Operating & Financial Review

Training and development

Amlin Academy, now in its sixth year, provides training and development programmes for Group employees and selected open courses for others. The Academy’s objective is to provide a core curriculum of training, while encouraging 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, to help staff realise their full potential. The number of employee days devoted to trainingincreased by 21% to 1,252 days in 2006 as a resultof increased personal development, much of which was associated with the roll out of our core values programme as referred to overleaf.

During 2006 a bespoke workshop was designed to educate all underwriting staff on the requirementsof “Contract Certainty” with the primary objective of maintaining Amlin’s position as a marketleader in best practice and customer service.

Amlin Academy – Training days provided in 2005/6

“When the answer to the question “What did you gain from the training programme?” is “Too much to list”, we can assume that something positive is happening. This was the response given by a participant in a review of the 2006 Amlin People Managers’ Programme. And whilst the response reflects well on those who ran the programme, it also reflects the close partnership we have built with Amlin over the last four years and their desire to work with us to continually review and refine the programme to meet the needs of their managers. It is a real pleasure to be working with an organisation that so clearly believes in investing in their people.”

Steve Tarpey, Director of Bespoke Services, The Roffey Park Institute.

“The Coverdale Organisation has been working in partnership with Amlin now since 2004 helping to furnish leaders in the organisation with the vision, creativity, commitment and skill to work in an effective and collaborative way and bring about sustainable performance improvement and change for the good. The key benefits of the programme for Amlin staff are that they come away with a common language and way of working together in order to get things done. They develop their observation, influencing and creative thinking skills, as well as taking away a range of tools and techniques that can be applied in the workplace.”

Innes Milne, Senior Consultant, The Coverdale Organisation.

A key initiative during 2006 was the development of a claims competency framework which incorporates a set of key behaviours specifically identified for claims staff, together with a technical know-how and skills matrix which categorises the skills required to perform the day job at various levels. This took longer to complete than originallyenvisaged, and is a high quality piece of work whichwill be used as a template for developing other competency frameworks across the business.

While fewer days in 2006 were devoted to management development than in 2005, Amlin continued to work closely with The Roffey Park Institute and The Coverdale Organisation in providing management development training. Both training providers have a good insight into the culture of Amlin, which adds a huge benefit when delivering their programmes.

Work commenced in 2006 on the design of a leadership development programme to provide directors and senior managers with tailored personal development and to raise the level of leadership capability across the Group. Completion of this in 2007 is a key priority.

© Copyright Amlin 2006