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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
(Reporting performance for year 01/01/08-31/12/08)
CEO’s Message
As a life and pension company who puts “people” at the core of its business, Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) is an inseparable part of what we stand for. Our vision for CSR is to act responsibly for the long term
in how we do business. Giving back to the community is more than a cliché for us; it is how we would like to
build our company image in our community and the country we do business in. To be the first life and
pension company that signed Global Compact in Turkey, underlines our commitment to principles of UN
Global Compact.
In 2008 our CSR activities mainly focused on Environment, and specifically “Climate Change”. We targeted
to become a go-to-company in the insurance sector in terms of Climate Change and supported our “AvivaSA
Saves Your Future” brand positioning by investing in “Saving the Environment”.
In this respect we;
*Organized a CEO Forum together with WWF (World Wildlife Fund) to increase awareness among Turkish
business people, underlining the fact that companies should fulfill their responsibilities in relation to this
issue.
*Sponsored a survey with the theme of “Climate Change” which asked questions about companies’ CR
approach, actions taken to prevent climate change, carbon footprint, reporting initiatives and CR budgets
and published it in a major Turkish business magazine. This was the first survey about Climate Change in
Turkey.
*Became a signatory of Caring for Climate Statement and joined the platform in June 2008.
I am proud with our achievement as a member of UN Global Compact and I am glad to share our COP
(Communication on Progress) Report in this regard. I assure that AvivaSA complies with principles of UN
Global Compact and our company provides a reliable account of progress over the fast year with prominent
CSR projects. Moreover, we have plans in place for the coming years for further progress on our CSR
programme.
Meral Egemen
CEO, AvivaSA Turkey
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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(1) BUSINESS ETHICS and VALUES
We ensure that, in everything we do, we meet the highest standards of business
conduct
How is the Business Ethics Code communicated, monitored and implemented with
employees?
AvivaSA Business Code of Conduct risk management policy was approved by the Board on
September 2008 and it was immediately communicated with all AvivaSA staff through an e-mail
announcement. The document and its enclosures were broadcasted in the Airport (AvivaSA
intranet) the same day.
Ethic Rule Consultant has been appointed in January 2008. The policy is being communicated by
him.
E-learning has been organized for training of the Ethic Rules document and it will start in January
2009.
AvivaSA has an active system for Business Ethics implementation where all employees are free to
send e-mails, faxes, letters or make phone calls for raising ethical issues to the Ethic Rule
Consultant.
Have you done any work on promoting the AvivaSA values in 2008? How do you keep this
agenda visible in the minds of staff?
After the merger, AvivaSA senior management worked on the new entity’s new values and after
several workshops with Division Managers and Executive Committee; “People”, “Integrity”,
“Success” and “Progressiveness” were determined as AvivaSA’s values.
AvivaSA values were launched in May 2008, in the Vision Meeting that all HQ staff and Sales
Management Team participated. Specially designed agendas were distributed as a gift to all
attendees which had special sections for each AvivaSA value.
Afterwards, a dedicated Focus Group from various departments were formed to determine the key
factors to be improved according to the Employee Satisfaction Survey's results in the light of
AvivaSA values. The results of the study were shared in a Management Meeting. After the
evaluation of Senior Management, an action plan was made and put into practice.
To emphasize AvivaSA values, special posters were designed for each value and placed in various
places in the HQ building (meeting rooms, corridors, canteen, etc.) and Sales Offices.
Also, entry page of Airport (AvivaSA intranet) was designed to reflect AvivaSA values and a special
section was created in it to explain all values deeply.
In addition, special sections are devoted to AvivaSA values in presentations in HQ and Sales
Orientation programmes.
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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What are the financial crime prevention initiatives in place to help stop fraud, identity theft,
money laundering etc amongst employees, external associates, intermediaries and
suppliers?
Financial Crime Risk Management Policy has been prepared. It is being processed by the Board
for approval. The owner and sponsor for this policy is the CEO.
In the meantime, MASAK (AML institution in Turkey) trainings have been attended by Operational
Risk and Compliance staff in October 2008 and this training has been shared with Operations
Department.
Anti-money Laundering Training document for financial advisors has been updated recently and it
is included in the training programme.
Suspicious Activity Reporting Procedure, Anti-Money and Malpractice Reporting Procedure, AntiMoney Laundering Trainings are being prepared at the moment. Procedures are planned to take
effect in Q1 2009 and the trainings are planned to take place in Q1 2009 as well.
What incidences of financial crime have occurred in your business unit this year? What
action has been taken as a result?
