Diversity, equity and inclusion
From Norwich to Toronto, we are committed to ensuring our people are a reflection of the customers and communities we serve.
It takes Aviva
We recognise the importance of all colleagues at Aviva truly being themselves. It takes all of us, it takes Aviva.
Transcript
[OPENING TEXT CONTENT:]
These are our people...
[VOICES FROM VARIOUS MEMBERS OF AVIVA STAFF:]
We are Aviva.
We are our people.
We are our experiences,
our abilities,
our attitudes,
our ambitions,
our ideas,
and our interests.
We are ourselves.
We come together when times get tough.
We listen.
We adapt.
And we find strength in our diversity of people.
We learn and we grow together.
We each have our own unique voices and we respect each other's life experiences.
We say: "This is me, there is no one else like me".
What makes you, you?
[CLOSING TEXT CONTENT:]
#TheIsMe
What makes you, you?
Thank you to our colleagues who featured in this film.
[END FRAME]
AVIVA logo
It takes Aviva
Our commitments
Creating a diverse and inclusive organisation is a fundamental part of living up to our purpose of being with you today, for a better tomorrow. It means being there for all our people, serving all our customers well, and helping to contribute to fairer, more equal communities.
We are determined to keep challenging ourselves to do more to build a workplace – and society – that works for all.
Aviva Communities
Aviva Communities are our employee resource groups. They help ensure all our people have an equal voice and provide a global support network to strengthen our inclusion efforts across the business.
Women in leadership
We are signatories of both the Women in Finance Charter and the 30% club and have set ourselves the target of increasing the number of women in leadership roles* to 40% by 2024.
To date we have:
- Achieved our target and have increased female leadership to 40.6% (as at 31 December 2023)
- Continue to rank in the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality
- Listed in the LinkedIn Top 25 Employers, “where people want to work”
*Defined as Head of and above.
Developing the next generations of female leaders
We continue to strengthen our focus on improving gender balance to accelerate the change we need to see.
Supporting ethnically diverse colleagues
We are focused on attracting, promoting and retaining more ethnically diverse employees – across all levels of the business.
We are signatories of the Race at Work charter and have introduced a number of initiatives to support its five focus areas – from enabling career progression to capturing ethnicity data. We are also founding partners of Change the Race Ratio, setting targets for our ethnically diverse senior leadership.
Leadership and development programmes
Working with the Diversity Practice, we developed a bespoke leadership programme for ethnically diverse talent in the UK in 2020. Since launch, over 70 colleagues have completed the programme and leaders have received guidance on how to help these colleagues continue to develop their leadership skills.
We set up an Origins intern programme in 2018 across our London, Norwich and Sheffield offices to support younger, ethnically diverse generations from lower socio-economic backgrounds kick-start their careers in Financial Services. This programme has since been developed into the Aviva Internship Programme, getting business areas across all our main offices in the UK involved. Since 2018, over 120 interns have completed the programme, with many returning to our graduate programmes.
Black Lives Matter
We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive organisation but we recognise that we haven’t done enough, and we are still on a journey to reach that goal. We reacted at pace to the Black Lives Matter movement and our action plan can be found here, which displays what we focused on and achieved throughout the last few years.
UK Pay Gap Report
We recognise that accountability and transparency are key to progression. Our latest UK Pay Gap Report highlights our current performance and sets out the steps we are taking to improve the recruitment, retention and progression of our female and ethnically diverse employees.
The UK Pay Gap Report
Find out more about our UK pay gap and what we’re doing to address it.
Diversity data gathering
Gathering diversity insights from our employees helps us to provide support to those from minority backgrounds and learn how, where and when we need to intervene.
As at October 2023, 90% of our people opted to complete their race/ethnicity data and we continue to work towards increasing completion rates across all diversity characteristic data in order to better understand the makeup of our organisation, which will in turn enable us to form data-backed decisions and action plans.
External benchmarking
- Level 3 Carer Confident Employer
- Social Mobility Index - 25th ranking
- Stonewall Workplace Equality Index - 28th ranking; Top 100 Employers listing again
- Times Top 50 for Gender Equality for the sixth year running
Progressive partnerships
In addition to our charter signatories, we are working in partnership with a number of different organisations to drive positive change and help raise awareness around diversity and inclusion:
Business Disability Forum
(BDF) The Business Disability Forum exists to remove barriers in business structures and Government that prevent disabled people from thriving, and to create a disability-smart world. Our progress to date has awarded us with a silver accreditation.
Business in the Community
We have a long-standing relationship with BitC, using their research and knowledge about inclusion to improve our own understanding of these issues.
Career Ready
A national charity at the heart of a network of employers and educators helping young people kickstart their futures.
Change the Race Ratio
Change the Race Ratio is driving change at the heart of business - to increase ethnic and racial diversity in the workplace and among the boardrooms and senior leadership of the business community. Aviva is a founding partner and signatory.
Dive In
Aviva is one of the global sponsors for the ‘Dive in Festival’, a global diversity & inclusion insurance festival, covering all diversity characteristics.
Since it was first founded in 2015, the festival has grown from London to 33 countries worldwide.
Employers for Carers
Aviva supports working carers, and is an active member of Carers UK’s business forum, Employers for Carers.
GAIN
GAIN is helping Aviva ensure that we can attract, retain and progress colleagues with neurodivergent conditions. They help Aviva ensure they can thrive and help both the organisation and Line Managers on how to make this happen.
Hospice UK
Aviva has joined Compassionate Employers, a workplace support programme from Hospice UK that helps support employees facing bereavement, grief and caring responsibilities. Since joining the programme, Aviva have been awarded a Gold Award.
iCAN
iCAN is a multicultural insurance network driving change across the industry. As Bronze sponsors, we use this partnership to advertise jobs to ethnically diverse candidates and influence more ethnicity-focused conversations in the insurance market.
Progress Together
An organisation focused on socio-economic mobility. As a Founding Member, we are working with them to create initiatives to ensure greater progression for colleagues from a lower socio-economic backgrounds.
Social Mobility Foundation
The Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) is a charity which aims to make a practical improvement in social mobility for young people.
Stonewall
We have been recognised in the top 30 of Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index.
The Diversity Practice
The Diversity Practice is an international award-winning diversity-led management consultancy that specialises in delivering inclusion through leadership, organisational development and executive coaching.
The Valuable 500
The Valuable 500 is the global CEO community revolutionising disability inclusion through business leadership and opportunity.
The Women of the Future Awards
The Women of the Future Awards are the platform for successful young women in Britain. The awards continue to unearth and recognise the inspirational stars of tomorrow across diverse sectors.
upReach
Boosting social mobility by supporting students from less-advantaged backgrounds to secure top jobs.
Women in Finance Charter
Women in Finance Charter is a pledge for gender balance across financial services. This is a commitment by HM Treasury and signatory firms to work together to build a more balanced and fair industry.
Tracking our progress
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Group monitor progress on our commitments. All of our Executive Committee are involved in our inclusion Communities.