Workplace

Eagle Star Life is a company with a young and dynamic ethos, which currently employs 473 staff of which 232 are Male and 241 Female (as at 31st December 2002).

"The atmosphere within the company is innovative, enthusiastic and competitive", Eagle Star employee when asked what they thought about Eagle Star as a company. March 2002

Eagle Star employees have a strong work ethic and as a company, we understand that this means our employees need to be motivated and satisfied.

Employee Benefits

To this end, the company provides an extensive pay and benefits package to all employees incorporating:

• Employee reward strategy
• Share participation scheme
• Market leading defined benefits pension scheme with normal retirement at age 60
• Free Permanent Health Insurance
• VHI subsidy
• Exam support
• Personal Development Plans
• Staff discounts on financial and insurance products
• Health screening every two years
• VDU eye care programme
• Annual anti-flu vaccination.

Health Screening is provided every two years for all employees and is arranged with a reputable health screening company. Each year the company arranges for an Anti-flu vaccination to be administered free of charge to interested employees.

Permanent Health Insurance benefits are also in place for all employees who suffer a long-term serious illness.

Annual Travel Pass Scheme

Eagle Star offers an incentive to staff to use public transport through the provision of the Annual Travel Pass Scheme. This is a tax-free option to purchase train and bus tickets through monthly salary deduction as an alternative to travelling by car. 16% of employees have availed of this scheme in 2003.

The company also endeavours to use car-parking spaces in its buildings to maximum effect and we offer managers the choice of a cash payment as an alternative to taking a company car.

Work Life Balance

"The importance of appropriate measures to assist in reconciling work and family life are important to underpinning economic, social and equality objectives. The emergence of a tightening labour market and the increased emphasis on human resources as a key competitive element serve to underpin the importance of developing innovative ways of maximising the available labour supply."
Turlough O'Sullivan, Director General, IBEC

Family-friendly policies assist workers in combining employment with their family life, caring responsibilities and personal life outside the workplace, while meeting employer's needs.
Eagle Star promotes a balance between work and life, providing family friendly initiatives including; flexible working hours, part-time working, paid maternity leave, parental leave, adoptive leave, compassionate leave, force majeure leave and carer's leave.

Parental leave is granted to enable working parents to take care of their young children. Employees are entitled to a 14-week continuous block or in shorter 'broken' periods as agreed with the employer. Eleven employees took parental leave in 2002, which accounted for a total of 250.5 days leave.

Currently 6.75% of staff avail of the part-time working option.

"I was very grateful for Eagle Star's support because of the major lifestyle changes required to balance my new family's needs and my career aspirations", Eagle Star employee when asked about the benefit to them of Eagle Star's family friendly policies. February 2003

Equal Opportunities for Everyone

Eagle Star is committed to providing equal opportunities for all of its staff in accordance with current legislation.

Our equal opportunities policy extends to all aspects of employment including recruitment, training, career development, promotion and performance appraisal. Trained HR Staff ensure that the policy is implemented across the board and we do this by:

• Ensuring that no applicant or staff member receives less favourable treatment on any discriminatory grounds.
• Ensuring that no applicant or staff member is disadvantaged by any employment conditions or requirements, which cannot be shown to be justifiable.
• Basing selection and promotion decisions on suitability for the job. The individual's potential, ability and merit are the sole criteria.
• Providing an environment within which all staff members have an equal opportunity to progress within the organisation.
• Ensuring that conditions of employment and systems of determining pay do not favour any particular category of staff member on discriminatory grounds.
  
• Regarding any deliberate discriminatory action by individual managers or members of staff as a serious disciplinary offence.

All employees are familiar with our Equal Opportunities policy, via the staff handbook.

Developing the Potential of Eagle Star Employees

Eagle Star is committed to achieving sustained success and growth by utilising and developing the skills, talents and potential of each staff member. One of the key instruments in developing these skills and maximising job performance is performance appraisal.

Performance Appraisal

This involves appraising performance against agreed personal targets or objectives. In this way, the overall objectives of the company are cascaded down through functional levels, until they are ultimately translated into specific performance objectives for every staff member.

The Process

Prior to the annual Performance Appraisal discussion (December/January) the employee considers their own performance against agreed objectives since their last assessment and completes a self-assessment form. The appraiser assesses the employee's performance against each objective for the past twelve months, following consultation with their manager.
The Human Resources team play an important role in ensuring that standards of personal assessment are realistic and consistent company-wide.

Employee Training

The company's approach to development and training is to:

• Ensure that every employee receives the development and training required to do their job
• Recognise staff development and training as an integral part of the management function at all levels
• Ensure every staff member is aware that they are ultimately responsible for their own development.

The identification of individual training needs takes place on an ongoing basis between the staff member and their manager, with appropriate assistance from the HR department. The matching of identified needs with corporate or departmental objectives forms an important part of this process.

To facilitate this, the company offers every employee their own Personal Development Plan.
Eagle Star supports this initiative by fostering an employee's development through sponsored training, education and other development actions and rewarding an employee's achievements, through the provision of study leave, reimbursement of fees and payment of qualification awards. Eagle Star also provides in-house training.

• The number of training days on average per person in 2002 was 2.5 based on a total number of employees of 473.
• The total number of training days undertaken in Eagle Star in 2002 was 1,185.5.
• 130 staff (28.02%) undertook a course of study in 2002.

Qualified and trained employees improve the quality and dynamics of Eagle Star's workforce while at the same time helping individual employees achieve their personal goals and aspirations.