No incident has occurred in 2008.
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(2) CUSTOMERS
We aim to provide our customers with prosperity and peace of mind by offering
them relevant, simple to understand products that they can trust.
What customer monitoring mechanisms are implemented to ensure that we are selling our
products and services in a responsible manner to our customers? Can you share key
findings and quantitative data (e.g % rate of satisfaction) from these initiatives, if any, for
2008? (e.g. Customer satisfaction survey, Third party audit etc)
1.CUSTOMER MONITORING
Sales Compliance Unit, operating under Operational Risk and Compliance Division is dedicated
to improve the service quality of all divisions and units serving the customers and potential
customers, whether during sales activities or after sales services.
The following divisions are within the scope of Sales Compliance Function:
- Direct Sales and Agencies Direct Sales Force
- Bancassurance Direct Sales Force
- Customer Satisfaction Center
- Corporate Sales
- Pure Bank sales
- Agencies and independent financial advisors
Sales Compliance Unit uses a risk based approach while performing its activities.
Head Office activities:
1- Reports from Project Planning and Implementation unit are used for data mining.
2- Call Center requests are investigated.
3- Quality Control Calls and Customer Support Unit requests
4- Investigations and assessment
are made through all inquiries conveyed to the Unit.
Sales activities:
Sales Compliance Unit organizes inspection visits (audits) to all direct sales and bancassurance
sales offices in order to make on-site inspections. 22 sales offices in this respect have been
inspected in 2008 and reports are prepared including action plans created by related Sales
Management. In some cases, staff subject to inspection was invited to the head office for
assessment purposes as well.
Apart from the on-site inspections, a total number of 48 private sales inspections and one head
office inspection derived from the customer complaint system are carried out in 2008.
Customer Satisfaction Center Inspections:
Call records and other recorded activities are inspected periodically.
Corporate Sales, Pure Bank Sales, Agencies and independent financial advisors are inspected
through data mining from the available reports and on-site visits and follow-ups.
All inspection results are reported to the senior management.
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Activities by Customer Satisfaction Centre:
Quality Control Calls: Customers who have applied for the product and are waiting for the policy
are called. They are checked if they know the critical information about the product and the system,
according to the defined criteria. If needed, detailed information is given by sales managers once
again.
Satisfaction Calls: Customers whose complaints have been resolved are called. Customers are
asked if they were satisfied from the complaint inspection/resolution process and relevant data is
collected and recorded.
Follow-up Calls: These calls are for checking the resolved important issues once again. One month
after resolution of the problem, checks are made if problem still persists or not.
Collection Calls: These calls are aimed to make collections from the customers. In addition,
customers are informed by SMS and e-mails.
Call Quality Evaluation: Call Center Quality Control Specialists and Sales Team Managers listen at
least 10 calls per agent monthly.
Outsource Partnership: To manage 45.000 monthly calls, efforts to establish an outsource
partnership has been made. With this partnership, AvivaSA wants to increase its contact frequency
with its customers by calling them for expectation surveys, quality controls, updating information
and increasing contribution effectiveness. The tender process for the right partner has not been
completed yet.
Retention Projects:
In 2008, AvivaSA has focused on Customer Retention and a specialized project team was
established to work on problem areas.
Outcomes are stated below:
*Customer Relationship Strategy document has been prepared and approved by the management.
It will be effective as of January 2009.
*A value based segmentation has been finalized and customers are classified under 4 groups
namely VIP, Gold, Silver, Standart.
*Customer Communication Plan has been prepared. “Activity and means of Communication” has
been determined for each customer segment.
*Analysis of Orphan Customers has been made and allocation of orphan customers to active
Financial Advisors has been decided. It will be effective after the IT infrastructure is completed.
Other:
An information brochure about services provided through our Call Center and online internet
branch has been prepared and began to be sent to new customers with their policies. Current
customers receive it via their annual statements.
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2. CUSTOMER SURVEYS
In 2008, AvivaSA conducted two separate surveys with its customers:
*Customer Expectation and Satisfaction Survey:
AvivaSA tracks customer satisfaction and advocacy on a yearly basis since 2006 and this year
third wave of this survey has been implemented as of November and December. AvivaSA worked
with ACNielsen, a global research agency, for this survey. This year, different from the previous
years, this survey has been conducted as two phases – qualitative and quantitative – and also an
“expectation” section has been included
*Customer Exit and Transfer Survey:
The main objective of this survey is to identify the reasons of exits and transfers to competitor
companies. This survey has been conducted by TNS (a global research agency) as two phases:
qualitative and quantitative.
