Area-specific risk: The risk associated with quickly changing regulations and necessity to update the knowledge about prevailing regulations, obligatory operating methods and the rules of work organization.
Approach to management: Obligatory training courses are organized in the PZU Group, mainly in the online form. This form of training facilitates the efficient transfer of knowledge in an optimally short time to all employees to which the scope pertains. Courses are conducted in an attractive and engaging form. In addition, courses in the form of e-learning contain tests verifying the effectiveness of the acquired knowledge and allow for monitoring whether the information has reached the target group.
Key regulations: procedures and principles related to planning and organization of training and all development activities for employees, in particular: PZU and PZU Życie employee training procedure, Rules for the organization and financing of training and development activities, Procedure for co-financing postgraduate programs and specialist forms of professional development for PZU and PZU Życie employees
[GRI 103-2] [GRI 103-3]
Most of the PZU Group companies have implemented special procedures and principles related to planning and organization of training and development activities for employees. They define the process of obtaining and supplementing knowledge and skills as well as improving professional qualifications by employees. The documentation provides also the rules for the organization and financing of training and development activities.
The PZU Group strives to be an employer that gives its employees tailored and flexible development opportunities at an individual and team level and at the level of the whole organization. In planning its development activities, the Group frames them in the context of its strategic business objectives. The PZU Group attaches great importance to selecting optimum forms of development. They contribute to both work productivity and employee engagement in the long-run.
The approach to comprehensive development developed in the PZU Group is based on organizing general corporate activities designated for various employee groups and individually addressed activities. Training courses and workshops are frequently supplemented with activities which employees do on their own before a training course (form of preparation) and after its completion (mastering knowledge, exercising skills). Enriching traditional training schools with modern solutions such as e-learning, webinars and virtual reality means that the educational offer is ever more attractive. Since 2020, a vast majority of development activities have been held online, including in the form of workshops. This trend has prevailed, since a greater availability of the offered actions is ensured (a webinar, an online conference is attended by between 100 and 1,900 employees), remote work methods and tools are being intensively developed and the reception of online events by their participants is increasingly more positive.
PZU’s priority is to take care of effective knowledge management in the organization – maintain, share and utilize it across areas. That is why more and more frequently managers and specialists are engaged in internal development activities as authors of training programs, educational materials and as internal trainers.
Forms of development support available in PZU:
| General corporate | General corporate dedicated to selected groups | Individual and team |
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Regulations in subsidiaries
The Pekao Group and the Bank create educational opportunities and provide access to various forms of training for their staff. The Bank’s educational programs include local training and general development webinars, international training courses and programs, mentoring sessions, internal and external coaching, and certification training (CFA/ACCA/CIA). The fundamental internal regulation defining this area is the “Policy on training and improvement of professional qualifications of employees of Bank Polska Kasa Opieki Spółka Akcyjna”, which also defines procedures governing processes related to employee participation in various forms of professional qualification improvement.
Alior Bank cares about genuine development of its staff and management. Alior Bank’s training and development policy provides its employees with opportunities of specialization in selected fields, development of competences related to their duties and aspirations, and those related to team management. The management system and the development model adopted by the Bank enable the setting of effective paths of improvement for specialists and the development of their careers. Employees are provided with training programs conducted by both internal and external trainers. The offering includes product, sales and service quality courses and interpersonal and managerial skills training.
Training plans are run for a given financial year in PZU Zdrowie while giving consideration to internal and external training. Detailed procedures, depending on the company, are specified in various documents, including the “Collective Bargaining Agreement” and the “HR Management Procedure.” Moreover, most companies have adopted their own rules governing the organization and financing of training and development activities for their staff.
Average number of training days per employee hired under an employment contract in the PZU Group was 3.22 in 2021 (0.36 days more than in 2020). ). In the Pekao Group it was 4.64 (vs. 3.76 in 2020) and in the Alior Bank Group 2.01 (vs. 2.81 in 2020). In PZU and PZU Życie, the average number of training days increased in 2021 when compared to the previous year, amounting to 3.49 (3.19 in 2020 roku).
