We want to ensure that we are fully tapping into all talent capabilities within the Group, capitalizing on the impact diverse teams have on better business performance, and maximizing the potential of women as our customers.
"Gender diversity is a business issue"
There are several groups which are underrepresented in our companies. Why focus on women?
But diversity is about many other aspects. Again: why women?
We are a global company and seek diversity in all aspects. However, women make up more than half of the talent pool in most countries today, and the number of female graduates is expected to rise even further. If we are looking for high performing individuals to bring problem solving ability and enhance the quality of management, we cannot afford to ignore the capability and potential of women. In other words: if we want to attract the best to our workforce, we need to increasingly target women as employees.
Jay Ralph, head of Allianz’s Global Diversity Council
How will you bring this about. Will there be quotas?
The Allianz SE board decided for a global target instead of quotas. We want to have 30 percent women in our talent pool by 2015. In order to create change, we are addressing gender diversity like a business issue. A goal creates serious focus and requires planned actions to achieve it. We have agreed on concrete activities with each Group company and are tracking the respective gender demographics for all senior management positions on an annual basis.
Can you name some of the concrete activities?
Our policy is to consider at least one woman in each recruiting process for top management positions.
However, we think that the main activities should aim at developing women inside the company. After pursuing our goal for two years we now know where the main talents are, so that we can promote the women internally. Thirdly, we encourage women to take advantage of needs based training and mentoring programs for women to support this process.
What happens if the goal is not met in 2015?
We will be taking on accountability measures prior to 2015 to ensure we meet the goals. Generally, the compensation of the top managers depends on target achievement, which includes diversity initiatives. Gender diversity is a business issue to us just as much as customer and staff satisfaction.
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