Are there any new products or services launched during 2008 which reflect elements of
CSR?
Are there any new ones being planned for 2009? (e.g. socially responsible funds, special
services to low income groups etc)
To encourage saving among low income groups, AvivaSA has launched a low premium product
named “Easy Plan” in August 2008. Although, AvivaSA does not have any specific plans to launch
any products reflecting CSR elements in 2009, the company will consider opportunities where
applicable.
Have there been any industry events/ customer forums where we have engaged customers,
consulted with industry experts or provided thought leadership on any aspect of
responsible selling? If so, what has been the outcome?
In order to identify the needs and expectations of VIP customers (paying a certain amount of
contribution or having a certain amount of fund), meetings in lunch format are organized where 4 to
6 customers are invited and Assistant General Manager (responsible for Marketing) and Business
Development Manager attend. In 2008, 2 meetings have been organized so far, however these
meetings are planned to continue in 2009 as well. Since it is really difficult to reach these
customers through a research agency, this survey is preferred to be carried out with internal
resources. Besides the identification of needs and expectations, these meetings are also used as a
tool to increase customer satisfaction.
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(3) COMMUNITY
We are a responsible corporate citizen and take account of the impact that our
activities have on the communities where we operate.
Provide an overview of key community initiatives in line with Aviva’s strategic areas of
focus:
- Life trauma (initiatives preventing people going through a traumatic life experience
or helping them deal with a traumatic experience)
1. GETEM Internet Library Project
There are 400.000 blind people in Turkey and they do not have enough resources for personal and
professional development. Besides, they have difficulties in finding jobs. Therefore, to help visuallyimpaired people to have the right to information and to provide them with equal opportunity in
terms of education, AvivaSA launched GETEM Project in 2007 with the collaboration of GETEM, a
technical laboratory for the blind at Boğaziçi University, one of the most prestigious universities in
Turkey.
GETEM Project is AvivaSA’s first volunteer program which mainly focuses on creating audible
books for the blind with the help of AvivaSA volunteers. These GETEM audible books are to be
used to help blind people registered with the GETEM system to obtain more information via the
internet.
All volunteers have to be trained in the rules for reading audible books, either face-to-face or online, after which all they need is a microphone and specialist software to create the books.
Currently, there are 167 volunteers in the scheme.
AvivaSA has set up a special “live” section on its intranet to record the number of volunteers,
books read and time spent on the project which is the first of its kind in Turkey.
AvivaSA also supported technological substructure for GETEM, by providing a recording studio
with a computer and a sensitive microphone to enable more visually-impaired to reach information
through GETEM. The official opening has been realized on International Volunteer Day on 5th
December 2008 with the attendance of University President. With this initiative, more books and
newspapers will be read and also the standards and quality of producing audible books will be
increased. Volunteers will be able to vocalize the books by going into the recording studio when
they want to and reading the documents like classics and daily newspapers that are available. The
recording studio will provide 40 hours of vocalizing books per week and vocalizing minimum 2 films
per month.
The programme is set to expand to help blind individuals achieve their maximum potential in terms
of education, independence and employment.
2. TEKSEM (Culture and Art Center for the Disabled) Theatre Play
Ministry of Art and Culture has implemented “Respect and Tolerance in Traffic” project to create
awareness about traffic accidents in Turkey. Within the context of this project, TEKSEM has
created a theatre play in the form a comedy named “First Aid Accident” which focused on
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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experiences of a man who became disabled as a result of faulty First Aid implementation. AvivaSA
supported the project by buying 10 invitations for the play in March 2008.
3. Bicycle Donation to Antalya Zübeyde Hanım Social Security and Child Protection Center
40 bicycles which were used in the sales managers’ training that was held before the Annual Sales
Conference in February 2008, were afterwards donated to Antalya Zübeyde Hanım Social Security
and Child Protection Center
4. Donation to OXFAM
AvivaSA gave a helping hand to the victims of the Chinese earthquake in Sichuan province.
Having experienced similar tragedy during the Turkish earthquake of 1999, AvivaSA’s 331
employees were keen to donate 10.000 USD to Oxfam China’s relief fund in May 2008.
5. Blood Donation to Kızılay (Turkish Red Crescent)
AvivaSA cooperated with Kızılay (Turkish Red Crescent) whose blood service collects, processes,
stores and supplies blood to emphasize the importance of blood donation and used “Save Life with
Blood Donation” slogan.
