Employee survey analysed and findings translated into practice
Employee survey analysed and findings translated into practice
The skills and dedication of our staff are a high-value asset for our company. It is for this reason that we conduct an internal employee survey – usually every other year – in order, among other things, to ascertain how satisfied our employees are with their tasks, their working conditions, their development and advancement as well as to explore the topics of cooperation and leadership.
Working through this survey, carried out most recently at the end of 2012, was one of the dominant themes of our work in human resources in the financial year just ended. The Executive Board also considered the survey and its findings on several occasions at its meetings.
As an overall statement, it is very pleasing to note that the vast majority of our employees are highly satisfied with their tasks and general conditions. For example, 93% of our workforce finds our company to be a particularly good place to work. The responses to questions such as whether our employees enjoy coming to work or whether they would choose to work for our company again are similarly positive. Job activities are for the most part also rated as interesting, varied and challenging for one’s own individual skill set.
It goes without saying that the survey also revealed areas in need of improvement. As regards the content of human resources activities, our employees would like to see, among other things, an expanded range of opportunities for development and advancement. This would provide fresh incentives to learn, especially for staff who already have extensive professional experience and considerable expertise. Further room for improvement was identified, for example, in the expansion of opportunities for project work and in the handling of conflicts.
We have already picked up on many of these suggestions in the financial year just ended. With a view to better fostering seasoned members of staff, for example, we designed a seminar which deals with difficult decision-making situations of the type that present themselves increasingly often in our employees’ everyday working lives. We also continued to hold our so-called “Client Centric Re Skills” seminar, which is aimed at experienced senior underwriters wishing to supplement their already well-proven negotiating skills with successful alternative approaches.
The individual specialist units took it upon themselves to foster opportunities for project work, devising appropriate solution approaches on a decentralised basis. On the one hand, these emphasise the need to inform staff so as to make it clear which projects are upcoming for which areas of the company. On the other hand, for example, opportunities for members of staff to apply independently for project work were improved.
With a view to strengthening our internal conflict management, we subjected our relevant personnel development tools to fresh scrutiny. In this connection we offer our managers wide-ranging support tailored to specific issues, including for example mediation, coaching, process support and specially created seminars such as our “Conflict manager”.