised grading framework to reward across the Group.