GOOD GOVERNANCE
GOOD GOVERNANCE
This pillar recognizes insurance providers who have gone beyond the requirements of the regulations and have taken to heart the needs of all stakeholders, including their staff, customers, shareholders, and the community in general.
Available Categories for 2018 are:
ACADEMY OF THE YEAR
This award aims to identify one winner and up to two runners-up who demonstrate best practices in delivering professional education and training to their sales and support staff in the following areas:
- Value – the company is dedicated to excellence in the implementation of training arrangements with a strong commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion, showing talent acquisition, retention, and low attrition rates. The company’s vision and goals for benefiting the community are effectively communicated across the organization.
- Process – the organization’s training and coaching programs adopt best practices for financial and investment planning and business processes. Also considered will be the existence of clear key performance indicators – both quantitative and qualitative measurements of results against set goals.
- Compensation and benefits – the organizational structure improves advisors’ retention without compromising integrity through incentive structures that are not only tied to sales quotas and revenue generation but also to learning and professional development.
- Customer Protection – there is a process that safeguards customers under a consistent and reliable program, promoting strong ethical standards that prevent potential misselling activities.
- Innovation – the program demonstrates creativity, excellence, and innovation in the design and development of processes or techniques (operational or educational), and there is excellent use of information communication technologies such as e-learning.
- Viability – the company demonstrates impressive results addressing human capital capabilities, client segments, market focus, and strategic planning based on the success of this training academy.
CORPORATE CITIZEN
Ethics and business conscience are becoming more mainstream considerations for customers when they choose their product providers. This is especially the case for Millennials, who feel responsible for the well-being of this planet.
Good corporate citizenship goes beyond donations or volunteering. It looks at the intangible value that the company creates by addressing key environmental issues, human capital issues, and corporate governance issues while making an impact through effective strategies for implementing corporate philanthropic endeavors.
- Environmental – contribution to reducing carbon emissions, product carbon footprint, electronic waste, water stress, improving energy efficiency, and raw material sourcing.
- Social – ensuring employees’ health and safety, financial product safety and quality, human capital development, privacy, and data security as well as governing supply chain labor standards and labor management.
- Governance – putting policies in place for business ethics in the avoidance of fraud, corruption, and instability; ensuring corporate governance is of the highest standards in board structure and compensation, women’s representation on the board, shareholders’ rights, and the ensuring of financial system stability.
- Social Impact – implementing impactful projects for the community and humankind in general, using corporate philanthropic strategies and endeavors.
RISK AND COMPLIANCE
The Architecture of Compliance – what are the top-down principles and the definition of Compliance, and how is risk culture infused into the entire organization?
The Organization – who are the stakeholders in compliance and what is the role of the Chief Compliance Officer? What are his/her key dimensions, roles, and responsibilities; reporting line; and span of control?
Functions of Compliance – how is the structure set up for compliance to address the key issues of regulations, AML (especially with a higher focus on payment flows), Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Distribution and Selling Practices, Transparency of Contracts, Fraud Management, Data Security and Data Privacy, etc.? Please provide a case study, sample checkpoints, etc.
Technology – what is the current compliance technology architecture like, and how does technology help to predict misconduct, keep the firm in compliance, and provide management with a view of compliance health, facilitating the monitoring of metrics and trends?
Value – please explain why your risk and compliance structure, policy, and strategy directly benefit stakeholders.
WOMEN’S EMPLOYER OF THE YEAR
Traditionally, women struggle with issues such as pay equality, climbing the leadership ladder, or simply trying to strike a decent balance between family and career. We are looking to award a company that treats women equally and makes it a priority to empower them in all parts of the business, including front-end, middle, and back-end office operations.
In fewer than 1,500 words, please tell the jurors the story (your story) that lies behind the driving of these initiatives:
- Overall policies, strategies, programs, and objectives of your women’s empowerment initiatives.
- The gender composition across each level of your workforce (from board-level to entry-level roles) and the impact it has had on your workplace culture and engagement over the past 5 years.
- An overview of your remuneration policy, addressing gender pay objectives and the time frame for which they were put in place.
- The frameworks and programs to support women’s career progression and professional development.
- Parental leave and return-to-work programs for female and male employees.5
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
Good people are assets, and their successful retention is half the battle. We are looking for a company that adopts best practices in recruiting, managing, and retaining the talent pool. Companies that care deeply for the health, safety, and wellness of their employees and have cultivated a healthy workplace should consider entering this category.
- Retention – ability to attract, retain, and develop human capital, as well as exposure to the risks associated with increased costs due to high employee turnover or reduced productivity due to poor morale.
- Engagement – formal employee engagement channels, broad-based professional development, training opportunities, and the implementation of flexible work hours.
- Benefits – comprehensive compensation and benefits packages, provision of annual profit-sharing bonuses, giving employees a substantial and concrete stake in the company’s success on a regular basis; includes the offering of incentives, not through short-term activities, but by aligning benefits with customers’ long-term interests.
- Culture – the company empowers professional and personal growth through the demonstration of strong leadership, communication, culture, and corporate social responsibility.
- Diversity and Inclusion – best-practice policies in place to broaden the pool of talent to include all genders, races, and ages.
In fewer than 1,500 words, please explain to the judges why you should win this award based on the above criteria.