In most of the developed countries, more than 5% of the population donates blood, where this ratio
is 1% in underdeveloped countries. In Turkey’s case, among 70 million people, only 1.5% of the
eligible population donates blood in any given year. The demand is increasing faster than
collections, and the blood banks are facing persistent supply problems, as blood-supply groups
say.
Keeping these facts in mind, AvivaSA trained its employees about benefits of blood donation with a
mini course given by Kızılay officers and realized the blood donation campaign afterwards in April
2008.
The aim of AvivaSA was not necessarily to attract a big influx of new donors, but to create wider
awareness of the importance of blood donation and encourage people to become regular donors
as blood is a priceless gift - a lifesaver. Although, 99 employees applied for blood donation, only 72
employees were found eligible for blood donation.
Provide an overview of key community initiatives in line with Aviva’s strategic areas of
focus:
- Financial literacy/education
1. AvivaSA New Year Charity Bazaar
AvivaSA employees gave support to education costs of needy girls by organizing a New Year
Charity Bazaar in the company’s cafe where only employees’ handiwork products are sold.
A public auction was also used to sell some of the special products. Among the products offered in
the public auction, one attracted the most attention: The AvivaSA Cake, which was made by
AvivaSA General Manager and Assistant General Managers, who had received culinary courses,
was bought the employees and contributed to the overall earnings.
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After the bazaar, AvivaSA employees contributed to the education of girls by donating all the
money that was collected (7,947 TL) to Çağdaş Yaşamı Destekleme Derneği (Foundation of
Support to Contemporary Life). This donation will support educational expenses of 233 young girls
2. Donation to TEGV (Turkish Educational Volunteers)
AvivaSA has close relationship with TEGV (Turkish Educational Volunteers) that puts its reason of
the existence as to contribute to the basic education delivered by the state. To serve its mission,
Educational Volunteers organizes volunteers to educate children between ages of 7-16, who come
to these well equipped education facilities with their own will, and prepare them for the future.
AvivaSA donates money to TEGV for 3 main subjects:
*Education
AvivaSA donated a total of 25.320,5 YTL to TEGV instead of giving regional feast presents to its
employees and buying New Year presents for its customers and employees. In this way, AvivaSA
supported one-year education cost of 460 children in TEGV.
*Birthdays of employees
Instead of buying birthday presents to its employees, AvivaSA buys mascots of TEGV and sent it
to the employees on their birthdays.
*Deaths of family members of employees
Instead of sending condolence flowers, AvivaSA donates to TEGV
3. Donation of IT equipment
AvivaSA donated 30 computers and 200 monitors which were redundant to an elementary school
in Unye, Ordu.
Provide details of any other key initiatives which sit outside the strategic focus.
1.AvivaSA Memorial Forest
AvivaSA launched a campaign called “Our Future Shall Not Burn” after the forest fire started in
Antalya, Manavgat, which lasted too long and caused a great loss in August 2008.
As well as the donation with an amount of 3.835 TRY made by AvivaSA staff who showed great
interest to the campaign, the company added a total of 3.030 TRY by contributing with an amount
of 10 TRY for each staff. In this way, the donation amount has reached up to 6.865 TRY. AvivaSA
has increased the company contribution and contacted TEMA (The Turkish Foundation for
combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the protection of Natural Habitats) in order to create
"AvivaSA Memorial Forest" in the vicinity of Antalya and transferred 10.500 TRY to the said
foundation. The annual maintenance of the field and regular checks by foresters for 3 years will
also be provided by TEMA.
Number of employees responsible for community investment in your business unit (if this
is only part of someone’s role and responsibilities please indicate what proportion e.g. 0.5 to represent half of someone’s responsibility)
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CSR Committee oversees the CR budget and implementation of CR projects. Natural leader of
Committee is CEO, sponsor is Assistant General Manager, Marketing & Development and head of
Committee is Unit Manager, Customer Relations. The Committee consists of representatives of
various departments namely Marketing, Operational Risk and Compliance, Logistics &
Procurement, Bank Sales, Customer Satisfaction Center, Direct Sales, Human Resources,
Finance, Operation and Technology Management and four volunteers from staff which means
there are 15 people responsible for community investment.
However, Head of the Committee spends approximately 35% of her time for CR projects.
Employee engagement
Do you set targets for engaging employees? Please provide details and progress against
targets.
In 2008 AvivaSA invested in Volunteerism and set a target of volunteer attendance rate which is
stated as: “The number of employees who has joined at least one volunteer activity should be at
least 25% of the company population”. At year end, with over 700 volunteers, AvivaSA has realized
this target.
