Bureau meeting on 21 April 2021

06.05.2021

The monthly meeting with the group's management and the secretariat of the AXA European Works Council began with a review of the group's news: the creation of a network of 1,300 general insurance agents for provident and wealth insurance in France, the partnership in the field of health with Microsoft and the put in place of a management team in charge of steering the group's Driving Progress 2023 strategy.

Hedi ben Sedrine, Secretary of the EWC, specifies that these points should be included in the questions to the President at the June plenary session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update on AXA's Diversity and Inclusion policy

Kirsty Leivers (Head of Culture, Inclusion and Diversity in the Group HR) and Carlene Clifford (Project Development Manager in the Culture, Inclusion and Diversity Department) present an update of the first publication of this policy dating from 2010. The existing provisions will be modernised by integrating firstly the dimensions of racial, ethnic, social, national and cultural origins, and secondly the mental health aspect, which will be a priority in the implementation of smartworking in the group.

This policy is intended to be applied, in compliance with local legislation, in all the group's entities around the world from 17 May, the international day against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia in which AXA will participate.

Although they unanimously welcomed this initiative, the members of the secretariat also challenged the speakers on the implementation of this policy in the group, on the involvement of local representatives in each countries and on the effort to be made in countries where the cultural aspect may be a difficulty to overcome.

 

Presentation of the Group's 2020 social data

Olga Kravchenko (Group HR Operations Director) and Stéphane Gatineau (HR Analysis Project Manager in the HR Analysis and Measurement Department) present the group's 2020 social figures with a focus on Europe, which represents the largest number of employees. At the end of 2020, the group had 114,000 employees. Turnover is falling sharply and the rate of absenteeism should be seen in the light of the health crisis, with some of the absences being justified by childcare or assistance to vulnerable people.

The  members of the secretariat insist on the importance of training and internal knowledge transfer. Hedi ben Sedrine, secretary of the EWC, proposes two axis for the future:

  • The integration of trade union and social training data,
  • The involvement of the EWC with the group's teams in charge of social data.

AXA XL APAC & Europe: progress and challenges

 

Xavier VEYRY (CEO of AXA XL Asia Pacific & Europe) presented the scope of the business, which covers Europe, Asia and the Pacific and represents 5.7 billion euros in revenues (5% of the group's revenues). There are 1,862 employees in 14 countries and clients are mainly very large companies (75% of the business) and medium-sized companies.

AXA XL APAC Europe has two major areas of differentiation from its competitors:

  • A large network to service 2,900 international programmes over 25,000 policies
  • 134 captive insurance programmes

The Business Unit's organisation is structured around two poles:

  • An operational unit with country or geographical area managers,
  • A functional centre based on business lines.

A point was then made on the migration, made complex by its nature and by the health crisis. Added to a change of organisation, the integration of different tools and remote work, the difficulties of the migration generated stress for the employees. Resources have since been put in place and the situation should stabilise by the second half of 2021.

Xavier Veyry then took part in the delegates' question and answer session.

On simplification, empowerment and employee fatigue, Xavier Veyry understands the situation and indicates that the actions taken must be visible to the employees. He also indicated that the "go to market" strategy should be reviewed because it is not effective to market all products everywhere. You have to choose what makes sense, and where.

Hedi ben Sedrine closed the session by presenting the work of the secretariat of the previous day and by validating the minutes of the Bureau meetings of 20 January and 17 February.