Sustainability Report 2015
Dialogue formats
In 2013, with a view to stepping up our dialogue with stakeholders on sustainability issues, we conducted a survey with the participation of 30 representatives spanning the capital market, clients, staff, NGOs and public sector workers. According to the stakeholders, it is in the field of responsible enterprise management that Hannover Re's activities are most widely recognised and most favourably evaluated. Room for improvement was identified in the areas of sustainability communication and product responsibility as well as in relation to corporate environmental protection and employees. Of central significance to our stakeholders are entrepreneurial responsibility with respect to economic aspects as well as product responsibility, including asset management. It is also important to pay attention to emerging global concerns. These are: renewable energy sources, climate change, environmental protection, financial inclusion and tax policy. We took into account the opinions of our stakeholders when defining the focus topics of our Sustainability Strategy.
Dialogue with ESG rating agencies
In keeping with our goals defined in the Sustainability Strategy 2015-2017, we are also currently expanding the dialogue with ESG rating agencies. In the present Sustainability Report we are therefore reporting at greater length on topics that came up in discussions with rating agencies. These include, among other things, tax policy and the taxes paid by Hannover Re, current research activities on ESG topics and products as well as cooperation with primary insurers on the management of ESG issues.
Based on the GRI Report that we published for 2014, Hannover Re was evaluated in the last financial year by the rating agency oekom research AG with an eye to its sustainability performance and – in recognition of its above-average fulfilment of the sector-specific requirements – was again awarded "Prime" status. Not only that, since 2014 Hannover Re has been listed in the FTSE4Good, a worldwide index series based on sustainability ratings according to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria. Furthermore, in the 2015 financial year Hannover Re was also evaluated by the ESG rating agencies Robeco SAM, Sustainalytics, Vigeo, MSCI and Sustainability Intelligence; the company engages in a continuous dialogue on rating-specific sustainability issues as part of the annual rating processes.
Cultivating our customer relationships
We participate in an ongoing dialogue with our clients around the world. Customer relationships are normally maintained by individual divisions at Hannover Re. In this regard, the Life & Health reinsurance business group is especially committed to long-term customer relationships founded on a trusting and partnership-based approach. Since 2014 we have published the quarterly newsletter "ReCent Medical News" as a source of information that enables our customers to learn about the latest research results in various fields of medicine as well as new methods with a bearing on medical underwriting.
The Property & Casualty reinsurance business group has organised the seminar series "Building Bridges" since 2012. The seminars, which are held once a year, enable it to respond more closely to the individual reinsurance needs of our customers.
International employee survey
Hannover Re also conducts employee surveys at regular intervals. In 2015 we carried out our first international, Group-wide employee survey. The purpose of this survey was, in the first place, to continue the dialogue around a uniform conception of values and leadership that had been initiated in recent years. A key finding was the very high level of satisfaction identified among our staff. This is true both of the average evaluation across all questions and for virtually all individual questions. The strong motivation and commitment expressed by our employees is especially gratifying. When it comes to room for improvement, they pointed to a broader-based system of remuneration and further improvements in the support given to their continuing individual training. Based on these insights, we shall evaluate the results in detail in the course of the current financial year and initiate measures. The goals will be to leverage higher-level improvement potentials and to support the individual units in their efforts to engage with their own results.