In addition, to promote volunteerism, a special logo was created with theme “We are Volunteers”.
This logo has been used in all messages related with volunteer initiatives and on International
Volunteers Day on December 5th, a pin was produced with the volunteer logo and sent to all
volunteers in the company together with a special message from the CEO.
Do you offer matched funding
Yes
Provide details of your matched funding policy
We do not have a policy for matched funding. Matched funding has been done according to the
nature of the project. AvivaSA supports matched funding to promote Volunteerism in the company.
Employee KPI:
How did your business unit perform in the 2008 global climate survey?
►Percentage response rate given by employees “I think <my business>: Acts responsibly in the
society/community in which it operates” %90
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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(4) ENVIRONMENT
We are only too aware of the challenges posed by climate change. Managing our
impact on the environment is central to our CSR programme.
Please provide examples of where you have reduced your impact on the environment
through the management of the following areas, where applicable:

Property management
Due to merger, an integration plan has been implemented in sales offices and 9 offices has been
closed and moved.

Energy and water use
*Unfortunately, total amount in energy usage is slightly increased in 2008 due to hot and long
summer and long overtime spending caused by JV implementation.
*Although general increase in energy is an issue, some savings have been realized in HQ natural
gas consumption which is about 3 % by implementing frequency inverters to HQ A/C systems.
*In water usage, general instructions and efforts to create awareness about shortage of water
resources in country and company wide resulted as a saving about 5% for the consolidated data of
AvivaSA.
*In HQ building, hot water generators are stopped during the summer time which created saving in
energy.

Waste management
* To collect and re-cycle plastic bags, a partnership has been established with MNG Cargo
Company which is one of our suppliers. As a result, 130 kg of plastic bags have been collected and
110 kg of them were re-cycled.
*30 of old office equipments -faxes and photocopiers- which were in write-off process were sent to
re-cycling and one of them was donated to a primary school after it is fixed.
* Organic waste re-cycling, which is managed through sending them to Municipality for pet
shelters, is still in charge and 6.6 metric tons of organic waste has been re-cycled by 2008.
*35 metric tons of paper was donated to TEMA (The Turkish Foundation for combating Soil
Erosion, for Reforestation and the protection of Natural Habitats) and in return TEMA planted 900
trees for AvivaSA.

Paper use
*Because of the integration process due to JV implementation and local regulatory changes, total
paper usage increased to 146,25 metric tonnes in overall organisation which is over twice
compared with the figures of the last year.
*Increase in paper usage and the efforts to collect unused and expired versions of printed
materials after regulatory changes caused significant increase in paper re-cycling which amounts
to 66 metric tonnes which is 3 times of the last year.
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*Number of waste paper collection boxes has been increased in all branches and HQ buildings.

Travel and Transport
*Video conference and call conference systems are used where applicable and available.
*Fuel pay system has been implemented and staff began to pay fuel price for their private usage of
company cars during vacations, etc.
Have you undertaken any activities to promote environmental issues to staff and engage
them? (e.g. an energy saving week, community activity to plant trees)
1. Saving Competition
Following the “AvivaSA Saves Your Future” advertising campaign, to disseminate the saving
concept and to encourage all AvivaSA employees to save more through changes in their internal
activities, a competition was organized under the name of “Savings Inventors are Wanted!” 35
employees have participated to the competition with 70 projects which presented ways to saving
in terms of water, electricity, paper and time usage and operational effectiveness.
The winner was chosen after the assessment of the Corporate Responsibility Committee based on
criteria of: clear and detailed explanation of the project, feasibility, simple actions for
implementation and measurable outcomes. The winner project aimed to eliminate unnecessary
paper usage with a new arrangement made in Cream System which is the service application
software used by sales force. The detailed project plan of the winner was applied by AvivaSA and
lead to a saving of approximately 45.000 YTL annually. The winner has won a dinner with
company’s top management as well as a Bianchi bicycle.
2. Environment Week
AvivaSA celebrated the week 2nd June-6th June as “Environment Week” which also included the
“World Environment Day” (5th June). During this week TEMA (The Turkish Foundation for
combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the protection of Natural Habitats) was invited to talk
about Climate Change and effects of climate change observed in Turkey, Cinema Nights were
organized where “Inconvenient Truth” film was shared with employees and informational mails
about Climate Change were sent to all employees.
3. AvivaSA Memorial Forest
The initiative has been explained in detail in Community section.
How did your business unit perform in the 2008 global climate survey?
►Percentage response rate to the climate survey question: I think <my business> acts responsibly
in relation to the environment.
