Aviva's CEO Andy Briggs talks about wellbeing as a business driver

As a CEO what is your primary reason for addressing employee wellbeing at your organisation?

A good business is one that has the best people highly motivated to do a fantastic job for customers. Do that in a way that is commercially savvy for shareholders and you create a virtuous circle.

When your business is profitable and growing you can invest more in your people capability and, in turn, deliver more for your customers, and so on. Employee wellbeing is the right thing to do. It’s right to make Aviva a great place for employees to work and to help people to be happy and healthy.

From a business perspective, we are convinced that a happy and healthy workforce will serve customers better, enabling us to generate better returns to shareholders and so creating that virtuous circle.

How committed is your board to the issue of employee wellbeing?

I sit on both the UK board and main board of Aviva and both are wholeheartedly committed to wellbeing. It isn’t the case that the board is pushing management or vice versa, we are equally aligned.

There are three areas in particular, which despite carrying a hard financial cost, are policies the board strongly supports. First, is our carer policy. We give people significant time off and entitlement when they have carer responsibilities.always found carer policies out of sync with parental leave policies, despite both ultimately being about looking after another very dependent human being. It can be a major cause of stress and a reason why people leave the workplace.

Second is parental leave. We now give both men and women up to 26 weeks paid leave on arrival of a child. We would like to see other employers follow suit so couples can choose whether one or both parents should take on caring responsibilities in those early days.

Third, we are committed to being a Living Wage employer.

Do you report on employee wellbeing to shareholders?

We included a section on employee wellbeing in our annual report last year and we will do that again this year. To date, we haven’t reported specific figures so the information is more qualitative than quantitative.We are committed to quantitative reporting but at this stage, in the case of wellbeing, we are still working through what would be the most helpful way to cover that.We are publicly committed to the Time to Change employer pledge to break the stigma around mental health.

What are the business or workforce challenges that keep wellbeing a main focus at your organisation?

Whatever circumstances your business is in, whether it is going through a growth phase or involved in an M&A or looking at cutting jobs, employee wellbeing is fundamental and critical.

However, one of the things I worry about is technology. I sometimes give my team a hard time if I see lots of emails being sent over the weekend. This is because the weekend is time to recharge the batteries to be fit and ready to go for the week ahead.

Having said that, it’s also about being flexible. I have two young boys who sometimes have school cricket or rugby matches. I don’t get to attend those very often but if I do then it will suit me to be able to work for an hour or so on the weekend to catch up. So we try and retain that flexibility.

Do you require organisations in your supply or distribution chains to commit to any employee wellbeing standards before signing contracts with them?

We work with a number of partners and work hard to make sure they are the right partners. As part of that we have quite a broad range of business ethics and standards that we would expect of them and that are reflective of our own values. We have got very robust processes in place to ensure that follows through and happens in practice.

Does your board report on mental health at your organisation?

We report on mental wellbeing but in a qualitative way. We are keen to explore how we can make that more quantitative in due course. We were recognised as a best practice employer in the government report, Thriving at work: The Stevenson/Farmer review of mental health and employers, which sets out a number of mental health core standards. But we also seek to go beyond that: increased transparency and accountability in our external reporting is a key area of focus for us.

Do you feel the government supports employers to improve employee health and wellbeing?

The government has really upped its game over the last year and the commissioning of Thriving at work is a good example of that. The road map that the government’s Work and Health Unit produced with the strategy to halve the disability employment gap is also very strong. There are a lot of encouraging signs.

However, there is such a wide range of employers to cater for. Employers such as Aviva can drive this and find their own way almost irrespective of government support. Others will always be harder to convince that wellbeing is a good idea. But there is a large number in the middle that agree this is a worthwhile agenda but are uncertain how to set about implementing it.

To support those employers I suggest there should be a one-stop-shop where mid-sized businesses, in particular, can turn to for best practice guidance and support.Also what about creating a champion for workplace wellbeing? I am the government’s business champion for older workers and I wonder if there is merit in taking a similar approach for wellbeing as well.

Andy Briggs is chief executive officer UK Insurance at Aviva.

Download a copy of the 88 page Employee Wellbeing Research 2018 (free to REBA Professional Members and all those working for REBA Associate Members).

If you would like to learn more about employee wellbeing, register here to attend the Third Annual Employee Wellbeing Congress on 5 July 2018.