E-Paper
Together we march
One of the leading providers of life and pension products in Europe, Aviva?s Plc has businesses in countries across the world. Anuradha Purbey, company's Associate Director, HR, talks to Shelly Anand.
What are your recruitment plans?
At Aviva, recruiting is a serious business. We firmly believe that people are our key differentiators. Products, processes and technologies can all be replicated but the commitment, drive and pride of employees cannot be bought or sold.
About our current recruitment plans, we are continuously looking at hiring 'quality' people at various positions across the country. The current employee strength is over 2,200 personnel, and there is a plan to increase our head count by over 50 per cent this year.
What is your selection procedure?
It is very 'multi-layered', focussing on a complete assessment of values and competencies (through psychometric tools and critical behavioural interviews), situational analysis and profile referencing. This helps us in identifying, evaluating and selecting the right candidates.
What is your annual evaluation system like?
We follow an 'integrated' Performance Management Process linked to Aviva's balanced scorecard. This includes:
Robust performance contracts based on four critical factors — financials, customer centricity, business processes, learning and innovation.
Base and stretch targets mutually agreed upon and cascaded from the company's scorecard.
Finally, the employee's performance determines career progression and rewards.
What do you do as Manager (HR) to enhance employee performance?
We have the 'Aviva Mentoring Programme': a key people initiative, providing a supportive work environment for career and personal development. It also facilitates identification of 'people developers' and enhancement of their supervisory and leadership skills. We have also included a select few Financial Planning Advisors as 'mentees' in this programme. Besides this, Aviva also runs orientation programmes and a 'hire buddy programme' to facilitate effective integration of new recruits. Lastly, we have Ideas for Aviva, a forum where we invite suggestions from employees on such areas as productivity levels, work life balance, cost reduction etc.
