Our People

Our employees drive our customer-oriented strategy and goals. We respect all cultures, religions, ages and backgrounds, and encourage everyone to freely express their individuality and authenticity.

We believe that mutual trust between employer and employee forms the basic principle for a strong working relationship. This facilitates the type of open and innovative business culture that gives everyone the space to perform well. Our goal is for all our employees to be healthy and content, while successfully developing their skills and career.

To this end, we work very hard to maintain and improve upon our reputation as a preferred employer. We make consistent efforts to establish the best possible terms and conditions for our employees. This includes a clear focus on skills development through extensive educational programmes and developing fair Collective Labour Agreements with trades unions.

In recognition of our employees’ varied backgrounds, we offer a diversity day, whereby employees can take one day off each year for religious reasons. We also allow for informal care of sick relatives (mantelzorg). In order to retain the values skills of our more experienced employees, we offer the Silver Pool programme.

Employee Satisfaction and Preferred Employer

The majority of Achmea people (78%) work in the Netherlands, under the Achmea umbrella. Every year, Achmea carries out an Employee Satisfaction and Commitment Survey. Responses indicate that satisfaction and commitment continue to rise year on year.

In addition, various independent surveys have ranked Achmea as a preferred employer, both within the insurance sector and in general. Working parents have also indicated that they consider Achmea a preferred employer. In 2009, Intermediair ranked Achmea third-best employer overall in the Netherlands, based on internal employee responses. In 2010, Achmea was ranked number 12 in the Intermediair Image survey, based on the opinions of highly educated potential employees.

Nurturing Diversity

Achmea employees increasingly represent the growing diversity in society. Our response is to nurture this diversity. One example is the joint ‘life-stage diversity’ programme, launched in the Netherlands with trades unions and the Central Works’ Council. In addition, our Talent to the Top Charter is designed to get more women into senior positions. Women currently hold 25% of our senior management positions.

We also want to retain the skills and experience of our senior professionals. We have, therefore, established the Silver Pool programme, together with trades unions and the Central Works’ Council. Silver Pool employs an estimated 70 employees aged over 57.5, and redistributes them throughout the Group.