%92
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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(5) PEOPLE
We involve our people in creating a great place to work and a company of which
they can be proud. We value, respect and celebrate difference, because we believe
diversity gives us the strength to compete effectively as a global business.
What activities have taken place in 2008 to further the people strategy?
Please provide updates on :

Talking Talent
We designed the Talking Talent system and partially applied it in August. System is launched in
October with the participation of management team. All employees that are included in the system,
get acquainted with the system by various seminars. 329 employees participated to Honest
Conversations seminars. The talent categories of team managers and above titles are determined.
Leadership seminar is organized to form a unique way of management to determine and improve
talents.

Leading people
Sales Management Training Programmes (56 people) and Situational Leadership Programme (97)
have been realized.

Employment brand
Two newspaper ads had been published that have been designed with our new logo, and the
campaign includes sharing of current AvivaSA employees’ experiences in the company focusing
on the opportunity to evolve in AvivaSA. It emphasizes that even if one begins as a specialist one
day he/she can become an Assistant General Manager which is a real story in AvivaSA.
How does your business unit engage with employees to foster two way communication?
e.g forums
We have several tools to support two way communication:
Employee Satisfaction Survey: Realized 3 times in 2008. A Focus Group was formed to represent
each department in the company to determine and improve the development areas and to increase
the communication between senior management and the employees.
Communication Meetings (quarterly): EC (Executive Committee) members meet HQ personnel and
share a summary report of the sector and the company.
Communication Journal (quarterly): News about the company/sector/partners and a brief summary
of important decisions that are taken in EC monthly committees can be found in this journal.
HR Meetings with employees: “HR On The Road” (584 sales employees), “Breakfast with HR
&Teatime with HR” (362 HO employees), “CEO-Employee Meeting” (67 employees) were
designed to increase contact frequency with employees.
HO&Sales Conferences (annually): To share the results of the previous year and the targets of the
new year is the main aim of these meetings.
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Talking Talent- Honest Conversations: A total of 310 employees/managers have participated a
two-day seminar in order to develop a honest feedback/communication process with each other.
Also, in our development process, there is a special part where an employee evaluates his/her
manager according to some competencies determined by the company.
Please give details of any policies or practices that have been adopted by your business
unit as a result of engaging with your employees.
*As a result of Focus Group studies, two role names have been changed (employee and support
employee). Suggested change in the working hours is under evaluation.
*Considering the demands of employees, Hobby Clubs (Dance, Diving, etc.) have been
established.
*HR policies such as career development, selection and recruitment, etc designed after integration,
are currently being analysed to determine if they are in line with the requirements of the
organisation.
Have you adopted any workplace initiatives to improve employee’s work/life balance e.g
flexible working, better office environments, and improved health and safety conditions?
In 2008, organizations mainly focused on blending two different cultures to create AvivaSA
corporate culture. Some examples are:
*Happy Hours: HR department sponsored weekly Happy Hours for each department successively.
*HQ Wine Days: For every floor in the head office one Wine Day was organized on Friday
afternoons.
*Summer Party: Realized in the parking lot of the head office with music and catering.
Have there been any major structural changes in your business unit in 2007? How was this
managed?
Since 2007-2008 period is named as integration period for AvivaSA, there had been major
structural changes at the end of 2007 and some revisions in the mid 2008. First structural changes
were as a result of a designed process of an integration project and the second one was a revision
due to the requirements & developments.
Have you won any awards/external recognition regarding the people agenda? e.g great
place to work surveys
No, but according to Employee Satisfaction Survey, there are many areas that are above the
norms of both Turkey and Aviva.
Have there been any new learning and development programmes launched for staff in the
past year?
As mentioned in the previous sections, Communication Seminars, Team Building Outdoor
Activities, Honest Conversations Seminars, HQ Orientation Programme and Situational Leadership
trainings were realized.
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(6) DIVERSITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Please provide descriptions of the workplace programmes currently in place to foster a culture of
respect amongst all employees. These may include employee network groups for example, for
any of the following workstreams:






gender
age
ethnic origin
disability
sexual orientation
religion
Please describe any recruitment initiatives in place to specifically target diverse
populations.
Since above-mentioned diversity factors are not criteria for our selection & recruitment process
there is no special implementation to target diverse population.
However, due to legal legislation, we have a minimum obligatory percentage of disabled/terror
victims that must be employed (by the end of December, there are 51 disabled, 12 old victim
employees).
