HR projects at the Group level

Vienna Insurance Group implemented important measures at the Group level in the areas of internal career management and management development in 2011. Other measures focused on recruiting talented, motivated employees and developing their loyalty to the Group.

VIG competence model

VIG competences describe the conduct and approaches used by employees and management that form the basis for the Company’s success. They apply to the entire Group and are closely related to the Group strategy. Organisational structure changes made in 2010 provided an opportunity to thoroughly revise core competences and management competences last year to better match current challenges. The project was broadly based, and involved experts and managers from many Group companies for a number of months.

Leadership Development Programme

Vienna Insurance Group developed a custom-tailored leadership development programme together with the IEDC – Bled School of Management that was successfully completed by around 30 employees in 2011. The project is part of a Group-wide training initiative for management and individuals with high potential. The objective of the leadership development programme is to assist individuals in leadership positions to develop their management competences. The programme is aimed at both young and experienced managers, primarily in the top management of Group companies. A look at the managers participating in the programme clearly shows the diversity within VIG. Participants with ten different nationalities and different professional backgrounds and positions, sent by 19 companies, were not only expanding their knowledge and competences in the programme, but also taking advantage of the opportunity to exchange information with each other about the requirements of the business world today and in the future.

Knowledge exchange trips – mobility in practice

Vienna Insurance Group expects prospective managers to hold at least one position in a company that is “foreign” from their point of view. The Group therefore provides mobility programmes that make it possible for them, and for experts, to assume responsibilities in other VIG companies. This internal exchange reached its highest level of diversity to date in 2011, with the international job rotation programme playing a particularly important role. Highly talented trainees in this programme spend one to ten months in the holding company or Group companies familiarising themselves with the work processes, guidelines and standards of relevant departments. This gives employees from Group companies an interesting opportunity to look into different areas of the holding company and to use their knowledge and expertise to make a valuable contribution in return. Similarly, job rotation gives employees from Group headquarters the opportunity to take a position in one of the VIG insurance companies. Such “knowledge exchange trips” between companies and between the Group holding company and Group companies played also a particularly large role last year in the mobility opportunities offered by VIG.

Internal job market

Many people would like to make career changes during their lifetime. Every Vienna Insurance Group employee therefore has the opportunity to realise these desires within the Group. As a rule, internal recruiting has priority over external recruiting. From a business point of view, providing a VIG-wide job market allows VIG to retain talented employees and their knowledge within the Group without foregoing fresh insights and approaches. Long-term employees bring novel solution approaches to their new areas of responsibility and initiate change. The internal job market also helps to keep recruiting costs low.