The Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with around 125 million* private and corporate customers in nearly 70 countries. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 764 billion euros** on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage about 1.8 trillion euros** of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we are among the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2023, over 157,000 employees achieved total business volume of 161.7 billion euros and an operating profit of 14.7 billion euros for the group.
Embracing Flexibility:
Allianz's Commitment to a Hybrid Work Model with Bettina Dietsche
Bettina Dietsche has extensive experience in HR and organizational development and plays a central role in shaping and implementing Allianz's People strategy. Her focus is on fostering a flexible and inclusive work environment in line with Allianz's commitment to its employees' well-being and a culture of trust, inclusion and mutual respect.
What is the idea behind the flexible work model at Allianz?
As a financial services provider, we have the task of supplying our customers with the best possible products and services. This is only possible with a healthy and motivated workforce and outstanding talent. To recruit and retain this talent, we must always stay on the ball in terms of our attractiveness as an employer. For example, in many countries we are certified according to the standards of Great Place to Work.
Our people are our greatest asset and nowadays, hybrid working models and modern offices are an important factor in our attractiveness as an employer. Flexible working also promotes employee loyalty, as a recent study by Stanford University has shown. Ultimately, we also see our flexible working model as a benefit for our company. Motivated and committed employees are essential for innovation and resilience – characteristics that are becoming increasingly important in an ever more volatile world.
The guiding principle for our flexible working arrangement is to do the right thing in the right place and empower our employees and teams to make this decision themselves. When deciding where to work, we trust them to find the right balance between their own needs and those of our customers, our business, and our teams.
What is the current policy on working from home and attendance days?
At Allianz, we introduced a global minimum standard for our approximately 160,000 employees that allows at least 40 percent of working hours to be spent outside the office. In some countries or companies, there are even more flexible arrangements. At Allianz in Germany and at the group headquarters for example, there is a guideline that provides for four days of presence in the office per month. However, many colleagues voluntarily choose to spend two or more days a week in the office for a variety of reasons. Personally, I am very proud of the fact that we always work together with our employees and, of course, our managers to find the best solutions in a spirit of mutual trust and always with the well-being of our employees and Allianz as a company in mind.
What do you think of other companies calling their employees back to the office?
Every company must find its own way, depending on its business model, customers and products. At Allianz, we always focus on what is currently most relevant for our customers, our business and our employees, and on what forms of collaboration will best promote our innovative strength. It is important to us that we identify the strengths of our workforce and that we constantly improve in what we offer our employees.
How does Allianz handle the possibility for employees working from abroad?
We offer every employee the opportunity to work remotely for 25 days a year. From our data, we know that around 50,000 days were spent working abroad for private reasons in 2023.
Since the end of 2023, we have also created a great offer with our mini-mobility concept, which allows our employees to work abroad for up to three months at another Allianz entity.
These flexible working offers are very well received and motivate our employees. In our annual employee survey, 90% of our employees worldwide say they are satisfied with our flexible work setup.
How does productivity develop with the flexible working model?
Productivity is influenced by a variety of factors. When we look at productivity in terms of mobile working, we don’t see any disadvantages. We continuously monitor how productivity is developing because we want to ensure that our employees can work healthily, effectively and efficiently. We have found that our working model motivates our employees – and motivation is one of the main factors behind high productivity.
What role does leadership play in a hybrid working model?
Hybrid working is not always easy; we are constantly working on further developing our model. Three areas in particular are crucial: leadership, onboarding and a good work culture. Good management and leadership are therefore particularly important in a hybrid working environment. We have set up special training programs on how to lead effectively and motivationally in a hybrid environment.
In what situations do you still recommend that employees come into the office?
We clearly see the added value of spending more time in the office when starting a new role or changing jobs. It is often easier to work on new solutions or projects on site and to become familiar with a new work culture. However, in general, it is also important to us to strengthen the sense of belonging and that of a shared, inclusive corporate culture. Team days or joint team activities are a great way of doing this.
How do you make the office as attractive as possible as a workplace?
Generally speaking, it is very important to us to continuously develop our areas of work and to stay up to date. We have open work areas with desk sharing at most of our locations, which are equipped with small telephone booths and different meeting rooms. We also have quiet areas, where employees can work in complete silence, as well as small lounge islands with sofas and armchairs, coffee bars or kitchens everywhere, where people can chat informally. Numerous meeting areas and agile zones allow for teamwork.
In addition, the right technology in the hybrid office is crucial to creating a collaborative and productive working atmosphere - between those who work in the office and those who work remotely. This includes video conferencing, but also modern collaboration tools liek Microsoft Teams that combine meetings, chats and calls. We are constantly investing in training so that our employees can make the best possible use of these workplace technologies.
We are particularly proud of the additional services we offer to make our employees' lives as easy as possible. This includes for example fitness programs or dry-cleaning services. Not to be forgotten is a good culinary offering that inspires our people. Many of our restaurants offer fresh, healthy meals every day, mostly made from regional products.
How often do your employees come to the office on average?
In 2023, at Allianz Group our people have been working remotely on average 51% of the time. In the entities of the Allianz in Germany (Allianz Deutschland Verbund), the average mobile working rate in 2023 was 62%. In practice, this means that most of our employees are in the office on average 2 to 3 days a week, some less, others even every day.
What do you think about the future way of working?
The well-being of our employees is always our top priority. That is why we will continue to ask ourselves in the future: What flexibility is needed to strengthen our business success, our culture and also our efforts in the area of sustainability? We want to be a pioneer and a role model in this area.
About Allianz
* Including non-consolidated entities with Allianz customers.
** As of September 30, 2024.
** As of September 30, 2024.
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