Average number of training hours per employee by gender1
| PZU and PZU Życie | ||||
| 2020 | 2021 | |||
| Women | Men | Women | Men | |
| Total number of training hours | 169 154 | 94 932 | 180 684 | 100 107 |
| Number of employees | 6 337 | 4 017 | 6 181 | 3 868 |
| Average number of training hours | 26,7 | 23,6 | 29,2 | 25,9 |
| Average number of training days | 3,3 | 3 | 3,7 | 3,2 |
1 Estimated data on account of the lack of statistics in this area. Data presented as FTEs.
Average number of training hours per employee by structure of employment
| PZU and PZU Życie | ||||||
| Structure of employment | 2020 | 2021 | ||||
| Total number of employees | Total number of training hours | Average number of training hours | Total number of employees | Total number of training hours | Average number of training hours | |
| Management staff | 1 605 | 66 664 | 41,5 | 1 571 | 67 198 | 42,8 |
| Other employees | 8 749 | 197 423 | 22,6 | 8 478 | 213 593 | 25,2 |
All employees of PZU and PZU Życie to whom bonus systems apply undergo regular job quality and performance assessments (annually or quarterly). This applies to both management and all staff.
Regular assessment of the level of attaining objectives and the quality of work makes it possible to verify developmental needs and the action plans focused on developing specialist knowledge to help employees achieve their business objectives.
A development program called New Manager has been prepared with people in mind who are taking up managerial positions in the PZU Group for the very first time. Its goal is to acquaint the people with the expectations placed on managers in PZU as regards their management style and competences (in this manner the Group shapes the desired leadership model). During workshops managers are trained on key managerial competences, inter alia, on providing constructive feedback, holding talks with reports, task management and planning a team’s work.
Since 2020, PZU has been operating the Laboratory of Managers, which initially aimed to support managers who contended with the new challenge of team management under the hybrid work model. Currently, the Laboratory of Managers serves as a platform for exchanging knowledge and best practices between managers. Topics related to current challenges involved in management are discussed on regular meetings. In 2021, the Laboratory of Managers was involved in a portion of the Dispersed-Connected program addressed to managers and in the Supportive Leader series of workshops, which was a response to new needs and observed market trends.
Supportive Leader series of workshops
The purpose of the program is to build awareness of the role of psychophysical resilience and the #WellBeing of employees and managers, to build awareness of the importance of emotional stability, to cope with stress in private and professional lives, and to promote health and healthy habits in everyday life.
This subject was introduced by a webinar conducted by an external expert entitled “Greater resilience means more power and efficiency. Time for a leader’s engine checkup!
The workshops were conducted in two modules:
- Supportive leader – out of concern for your own wellbeing
- What is your own mental resilience and how to strengthen? – latest trends and research;
- Role of the leader – awareness of how stress and a manager’s condition affect the team;
- Discussing and learning about the sources of stress and defining effective ways to deal with it – exchange of good practices;
- Strengthening good habits and promoting health-boosting activities as a method to prevent professional burnout in managers;
- Supportive leader – out of concern for your team’s wellbeing
- Signals indicating declining moods, mental resilience, commitment and efficiency of the team’s work;
- Sources of overload, stress and burnout among employees;
- How to counteract, how to talk, how to support employees in difficult situations?;
- Collection and exchange of good practices, preparation of various action scenarios.
Click for development
“Click for development” is a program addressed to all PZU employees. Its purpose is to raise awareness of online development opportunities that are widely available and support the learning organization by encouraging staff members to take responsibility for their own development.
The program consists of a number of activities held regularly throughout the calendar year.
