Employees who completed the Denison scan (in %)
66
To enhance employee engagement, a culture programme was started in 2024, centred around ‘The story of a.s.r.’. Employee engagement was measured using the Denison Culture Scan and eMood®. Attractive and future-proof employment conditions are important for high engagement. In 2024, a new Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) was agreed upon for all a.s.r. employees, and The Other Plan (Het Andere Plan) became the social plan for all employees.
Culture Programme
Since the pace of integrations varies, the culture programme was rolled out per business line. Although the timing and approach differ per business line, it always starts with an analysis of the local culture, establishing a local culture team and appointing connectors. Together, they take the lead in interventions. Management is crucial for a successful change, they will receive extra assistance, including through customised workshops about storytelling and the layers of interaction.
Connectors Network
In 2024, connectors' were identified within each business unit of a.s.r. These connectors exhibit the desired behaviour in line with the core values and the five D’s from 'The Story of a.s.r.' and encourage others to do the same. They engage in conversations with colleagues and, together with the local culture team, devise actions to strengthen the culture. The connector's network, which includes all connectors within a.s.r., acts as a bridge between different departments and levels, facilitating change. The connector's network meets regularly to share experiences and follows a customised development programme.
Denison Culture Scan
In 2024, a.s.r. conducted the Denison culture scan for the eighth consecutive year. This annual survey measures the success of an organisation in several areas, including drivers of engagement. The results obtained are measured against a global benchmark of more than 1,200 large organisations.
The response rate for this culture scan, the first since a.s.r.’s merger with Aegon NL, was 66% – an average response rate for culture surveys in companies of similar size. The results show mostly above-average to good scores. Employee engagement was at 73; although this was below the 2024 target a.s.r. set of 75 or higher, the score is in the top 30% of the benchmark of participating companies. In line with the proceeding integration with Aegon NL, a.s.r. will gradually increase the target for employee engagement in the coming years, from 75 in 2024 to 80 in 2025 and 85 in 2026.
The score for customer focus was just below the benchmark average, at 46. The results reflect the stage of integration that a.s.r. is currently in and provide points of reference to further strengthen the joint culture.
Employee Mood Monitor (eMood®)
a.s.r. employees, including contractors, are invited to participate in a weekly pulse survey on job satisfaction, vitality, and productivity. Recurring themes in eMood® include happiness, purpose, and stress. Managers receive a weekly dashboard with their teams' scores, enabling a.s.r. to stay attuned to employee well-being and fostering ongoing dialogues between employees and managers. The response to a.s.r.'s eMood® remained high, with approximately 3,500 (2023: 2,400) participants per week. This represents 50-52% of the population.
Despite the challenges for employees surrounding business unit integrations as a result of the merger, there were no significant declines in sentiment and employee engagement in 2024. With an average score of 7.6 (2023: 7.7), a.s.r. again managed to keep the mood of the organisation at a good level. The scores of the underlying elements are: vitality (7.4), productivity (7.5) and job satisfaction (7.8).
The most important follow-up to eMood® is ‘the good conversation’ using the dashboards that managers receive weekly. eMood® helps teams to discuss (difficult) issues, support each other or reach better working agreements. In addition to the eMood® dashboard, all managers receive weekly follow-up advice linked to that week's statement, enabling managers to offer practical tools to their employees. Finally, eMood® is used as input for (HR) policy, often tailored to the specific phase of merger-integrations and context of the business unit.
Employee Net Promoter Score
The employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), the extent to which employees would actively recommend a.s.r. as an employer, is also measured via the eMood®. The eNPS provides a.s.r. with an insight into loyalty to, and the perceived attractiveness of, a.s.r. as an employer. The average eNPS in 2024 was +11 (2023: +40). The eNPS-decline coincided with the employer merger between a.s.r. and Aegon NL as of October 1, 2023, in which the eNPS decreased approximately 30 points instantaneously. This reflected the uncertainty among employees inherent in merging two organisations. Throughout 2024, the eNPS gradually improved as a result of various efforts to provide a warm welcome to the new colleagues from Aegon NL. In addition, the completion of the merger-integrations of an increasing number of business units contributed to a (slow-moving) upward eNPS-trend.
CLA and social plan
Following the merger of a.s.r. and Aegon NL, a.s.r. initiated discussions with trade unions to draft a new joint collective labour agreement (CLA). At the end of June 2024, a.s.r. and the trade unions FNV Finance, De Unie, and CNV reached an agreement with a term from 1 July 2024 to 1 April 2025. This CLA replaced The Other CLA 2023-2024 and the Aegon Transitional Protocol.
The existing a.s.r. social plan applies for all employees of the new combined organisation from 1 July 2024 for the duration of the integration and for at least three years from the date on which Aegon NL employees started their employment at a.s.r., i.e. from 1 October 2023 to 1 October 2026. For advisory requests submitted before 1 July 2024, the social plans of Aegon NL and a.s.r. are implemented side by side.
CLA negotiations: finding the right balance for the organisation, employees, and the trade union.
One of the responsibilities of a.s.r. is to periodically negotiate with the trade unions to establish a collective labour agreement (CLA) that aligns with the culture of a.s.r. and takes into account what employees find important, but at the same time ensures that a.s.r. remains competitive.
Since 2018, a.s.r. has had its own collective labour agreement (CLA), known as The Other CLA (De Andere Cao) . This CLA was created together with the trade unions. The principles and vision of the original version – including self-management and trust – are, according to a.s.r., determinative for the subsequent editions of the CLA. a.s.r. always looks beyond just salary and aims to make sound agreements in areas such as vitality, development, and work-life balance.
Trade unions have their own (national) agenda, which in recent years has been largely focused on wage increases. As a result, the needs for a new CLA can be divergent. a.s.r. then faces the dilemma of how to reach a CLA with (a majority of) the trade unions that aligns with the principles of its own original CLA and considers the interests of employees and the organisation's competitiveness.
A point of consideration is that the union membership rate at a.s.r. is low. This raises the question of how representative the unions' demands are for a.s.r. employees or whether they are more driven by the unions' national agenda. As a result, these demands may be less suitable for an organisation like a.s.r., less aligned with what a.s.r. employees truly value, and what is required for a healthy future of the company.
To gain more clarity on this, a.s.r. has openly communicated about the latest CLA negotiations via its intranet, where employees could respond and frequently did so. This transparency has both advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that employees can directly see which issues are being considered in the negotiations and how. Another advantage is that the involved parties can gauge the employees' sentiment from the responses and take this into account in subsequent discussions. A disadvantage is that interim communication about the process and mutual proposals without further context can lead to incorrect assumptions (expectations that are too high and/or different) that later result in disappointment. Thus, the creation of the CLA remains a process of weighing up everyone's interests and needs.
Remuneration
a.s.r.’s Remuneration Policy is based on the principle that the average level of total remuneration is at most around the median of the reference group. Every three years (two years for the MB), an independent consultant performs a market-based comparison of the remuneration benchmark. In line with the Remuneration Policy, the remuneration of a.s.r. employees consists solely of a fixed salary. a.s.r. does not have a company-wide variable remuneration scheme. See section 5.3 for more information on remuneration.
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