How has your business unit supported the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
(UNDHR) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) core labour standards specifically
articles 2 (discrimination), 23 (terms of employment), 24 (work life balance) and 25
(adequacy of standard of living)?
We work in line with Turkish Labour Law.
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(7) SUPPLIERS
We are clear and consistent with our suppliers about what we expect of them and
what they can expect of us.
Please provide details of questions and activities included at the tendering and review
stages to ensure that our suppliers’ policies and practices are reflective of our CSR
principles.
We promote environmental and ethical best practice (i.e. employee health and safety, social
security) in the relationship with our suppliers. We oblige them to make their commitment written in
the outsource contracts and we regularly audit their compliance with the contract terms.
We select suppliers that comply with ethical and environmental best practice with priority given to
those with ISO 9001 or similar certification standards and who have signed the UN Global
Compact.
Are there any activities in place to monitor compliance to these practices during our
partnership with our suppliers?
We regularly audit our supplier compliance with their commitments in the contracts and ask them
to submit the following;
- related legal documents
- health certificate of outsourced employee
- maintenance and service agreements of equipment
- regular analysis reports for water, food etc.
Are there any CSR related projects where we have partnered or co-sponsored with our
suppliers?
We have 3 projects where we have partnered with our suppliers:
*The service of the copy machine donated to an elementary school was given free of charge by the
vendor.
*The catering supplier that runs the café did not sell food on the day of Charity Bazaar to not to
hinder bazaar sales
*Advertising agency designed a poster free of charge for this bazaar to show its support for the
cause
What challenges have you faced when engaging with suppliers?
Since we do not have a structured communication with our suppliers in terms of AvivaSA CR
policy, we have not observed serious engagement challenges. However, on an ad hoc basis, we
had difficulties in engaging with them.
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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(8) EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENTS
Please share key CSR partnerships, associations or engagements which help build Aviva’s CSR
image externally, such as:
External speaking arrangements / forum participations and thought leadership events?
Please share topic and audience details.
1. CEO Forum
To increase awareness among Turkish business people, AvivaSA sponsored a CEO Forum, with
the theme of “Global Climate Change” with the cooperation of the prominent economy magazines
of Capital and Ekonomist and WWF-Turkey, underlining the fact that companies should fulfill their
responsibilities in relation to this issue.
In the meeting carried out in Conrad Istanbul, where CEO Club Chairman and AvivaSA Director
General Meral Egemen attended as moderator, Director General of WWF (World Wildlife Fund)
Jim Leape made a presentation. In his speech, Leape explained what people should do to realize a
future in which they will live in harmony with the nature. Also by mentioning the economic effects of
global warming Leape shared with the guests the finding facts of research devoted to the effects of
climate change on the water resources, forest, sea and costs that are the main work areas of
WWF.
Around 100 CEO of prominent companies joined the Forum and underlined the responsibilities of
companies besides sharing the steps that their companies took in relation to climate change.
2. Climate Change Survey
AvivaSA sponsored a survey with the theme of “Climate Change” with partnership of Capital
Magazine one the prominent economy magazines in Turkey.
118 companies attended the survey which asked questions about companies’ CR approach,
actions taken to prevent climate change, carbon footprint, reporting initiatives and CR budgets.
Results showed that;
*Climate change has been in the agenda of 53,7% of companies for the last 3 years. On the other
hand, climate change is not on the agenda of 11% of companies attended the survey.
*45,6% of companies calculate their carbon emissions. The good news is, 50% of companies
which does not calculate carbon emission will begin to do so in near future.
*52,2% of companies prepare an Environment Report. 65,6% of companies which do not prepare a
report stated that they will do so in near future.
*35,3% of companies do not have allocated budget for Climate Change, where as most companies
with 27,5 % share have budget between 100.000-500.000 USD.
*Preventive activities regarding climate change implemented by companies are;
-Analysing lightning systems (46,3%)
-New printer system implementation to decrease paper usage (31,5%)
-Establishing environmental friendly heating & cooling systems (29,6%)
-Benefiting from natural light (22,2%)
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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-Establishing teleconference systems to decrease travel expenses (20,4%)
This was the first survey about Climate Change in Turkey and therefore had contributed to
AvivaSA’s company image in terms of CR reputation.
3. UN Global Compact Caring For Climate Platform
AvivaSA has become a signatory of Caring For Climate Statement and joined the platform in June
2008.