- Online conference
An online conference is held every year for everyone interested in using digital tools in professional and personal development. Experts are invited to conduct the event and talk about the impressive possibilities of new technologies, but also about the threats that go with them. In 2021, the conference motto was: Technology is for us! The event was attended by 1,400 PZU employees who had a chance to find out what the digital transformation will look like at PZU and how they may adapt to these changes and work efficiently under the hybrid model. Another topic discussed during the conference was the issue of how generational differences affect people’s existence in the era of digital change and what the future of cooperation in virtual reality will look like.
- Podcasts
With a view to promoting various forms of development, PZU records its own podcasts. Unique experts are interviewed, bringing employees closer to the world of technologies that support online development. In total, 19 podcasts were held. All of them are published every two weeks on the YouTube channel and the internal e-learning platform.
- Online courses
Ready-made online courses are provided as well as internally prepared ones whenever a specific need arises, for instance to promote specific tools handy in everyday work. These courses take the shape of short videos and tasks to be performed. More than 30 online training modules on various topics are available, in particular covering in the area of managerial competences. To date, over 2,000 employees of the PZU Group have participated in these courses and their number is constantly growing.
- Webinars and workshops
Webinars and workshops are held to support effective learning, employee engagement in social media and effective development. Selected webinars are supplemented with workshops for employees willing to improve their knowledge of the respective topic.
- English learning platfom
In order to improve the linguistic competences of employees and show how effectively they may learn using online tools, PZU enables and promotes the learning of English on a remote platform. In this program, employees are provided with support in using the platform’s functionalities, their learning progress is monitored, and participants’ opinions are also collected for development of the related solutions (another platform has already been put into operation).
By the end of 2021, 1,303 individuals participated in the program, including 1,122 employees of PZU SA and PZU Życie and 181 employees of other companies. As of now, more than 700 participants are reported to have been participating in the program since its launch, which means they have been learning English continuously since 1 June 2021.
#TyTworzyszPrzyszłość [#YouCreateTheFuture] conference
In November 2021, an internal conference entitled #TyTworzyszPrzyszłość [#YouCreateTheFuture] was held for the third time. The event was held online for the second time, with all employees of the PZU Group invited to attend.
This year, the event was held under the motto: a new dimension of work. It refers to the challenges of transitioning to the hybrid work model and the need to redefine a variety of work-related issues that have been affected by new trends and technologies. During the conference, employees were acquainted with global trends in new technologies and their possible impact on PZU and everyday work. Speakers also talked about selected changes in PZU to increase employees’ awareness that they operate in a very volatile environment and that PZU is already taking advantage of various technological changes. In general, employees are encouraged to remain up to date on new changes taking place, look for opportunities and be welcoming of experimentation and new forms of work.
The conference aims to build a greater sense of influence among employees on the future of their work and the future of PZU. According to comments, the event encouraged the participants to a greater extent to open up to changes, experiment and take action. This is of particular significance for the changes that are currently being implemented in terms of shaping the Group’s organizational culture, with the following key elements: focus on innovation (for instance, through creative working methods, openness to experimentation), cooperation within teams and between areas, interdisciplinary actions, knowledge sharing, agility and efficiency (we work wisely, we look for optimal ways to ensure the achievement of objectives and well-being).
In 2021, Bank Pekao launched the TalentsUP development program for its employees. TalentsUP is based on the key values promoted by the organization, such as #Prosto [#StraightAhead], #Razem [#Together], #Odważnie [#Boldly], #Odpowiedzialnie [#Responsibly]. Its core element is an annual project path that provides the opportunity to participate in a team executing one of the eight strategic business projects. In the program, the participants learned about trends, research tools, prototyping and testing techniques. The program specifically emphasized the fact that solutions developed by participants were fully or at least partially implemented by the Bank in its operations. The project path is complemented by an 18-month development schedule based on close cooperation with a trainer and on a jointly agreed individual objective and development plan.
LINK4 has a cafeteria in place, established in response to the development needs of employees and as a support tool for the pursuit of strategic goals. It is a series of workshops responding to the needs reported by employees and/or managers and addressing various current challenges faced by the organization.
