HR Excellence Awards Winner’s Series 2019/20 – Excellent Diversity & Inclusion Award AXA Hong Kong and Macau
Key takeaways:
Workforce diversity allows AXA to meet market and customer needs across the globe.
AXA Diversity & Inclusion Council bridges gender and racial divides.
How does the AXA Diversity & Inclusion Council support the organisation’s people vision of being the most inspiring company to work for?
At AXA, each of us is valued and our voices are equally important. As a global team with different backgrounds and experiences, and ways of thinking, we want all our colleagues to feel that they belong, are included, and can thrive here.
With the people vision of being the most inspiring company to work for, it is vital for us to promote Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), by creating a work environment where all employees are treated with dignity and respect and where individual differences are valued. The D&I Council is dedicated to cultivating an inclusive and diverse environment where all employees feel fully engaged and included in our business and purpose via various ‘interventions’ within our workplace. These can be in the form of training (virtual or physical), lunch and learn seminars, fi reside chats, webinars, and even celebration parties!
How does the Council enable the organisation to be inclusive of any background, race, and gender?
The setting up of the council is to gather like-minded advocates who are willing to provide support on driving various D&I agendas. It is important to ensure that the council is functioning like a sounding board, or a steering committee which can help shape our future workforce with different talents, inclusive of any background, race, and gender. The council, together with a group of staff volunteers, is aiming at three directions when building an inclusive organisation, namely Awareness, Education, and Connection.
Awareness – Communicate to all AXA staff regularly on the happenings related to initiatives organised by the council, leveraging various platforms and tools such as our internal TV channel the AXAtv.
Education – Provide training sessions for staff and managers when working with colleagues with different backgrounds, helping them understand the challenges and ways to work together.
Connection – Partner with various NGOs and offer opportunities to those underrepresented. In 2020, we partnered with CareER and hired three interns who are differently abled to join our summer Corporate Internship programme. (see image for our 2020 cohort)
One of AXA’s Diversity and Inclusion priorities is the generational mix at the organisation. What initiatives does AXA have for multiple generations to work together harmoniously?
For all of us to work together as one team, it is crucial for each of us to understand the generational differences while embracing each other’s strengths. Aside from running regular training workshops to educate staff and managers about generational differences, we have also introduced various programmes which aim to drive a more harmonious culture within our organisation. They include:
Corporate Internship Programme – Each summer we offer corporate internships for local and overseas students to embark on a 10-week exploration journey with us, with students placed in a team of their choice and assigned to a mentor. (see image for our 2020 cohort)
Reverse Mentoring – This initiative began by encouraging young gens within the organisation to act as mentors to our leaders. A structured programme was subsequently designed for successful pairings and focuses mainly on topics such as lifestyle, technology, and social media.
Innovation Challenge – This is an idea generation competition, or what some may call a hackathon. Staff can team up with anyone within the organisation to solve complex business challenges.
