talanx group annual report 2011 en

Overall assessment of
the economic situation
Non-financial
performance indicators
Corporate Governance Remuneration report Events of special
significance
Besides efficient organisational structures, qualified and motivated
employees with a sense of personal responsibility and a creative
drive are crucial to the success of the Talanx Group. Our human
resources management can succeed only by ensuring that the
right employees are in the right place to meet today’s and future
challenges. Targeted human resources marketing, development and
professional training are therefore essential components of our
Group-wide human resources work. A further key topic in the year
under review was reviewing the remuneration structure for managers
within the Group.
Demographic change is making it essential to retain qualified and
motivated employees within the Group and to recruit new staff.
In 2011, the “Talanx your career” image campaign launched in the
previous year was extended to the internet and presented in the
print media and at selected university graduate recruitment events.
On the reinsurance side, the employer branding campaign initiated
in 2010 was supplemented in the year under review by a new spot
in the careers section of the Hannover Re website.
In addition to professional human resources marketing, ongoing
staff development is of outstanding importance. As in past years,
a large number of training events were staged and development
programmes pursued to systematically qualify our employees and
enhance their skills. Thanks to these efforts, we are able to fill most
of our management vacancies out of our own ranks. The qualification
programmes within the Group are continuously adapted to
changing requirements and are geared towards developing both
specialist and generic competences.
The Talanx Corporate Academy played an important part in the
Group’s human resources development efforts in the year under
review. Founded in 2010, the Academy offers Board members and
senior managers from Group companies around the world highgrade
advanced training opportunities. It serves in particular to
convey the Group’s strategy and management methods while at the
same time promoting mutual communication and networking. The
lecturers and discussion-leaders are members of the Talanx Board
of Management and professors from reputable business schools.
Our Industrial Lines division has continued its systematic focus
on fostering young talent with trainee programs for activities in
account management and underwriting and in sales and broker
support. These – in most cases – one-year courses convey a solidly
grounded grasp of the various fields of work involved in industrial
insurance. In 2012, we are continuing these programmes in order to
meet the ongoing and increasing need for specialist staff.
Risk report Forecast and
opportunities report
Systematic advancement of high-potentials, specialists and managers
is also at the focus of management development at the Retail
Germany division. For instance, a series of events has been devised
to promote the exchange of experience and networking among
the managers of the various companies that make up the division.
Other, longer-standing development programmes have been
revised together with Talanx Service AG.
Our Hannover Re subsidiary introduced blended learning in 2011
as an additional, contemporary learning method that further improves
access by employees in Germany and abroad to its in-house
qualification programme. Blended learning is a combination of
tutored online self-study phases and classroom training that makes
learning independent of time and place. Classical face-to-face
sessions with their communicative, bonding and motivating character
continue to be used wherever they are didactically meaningful,
for example in seminars serving to enhance the participants’
intercultural skills or to sharpen their client focus.
Basic training in the Talanx Group is renowned for its high quality:
it has won German insurance industry training awards four times
since 2005 alone. Practical orientation and self-reliant working
as part of a team are very important in vocational training. The
training we provide spans the entire company and offers trainees a
wide range of career opportunities when they have completed their
courses. That is why the numbers of trainees permanently taken on
after completing their training has been consistently high for years.
The most commonly taken courses were those leading to commercial
qualifications in insurance and finance and the dual-track
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science programmes. At 31 December
2011, there were 415 (404) apprentices and student trainees in
the Talanx Group in Germany.
Acknowledgements to staff and bodies
The Board of Management would like to express its appreciation to
all of the Group’s staff for their high level of personal dedication and
their valuable contribution to the Group’s good business results.
It thanks the Group Employee Council and all the other employee
council bodies for their cooperation, which was at all times trusting
and constructive.
Talanx Group. Annual Report 2011
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