Personal Development Plans

'Having my own personal development plan has helped me to focus on where I am going in Eagle Star and has also helped me to focus on my own objectives and targets for my job. My overall confidence and skills have developed and I feel more motivated as a person.' Eagle Star employee, January 2002

Personal Development Planning involves drawing up and discussing a development plan based on the technical and personal competencies of an employee's current position and future career aspirations. It requires direct input from both managers and employee to establish an action plan - encouraging an interactive shared approach.

There are three stages in a PDP, preparing the development plan; the development discussion and implementing the plan.

• Preparation involves employees determining their current role, strengths and development needs and considering their future aspirations.
• The discussion focuses on what employees need to do, the benefits of such action, how best to achieve their objectives and how on completion employees will apply their new skills.
  
• Implementation can involve a variety of training solutions that can take many forms, including; induction, desk-side training, internal or external courses, use of Eagle Star facilities, interactive technology-based methods, use of outside training consultants and others.

Employee Consultative Committee

Eagle Star has a number of systems in place which encourage communication and feedback from all members of staff.

One of the most important of these is an 'Employee Consultative Committee', the objectives of which is:

• To inform and consult employees on the progress of the business.
• To outline proposals for future developments.
• To provide a regular/structured forum to consult employees and to hear their views.

There are a number of constituencies for which employee representatives are elected. Each constituency represents a particular section of the company. The ECC is complimentary to other communication systems in place throughout the company such as an annual staff survey, team briefs, an employee intranet and notice boards. The ECC also provides a member Trustee to the staff pension scheme.
Eagle Star also recognises Amicus-MSF, the fourth largest union in Ireland, which represents skilled and professional people in all sectors.

How the ECC Works

The committee consists of seven employee representatives who are selected by the employees for a two-year term. They meet regularly, at least quarterly, with management including the Managing Director.

Minutes of the meeting are circulated to all employees via the employee intranet.

An example of an issue raised and resolved through dialogue between the company and the ECC was the provision of paid maternity leave for all employees. Management responded positively to this request and paid maternity leave was introduced for all employees in May 2000.

Zurich European Forum

Eagle Star Life as part of the Zurich Financial Services Group also has a representative on the Zurich European Forum. The ECC provides support to this representative and assists in the effective carrying out of his/her role. The term of office is four years and it is here that anything of a trans-national nature or an issue that significantly affects the interests of employees in at least two countries in Europe, can be discussed.

The Eagle Star Annual Employee Survey

An annual employee attitude survey takes place in December of each year. Employees complete the survey electronically via our intranet during working hours.

Some of the results of the Annual Staff Survey

• The 2002 employee survey had a much improved response rate, 78% up from 67% in 2001. This indicates employee willingness to continue to the ongoing development of Eagle Star.
• There was a good deal of consensus in the answers to the survey, a positive result, as it means employees across Eagle Star see the company in a relatively similar way.
• Employees in Eagle Star believe there is a high priority on customer satisfaction and that the organisation has a bright future. They are clear about their departmental and individual goals, and report that their terms and conditions are fair. Employees feel there is a need for more opportunities for upward communication in the organisation.

A Safe & Healthy Work Environment

Eagle Star has always been committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment for all staff members and to meet our duties to contractors and members of the public who may be affected by our operations. Eagle Star's safety policy is set out in our Safety Statement which is issued to all staff members on joining the company and is available on our employee intranet. All new members of staff receive induction training, an integral part of which is concerned with Health and Safety issues and policies.

A Health and Safety committee, which includes staff representation, meets quarterly to consult on Health and Safety issues. An accident procedure is in place and everyone is obliged to co-operate with any investigations in order to establish the circumstances surrounding an accident. Details of the accident must be advised to the HR department. A central record of all accidents at work is kept in an Accident Report Book.
There are trained Fire Wardens and First Aiders in our premises. There is also a high level of safety awareness and our procedures and equipment including clear evacuation instructions are maintained up to date in all of our premises.

A list of the persons at Eagle Star who are trained in First Aid is available on the staff intranet and clearly identifiable First Aid boxes are provided in all buildings.

Ergonomic Assessments of the workplace are carried out on a regular basis. This assessment involves a full examination of all workstations to ensure the comfort, health and safety of all concerned.

Preventing Bullying/Harassment

Eagle Star is committed to providing all of its employees with an environment free from
bullying/harassment.

The policy applies to employees both in the workplace and at work associated events
such as meetings, conferences and work related social events, whether on the premises or off site.

The policy applies to bullying/harassment not only by fellow employees but also by a customer or other business contact to which an employee might reasonably expect to come into contact with in the course of their employment.

Workplace Summary

Eagle Star Life as a company and employer goes beyond providing a basic commitment in the 'Workplace' by providing an extensive range of benefits for all employees. We feel we can pride ourselves in our policies on employee training and development, equal opportunities and work/life balance. We place a high value on one of our key assets - our employees. We have practices in place to deal with issues like absenteeism or staff grievances so that were any difficulties to arise, they can be identified and addressed early on. Looking to the future Eagle Star - an employer of choice, will strive to continually measure and improve and to share our examples of good practice with other companies and act as a leader in this area.

Over the next year Eagle Star will aim to:

• Learn from the employee attitude survey and to address specifics, such as more opportunities for upward communication.
• To maintain and increase employee participation in the survey.
• To communicate findings across the organisation.