We build

Attracting, developing and retaining professionals with strategic, future-ready skills is essential for Swiss Re’s journey to become a tech- and data-enabled risk knowledge company.

Attracting talent to Swiss Re

Swiss Re was recognised as an attractive employer through various external awards around the globe in 2021. Our Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures how likely leavers would be to recommend Swiss Re as an employer to friends or colleagues, increased from 5 to 23 points in 2021. This is an impressive 41 points above the global average of ‒18. The NPS is compiled based on feedback that Gartner, an external service provider, collects from people who have left Swiss Re. Overall, 81% of leavers in 2021 rated their employment experience favourably, which is significantly above the global benchmark of 65%.

Developing our employees

Our vision for the future of learning at Swiss Re includes an increased focus on a digital, social, accessible and commercially relevant learning experience. We believe that learning should enable employees to deliver their best performance, thus contributing to the successful delivery of Swiss Re’s strategy today and in the future.

Across the Group, we continued to build and develop skills for the future in 2021 by, for example:

• Implementing a digital, integrated learning experience that blends digital learning content with leader-led dialogues to enable our Corporate Solutions business unit to bring its new business strategy to life for employees at all levels.
• Providing data education and cloud upskilling content to 947 employees to enable the business to become digital and data-led, in line with our strategy.
• Strengthening leadership skills at all levels globally, with curated, digital learning journeys available to all employees.

LearningOne, our in-house learning platform, has continued to prove invaluable in supporting employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, by giving them access to learning content where and when they need it. Since 2020, visits to the platform haVe more than doubled to an average of 11 000 visits per month. We note that throughout 2021, the most frequently accessed content on our learning platform was, by far, content posted by our own employees – demonstrating that we are developing capabilities from within the organisation. As a result of being able to reach and engage learners at the right time using technology, we see that employees are learning much more than they did when we launched our learning platform in 2019.

We are pleased that our performance was recognised in 2021 when Swiss Re was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2021 LinkedIn Talent Awards in the category “Best Culture of Learning”.

Employee relations

Reflecting our commitment to sustainability, Swiss Re has signed the UN Global Compact and is committed to implementing its ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. We uphold the freedom of association and effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.

Many of our locations have active employee advocacy groups, in line with local practice, that contribute to the company’s success by offering valuable perspectives and by helping us identify employment-related challenges. These bodies are elected by local employees and have clearly defined information and consultation rights. Although there are significant local differences in the applicable legislation, the advocacy groups’ rights typically concern working conditions, benefits, reorganisation and restructuring, redundancies, disciplinary actions and conflict cases. We support and value our cooperation with these groups.

At our Zurich headquarters, where almost one-quarter of our employees is based, we work closely with the Personnel Committee (PECO), which represents the interests of our Swiss-based staff. PECO is consulted about changes or adaptations to the General Working Conditions or other important policies, such as the Social Plan. It also focuses on gender parity as well as challenges faced by employees with family commitments. In the UK, similar activities are carried out by the Employee Liaison Group (ELG), and our Munich office has a work council with clearly defined co-determination rights in several areas. Other offices in Europe (eg France, Italy, Luxembourg and Denmark) also have work councils or staff delegates, depending on the size of the branch and local regulations.