Corporate Responsibility

Our people make Aviva what it is. We value the expertise and commitment that all our colleagues bring to their work, and are committed to offering development opportunities to help people make the most of their talent. We promote well-being, diversity and equality in the workplace and always listen to the feedback we receive. We are also committed to treating our colleagues with integrity, honesty and professionalism at all times.

And we extend our principles of doing business responsibly beyond our direct employees, by supporting our partners and suppliers to meet the same standards we set ourselves.

We are committed to:

• Encouraging diversity, by ensuring policies and practices that promote inclusivity within the workplace
• Promoting health and safety, by ensuring we have the right policies and practices to support a safe working environment across the company
• Developing employee skills, so that we're giving our people the support and the opportunities they need to enhance their skills and capabilities
• Promoting well-being, by encouraging employees to live healthy lifestyles with a range of initiatives and healthy-eating options
• Seeking employee feedback, by listening and responding to what colleagues tell us about the company and the way we do things
• Supporting partners and suppliers, by ensuring we encourage them to live up to our CR principles in the way they do business

Encouraging diversity

A diverse workforce is important to Aviva, and we have established a programme to promote inclusivity within the company.

Embracing Diversity, a film created to support Aviva's 'Think Again' diversity campaign, received one of four Grand Awards in the 2006 New York Festivals International Film & Video Awards. The film was designed to engage employees around the world with Aviva's vision and philosophy in this area.

We are actively involved in global networks such as Aviva's Global Women's Network and Pride Aviva.

The Aviva Women's Network was formed in 2006 to encourage, inspire and support women in their career development in Aviva and so attract and retain talented women to contribute to Aviva's long term success.

Pride Aviva aims to help employees understand our Gay, Lesbian and Bi-sexual community and what Aviva can do to make ourselves an employer of choice for them.

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Promoting health and safety

Aviva supports the Aviva Health and Safety Policy. Quarterly meetings are held by Board level Health and Safety Steering Committees to ensure proactive working towards best practice.

We are also committed to promoting the key 'dos and don'ts' that will protect health and safety across Aviva. All businesses run a range of communication campaigns on key aspects of best practice, to both raise awareness and influence behaviour.

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Developing employee skills

Aviva wants to give employees the opportunities and support to develop new skills and achieve their full potential.

During 2008, we will be establishing a very clear link between the company's CR activities and personal development plans, ensuring that volunteering opportunities are matched closely to skills development opportunities.

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Promoting well-being

Aviva has a number of initiatives in place to help employees manage well-being at work.

• We have arranged a series of discounts on gym membership and sports/recreation facilities around the UK.
• Our in-house caterers provide and promote healthy eating options both in the restaurant and on their website.
• Any member of staff (or any member of their direct family living with them) can contact the confidential employee assistance helpline - 24 hours a day, every day of the year. This helpline is a totally confidential personal support service, provided by ICAS (Independent Counselling & Advisory Services Ltd).
• We are committed to supporting employees who need time off to care for their family or to fulfil secondary or community responsibilities. The company's 'Family, Carer and Community Leave' policy describes how Aviva deals with parental leave, fertility leave, urgent family leave, bereavement leave, public and community responsibilities, volunteer leave and career breaks.

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Seeking employee feedback

Inviting and responding to employee views is part of 'business as usual'. Aviva is committed to keeping employees involved with business developments, but also to seek their input along the way. We have a number of important mechanisms designed to help us deliver this commitment in practice.

• The monthly TeamTalk cascade process gives managers key company information that they can relay to their teams, while inviting questions and feedback on any of the topics covered.
• TeamTalk is supplemented by TeamTalk Live events. These events, led by Executive Directors and Directors, gather approximately 100 colleagues together for two hour sessions to discuss topical issues.
• Leaders across the company receive feedback from their teams in a structured way twice a year, through the Leadership Survey. This tool provides data and comments for them, which is then discussed as a team.

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Supporting partners and suppliers

Aviva is committed to working with business partners and suppliers to ensure they are supporting and upholding our corporate responsibility principles in the way they do business. This is about much more than 'buying greener', as we examine a wide range of factors and communicate our expectations to suppliers.

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