Our people strategy
We recognise that the success of Amlin is dependent on our ability to attract, develop, motivate and retain talented staff. We believe that our intellectual property and competitive advantage resides in our employees and that there is a strong correlation between effective people practices and shareholder value.
In managing our human capital, our objective is to create a strong alignment between the Group's Vision and goals, shareholder value and employee interests. We aim to sustain and where necessary raise the performance of the business by developing staff to their full potential, by motivating staff appropriately and by planning ahead so that we are capable of properly addressing succession issues.
Key strategic objectives include:
- A working environment where employees are well motivated and have a strong belief in the Group, its strategy and core values;
- The development of loyalty between the Group and employees;
- Continual improvement in the effective management of people and the skills and competency of staff at all levels and across all disciplines;
- The retention and growth of key skills which are critical to the business;
- Well constructed and fair reward systems which help drive superior performance and align employee and shareholder interests; and the development and use of first class employment practices throughout the Group.
We want to be "the place to work" in the industry.
Employee turnover and experience
Underwriter Retention
Employee profile
Amlin employed a total of 610 people at 31 December 2005. The London market business has a higher proportion involved in underwriting, whereas the nature of the UK commercial business requires a larger proportion of claims and administrative staff.
| Total employees |
| |
At 31
December 2005 |
At 31
December 2004
|
 |
| London market business |
236 |
224 |
|
| UK commercial business |
233 |
233 |
|
| Amlin Bermuda |
4 |
0 |
|
| Group functions |
137 |
122 |
|
| Total |
610 |
579 |
|
|
Underwriting expertise and a consistent approach to underwriting risk management and control is critical to the success of Amlin, making the retention of skilled underwriters a business priority.
Our senior underwriters have on average 23 years' experience in the insurance industry and an average of 11 years with Amlin.
We aim to keep voluntary turnover, excluding retirements, of our leading class underwriters below
10% per annum and our overall employee turnover below 15%. For 2005, Amlin's employee turnover remained within these targets.
Amlin Bermuda's underwriting team was transferred from our non-marine London market business, providing the new business with an experienced team who have a good knowledge of our client distribution networks as well as a thorough understanding of the Group's underwriting philosophy
and controls.
The depth of talent in our London market business enabled us to achieve this while promoting a number of employees to more senior positions in London. Our ambitions to provide superior service
to our clients and to help insurance brokers streamline the business placement process means that we have needed to increase resources in underwriting support and to invest in our claims, process and project management skills.
Performance management
In addition to the day to day management of employees, Amlin is placing greater focus on formal reviews of individual performance through two means: detailed business class reviews for each senior underwriter; and performance and development reviews for employees. Both are intended to ensure that we have the right skills in place and that we focus training and development where it is needed.
Historically, the performance of senior underwriters has been assessed based on class of business reviews, which include an assessment of an underwriters' ability to manage a portfolio of risk and to adapt to changing business circumstances, but has not addressed other important competencies and skills, such as the ability to manage people. Amlin has been actively seeking to ensure that the broader skill set of senior underwriters is reviewed and managed, in particular to aid its succession planning.
Well structured incentive arrangements also play an important part in performance management. While reward systems need to pay our staff fairly and competitively against the market they are also designed to provide high reward for high performance. For example, the Capital Builder Long Term Incentive Plan is designed to retain and reward the long-term commitment of key underwriters by allowing them to build personal capital over a sustained period of success, if and only if, they exceed demanding targets to help the Group achieve superior returns on capital. For senior management and others who are not underwriters, incentives are performance related with a greater proportion being driven by return on equity the more senior the employee, as the Group considers return on equity to be the primary driver of shareholder value.
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