"Caring for Climate" is a voluntary and complementary action platform for UN Global Compact
participants who seek to demonstrate leadership on the issue of climate change. It provides a
framework for business leaders to advance practical solutions and help shape public policy as well
as public attitudes. Chief executive officers who support the statement are prepared to set goals,
develop and expand strategies and practices, and to publicly disclose emissions as part of their
existing disclosure commitment within the UN Global Compact framework, that is, the
Communication on Progress.
What have these engagements meant to your business unit? What was the impact of the
award?
AvivaSA’s external engagements focused on Environment, and specifically “Climate Change”. In
this respect, AvivaSA targeted to become a go-to-company in insurance sector in terms of Climate
Change and support its “AvivaSA Saves Your Future” brand positioning by investing in “Saving the
Environment”.
Have you engaged with any of your stakeholders this year on CSR-related issues? This
may include NGOs, shareholders, local community leaders, students or new graduates for
example.
AvivaSA has engaged with various stakeholders in 2008. Namely:
*GLOBAL COMPACT Network Turkey
Attended to meetings and provided input where requested.
*TEMA (The Turkish Foundation for combatting Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the
protection of Natural Habitats), ÖSGD (Private Sector Volunteers Foundation), WWF (World
Wide Fund For Nature)
To increase awareness about NGOs and to foster volunteerism among employees, AvivaSA has
designed monthly meetings with select NGOs. In these meetings, NGOs talk about their mission
and activities and give information about working as a volunteer in their organization.
Within this context, TEMA, ÖSGD and WWF were invited to the company in 2008.
Also, AvivaSA buys a tree certificate for each newcomer to the company from TEMA.
In addition, AvivaSA’s engagement with TEMA about AvivaSA Memorial Forest initiative has been
explained in detail in the Community Section.
*LÖSEV (Foundation of Children with Leukemia)
To support this foundation, HR department members buy birthday presents to each other and
stationery to the children of Support Employees from this foundation.
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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*Boğaziçi University - GETEM Laboratory
The project is mentioned in detail in the Community section.
*TEGV
The project is mentioned in detail in the Community section.
*Antalya Zübeyde Hanım Social Security and Child Protection Center
The project is mentioned in detail in the Community section.
*TEKSEM (Culture and Art Center for the Disabled)
The project is mentioned in detail in the Community section.
*Kızılay (Turkish Red Crescent)
The project is mentioned in detail in the Community section.
*ÇYDD (Foundation of Support to Contemporary Life)
The project is mentioned in detail in the Community section.
Finally, looking internally, how have you communicated the CSR agenda with your
colleagues? Have you held any meetings with internal departments to discuss embedding
CSR within their business? Examples may include talking to your customer service teams,
facilities, IT – in order to promote an environment where every employee is a CSR
champion.
1. Online CR Training
In order to create a mutual corporate responsibility (CR) culture inside the company and to
promote volunteerism among our employees, we have designed an online education programme.
Online CR Training included information about current and future CR projects, AvivaSA CR policy,
CR reports and the way of handling CR operations in the company.
The training also includes the field sales operations which is first of its kind in Turkey because of its
extend. The mandatory education programme is not only presenting AvivaSA’s CR policies but
also its primary CR areas and the importance of volunteerism.
This mandatory CR training which is also shared with all the newcomers is aiming to provide a
basic knowledge on the principles of CR and engender a collective culture around the subject
matter via ensuring every member of the AvivaSA family has the same insight and accumulation of
knowledge.
CR training, which includes all topics from advantages of CR to AvivaSA’s activities around
corporate social responsibility is also testing the knowledge of the employees on CR through mini
surveys. In addition, employees are also asked to utter their recommendations and requests on
which CR areas they prefer AvivaSA to be active.
As of end of December 2008, 1635 employees out of 1883 employees had the training.
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AvivaSA Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
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2. Internal Communication
For internal communication, we have below tools as well:
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Internal company e-bulletin
Internal bi-monthly magazine: A special section is reserved for CR activities which aims to
educate Akbank personnel about CR concept
Intranet: A special section on the intranet, has been dedicated for CR activities where latest
news about the company initiatives are broadcasted
CR content has been included in the web site to present AvivaSA’s CSR policies and
activities
Posters: For every activity, special posters were prepared and displayed on wall panels on
every floor, including restrooms
Lotus Notes: Every activity about CR was announced through internal company-wide emailing
Annual Conference: A special section for CR activities were reserved at the 2008 Sales
Conference.
Department/Branch meetings: Updates are provided on department level meetings as the
CR Committee covers all the departments in the company.
Trainings: An overview of our CSR activities are provided to show the company culture.
Newcomers to the company are trained about the products and the system in general. In
these trainings CSR activities are also presented as well.
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