Learning and advanced training
The Vienna Insurance Group is convinced that training and advanced training have a positive and lasting effect on employee loyalty. It therefore uses a structured approach in the training and development area. The Vienna Insurance Group is striving to realise a vision of a systematic, multi-perspective training system that can provide a full range of professional and personal development. The individual programmes are aimed at a variety of user groups.
The VIG Corporate University is a modular Group-wide platform for initiatives and activities designed to develop management and leadership skills. The VIG School of Business, which primarily focuses on expanding and developing professional knowledge, added new training courses in 2010. In addition to the VIG Underwriting Academy, new advanced training programmes were developed and offered in areas such as risk management.
Performance Development Dialogue (PDD)
Group-wide implementation of a performance-linked management and development tool, the Performance Development Dialogue (PDD), began in 2010. Developed in 2009, this structured employee performance review is an important step towards strengthening a culture of achievement in which common company values, standards and performance expectations, along with desired modes of conduct, contribute to the long-term success of the Company. In addition to VIG Holding, sections of two other companies, in Austria and the Czech Republic, were also included in the pilot phase. The PDD process is scheduled to be implemented throughout the Group in the next three years.
Lead@VIG
Effective successor management, i.e. the recruitment and development of future managers, continued to be one of the main focuses of Group human resources efforts in 2010. At the start of the year, an initial group of 500 top and potential performers was identified. The next steps in the successor management process were focussed on identifying and managing succession risks in a structured manner in order to ensure an adequate supply of personnel to fill key positions in VIG companies and the Group holding company over the long term.
Three priority areas were identified for successor management where steps are being implemented in 2011:
- Human capital risk management for managing board positions
- Human capital risk management for the holding company
- Creation of separate human capital risk management processes for each VIG company
Staff Diagnostic
VIG Staff Diagnostic is a standardised Group-wide evaluation programme that allows employee potential to be identified and systematically developed. The analysis is adapted to the needs of each user, thereby ensuring that employees are used precisely where their skills, interests and knowledge can be used best. VIG Staff Diagnostic helps increase performance and expertise over the long term as well as increase employee loyalty to the Company. Use of a standardised evaluation programme lays the foundation for a professional Group-wide career and development planning system.
The Vienna Insurance Group performed a total of 100 employee evaluations in Austria, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey in 2010. The focus was on distribution and the management level.
Mobility in practice
An international company needs internationally mobile employees. VIG encourages its employees to gather experience in the 24 markets where the Group is active, thereby promoting cooperation between countries and companies. Further improvements were made to employee mobility programmes throughout the Group in 2010. The goal of the project was to increase transparency and create uniform guidelines and clarity with respect to processes and selection procedures. The focus was on job rotation.
The international on-the-job training programme introduces highly talented trainees to the work processes, guidelines and standards of important departments in VIG Holding and Group companies during a stay of from two to ten months. In addition to international assignments, local rotations within the Group holding company are also possible.
The objective for 2011 is to expand the existing mobility programme to additional departments and companies and promote new measures, including “knowledge transfer trips” and “international project assignments”. Designed to be short, intensive stays, they are aimed at further strengthening cooperation and the transfer of know-how within the Group.
