Review

People

Continuous personal development

The Amlin Academy continues to provide the foundation for training and development initiatives across the Group. The Academy’s objective is to provide a core curriculum of training for employees and to encourage professional and personal development at every level throughout the organisation. The Academy supports regulatory and compliance requirements and also provides a broad range of initiatives including technical training and management and personal development.

A key initiative in 2008 was a series of employment awareness workshops, designed to ensure that managers have an up-to-date appreciation of diversity issues and the risks associated with it. These workshops complement the ‘Grasping the Nettle’ programme which was first introduced in 2007 and which was rolled out to managers during 2008. This bespoke, interactive programme was introduced in response to feedback from the 2006 MORI employee opinion survey which identified a desire from staff for quicker and more effective management of poor performance. To date, over 130 managers have attended which represents over 90% of the management population.

Total expenditure and days incurred on training in 2008
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Another initiative was the development of a personal effectiveness programme for more junior staff. To date, development programmes run in conjunction with external providers such as Roffey Park and Coverdale have been aimed primarily at management level delegates. A three day development programme entitled Positive Power and Influence has therefore been designed for junior staff who have accountability for delivery but no formal authority over others and therefore a need to achieve results by influencing. Feedback from the pilot programme run in 2008 was extremely positive and a further programme is scheduled for 2009.

Amlin continues to encourage and fully support employees who embark upon professional qualifications and in 2008 approximately 75 individuals were studying a variety of subjects ranging from ACII qualifications to a Law Degree.