The VIG success story has been guided at all times by long-term thinking and responsible action. VIG shares were included in both the Austrian VÖNIX sustainability index and the global FTSE4Good Index in 2016. Both require that the profit-making aspects of business activities be successfully combined with social and environmental objectives. VIG uses many measures and projects to provide a valuable contribution in many areas of society. The following provides some examples that represent the Group’s wide range of commitments.

Social involvement – Example: Social Active Day

VIG is aware of its social responsibility to the people in its 25 markets and uses a wide range of projects and measures to proactively meet this responsibility. The Social Active Day is a very special initiative in this area, when thousands of VIG employees send a powerful message for solidarity. Under this initiative, employees who want to become involved with a good cause or social organisation are generally allowed to spend one working day of their time on such activities. This initiative was brought to life in 2011 by VIG’s principal shareholder, Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein, and quickly became a success. Around 4,400 employees from Group companies in 20 countries participated in 2016. The Group supported a wide range of projects and social organisations that also differed greatly across regions. Homeless shelters and initiatives, nursing homes, children’s aid programmes, environmental protection programmes, refugee facilities and many more received active support. The associations and projects are happy to be given a helping hand, and employees gain new experiences while doing good.

Cultural involvement – Example: Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra

The Group’s involvement is aimed at giving artists more freedom to develop artistically, thereby making a contribution to cultural life in Austria and the CEE region. The support provided to the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra is an example in this area. It is a place of learning for talented European orchestral musicians and helps young Austrian musicians play music with their colleagues from all over Europe, tradetionally including many from Central and Eastern Europe. The orchestra offers highly talented musicians up to the age of 26 the opportunity to work together with the great conductors and soloists of our time. This allows prospective professional musicians to gain experience that is critical for their musical development and future careers. VIG Holding feels that arts and culture make an important contribution to a society’s quality of life and has therefore provided support to the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra for many years.

Environmental factors – Example: Risk Radar

In addition to conserving resources and the environment during day-to-day office work, creating awareness of natural disasters is also highly important to VIG. Storms, hail and flooding generate losses in the millions practically every year. Good quality public weather and climate information plays an important role in prevention. Group company Wiener Städtische therefore presented its Risk Radar in 2016. The interactive map at risikoradar.at allows users to perform an independent analysis of their personal risk for the first time in Austria. Risks due to storm, hail, flooding and lightning are available for users to select when they begin. Because the long-term trend is important, two time periods (ten years and five years) are specified. The risks can be analysed separately or in combination to produce a detailed risk analysis. Wiener Städtische is helping to increase public awareness of risk in this way.

Employees

VIG positions itself as an employer of choice in a challenging international environment in order to search for and hire employees who can help promote its corporate culture and strategy with conviction. The human resources area offers a large number of initiatives, including international career opportunities, mobility programmes, training and advanced training.

VIG had a total of 24,601 employees in 2016, with 13,264 in the field sales force and 11,337 in administration. Overall, this is 1,606 more employees than in the previous year. The increase is due to the inclusion of the non-profit companies and the first-time consolidation of BTA Baltic. In 2016, the proportion of women across the Group was approximately 60%. Women hold around 23% of the positions on the Managing Boards of Vienna Insurance Group societies and around 13% of the Managing Board chairs are women. Including distribution, women hold around 42% of the management positions at the level directly below the managing board in VIG insurance companies across Europe (not including distribution: around 47%).

Appreciation of diversity and, therefore, removing barriers to women’s careers, among other things, is one of the key elements of the personnel strategy at Vienna Insurance Group. In addition to implementing this principle to, for example, the management development process, efforts are being made to give visibility to ambitious women at all levels, for example, by assigning more women to attend external conferences, platforms, etc. as representatives of the Company.

Nomination procedures for Group-wide training programmes for management, high potentials and experts are also required to include equal numbers of women as far as possible, with the local human resources department bearing ultimate responsibility.

In 2016, managing board performance-related compensation in the individual Group companies was made dependent on diversity and, therefore, gender criteria.

Corporate governance

VIG is committed to the application of and compliance with the January 2015 version of the Austrian Code of Corporate Governance, which is available to the public both on the VIG website at www.vig.com/en/ir and on the website of the Austrian Working Group for Corporate Governance at www.corporate-governance.at.