Review

Development of first class employment practices

Employee engagement

One of the major initiatives in 2007 was to feedback the results of the MORI employee survey carried out in 2006 and, from discussions with staff in local focus groups, to identify the key actions, that moving forward, would make the most significant improvement or impact across the organisation.

The survey collected staff views in a number of areas and in many cases the Amlin result scored within the MORI top 10 norm. For overall job satisfaction Amlin scored the highest score (81%) of any organisation surveyed by MORI in the previous five years. However, a number of areas for improvement were identified including:

• A more consistent calculation of annual bonus payments for all employees across the Group.
• More effective and earlier management of poor performance by line management.
• Improved communication, specifically across the Group as opposed to within individual business units.
• Better career development opportunities and more recognition of personal development.

In response, the EMG has agreed a number of key actions which are in the process of being implemented. For example, the structure of the Group Bonus Scheme was reviewed during the year and the completion rate for performance development reviews was improved. A number of other changes to address the issues raised by staff have been approved and will be implemented with effect from 2008.

In addition to the employee opinion survey, the Amlin Consultation Forum (ACF) meets on a quarterly basis and provides a valuable opportunity for staff to feed back views to management.

The ACF represents all employees and encourages active participation in the affairs of the Group by providing a forum where new ideas, policy changes and business matters can be discussed freely and proactively. The ACF was established in 2004 and during the last three years has been actively involved in discussions on a wide range of topics affecting staff.

Employee reward and well being

The Group has also carried out a review of its core and flexible benefits in 2007 to ensure that our current arrangements remain competitive and in line with market practice. The review confirmed that the levels of benefit provided by the Group are still competitive and therefore, save for some market adjustments on car allowances, no changes were required.

The Group made a further grant under the Capital Builder Long Term Incentive Plan to approximately 50 senior underwriters in 2007. The plan is designed to retain and reward the long term commitment of key underwriters by giving them the opportunity to build personal capital over a sustained period of success, as they might have if they owned equity in a small underwriting business. This has proved to be an effective reward arrangement to drive superior performance and retain key staff with critical business skills.

A review of reward arrangements relating to Amlin Bermuda Ltd (ABL) was carried out during the year to ensure that remuneration levels in ABL were competitive against the local market. The same remuneration policy has been adopted by the ABL Board in Bermuda as in all other parts of the Group, namely to have regard to market median salaries, but with the potential for top quartile remuneration if top quartile performance is achieved.

In addition to the above, as far as possible we construct our reward arrangements in Bermuda to be consistent with our Group arrangements, unless legislation or local market practice dictate otherwise.

The review confirmed good overall alignment with Group practices and with the local market generally, although some enhancements to bonus levels and to additional voluntary pension contributions were required and have now been implemented. The improvements in remuneration levels in Bermuda will further consolidate ABL’s position as an employer of choice. ABL received the Employees’ Choice Award for 2007, awarded to the organisation which is nominated by its own employees for practicing equal opportunities, i.e. hiring and promoting fairly, training, mentoring and investing in Bermudians and for making outstanding efforts to promote the upward mobility of black Bermudians.

Employee turnover and experience at 31 December 2007

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Employee appointments and recruitment

In the UK, a number of key internal appointments were made, confirming our commitment to develop and promote from existing staff. These included the appointments of Managing Director for the London Market Service Companies, Group Operations Director and Group Financial Controller. During the year we also made a number of key external appointments which provides the opportunity to recruit fresh talent and bring outside experience into the organisation. These included the Head of Group Finance, Group General Counsel, Head of Internal Audit, the Managing Director of Amlin Singapore Pte Ltd and a number of underwriters in both London and Bermuda.

In addition, we have been working in partnership with two universities, the London School of Economics (LSE) and University College London (UCL) to ensure that we continue to attract high calibre graduate entrants to the Group. LSE and UCL were selected as preferred universities as both achieve top 10 rankings in degree subjects which closely match the requirements of the business, specifically mathematics, geography, economics, business studies and geology. This campaign has involved attending careers fairs and hosting skills workshops on “insurance risk management” at both colleges. Our dedicated ‘Amlin4graduates’ microsite has also attracted considerable interest and we have joined the LSE patron scheme to increase our access to LSE students through publications and advertisements.

Employee retention

Amlin employed a total of 673 people at 31 December 2007 (2006: 620) and the number of new staff joining the Group during 2007 was 158 (2006: 93). Of the increase in headcount, 31 people came with the acquisition of Allied Cedar. Underwriting expertise and a consistent approach to underwriting risk management and control is critical to the success of Amlin, making the retention of skilled and experienced underwriters a business priority. Our senior underwriters have on average 22 years experience in the insurance industry and an average of 12.5 years service with the Amlin Group.

One of our principal objectives is to maintain voluntary turnover, excluding retirements, of our senior underwriters below 10% per annum and our overall employee turnover below 15%. On this basis during 2007 turnover of senior underwriters was 8.3% with overall staff turnover being 14.4%.

© Copyright Amlin 2007