- The workshop schedule is announced quarterly and is addressed to all managers and independent staff members;
- The purpose of the workshops is to develop behavioral competences intended to improve the efficiency of work performed by managers and specialists;
- During the workshops, topics such as feedback, face-to-face talks, implementation of changes, assertive attitudes, the art of presentation, Excel, effective meetings, management by objectives, employee engagement, simple language and labor law are covered;
- Participants sign up for any topic and preferred date of the training themselves;
- Training sessions are conducted in small groups, online via the MS Teams platform and with the use of interactive training methods, including online tools, such as Miro or Menti;
- For the most part, the workshops are conducted by internal experts;
- The usefulness of training courses is verified by an online questionnaire in which participants share their feedback.
In 2021, Bank Pekao continued its Ambassadors of Change development program addressed to all employees of the Operations Center who:
- want to develop their competences and become Ambassadors of Change in their respective areas;
- are highly motivated to implement changes/improvements;
- engage with great openness and enthusiasm in proposed development activities and willingly apply the acquired knowledge in practice.
The program aims to:
- identify the Ambassadors of Change within the Operations Center;
- develop participants’ skills in the following fields: openness to change, generating and designing solutions, implementing improvements and managing change;
- initiate a change of approach to introducing improvements, encouraging to challenge well-established patterns of behavior, inspiring for a lasting cultural change within the Operations Center.
LINK with us – the practice of building candidate experience
The LINK with us practice is a response to the need to turn LINK4 into an employer of choice, outstanding in terms of its approach to candidates. LINK4 is prompted to continue to implement this practice by the desire to reduce voluntary employee turnover and by the market situation which puts candidates in the center of employers’ attention, especially during the uncertain age of the pandemic.
The following actions are taken, among others:
- advertisements: job advertisements contain images of internal LINK4 ambassadors and their contents are prepared in accordance with the rules of simple language;
- recruitment meeting: the selection is made by the superior, then the selected persons are invited to meetings, which are currently held online;
- Satisfaction survey: we send out a satisfaction survey within three to five days after announcing the decision. The candidate assesses the whole recruitment process, the recruiter and the company’s offer. The candidate also has the opportunity to share his/her own comments underneath open-ended questions. Based on candidates’ comments, the recruitment process is modified on an ongoing basis to adapt it to the needs of the target group;
- Welcome on board: the onboarding process has been adapted to the remote mode of work; despite the new reality, the elements appreciated most by new employees have been preserved, e.g. the so-called Welcome Day, when new employees are welcomed by the President of the company and their superiors;
- employee satisfaction survey: conducted three months after the employment start date to verify the level of satisfaction with the employee onboarding process on an ongoing basis.
Inspiration Council
The Inspiration Council is a place where employees propose solutions that facilitate their daily work and the work of the whole Claims Handling and Remote Channels Division. The ideas are analyzed and the best of them are implemented with the support of head office departments and teams entrusted with the deployment of new technologies. The Inspiration Council offers its participants an opportunity to become involved in the creation of solutions that will determine future processes and make daily work more efficient. It also allows the employees to develop and learn more about their organization.
In 2021, the participants in the Inspiration Council took up many challenges:
- WOMAI – inauguration – meeting with blind persons in order to draw the attention of Relationship Managers to customer service from a different perspective;
- PoradziMY [WeWillManage] – collaborative search for solutions on how to work remotely and how to deal with new challenges arising while working from home in dispersed teams;
- Feel like a BOSs – cooperation with BOS teams – execution of tasks such as report analysis, support for artificial intelligence learning, ability to face the tasks performed by such teams;
- Active 2021 – spring awakening and Active in the fall of 2021 – competitions held with the main goal of promoting a healthy lifestyle and physical activity among employees who work remotely;
- Ambassadors of automation – a series of workshops with IT teams during which the participants learned about processes applied when implementing new solutions and available technologies;
- Conquerors of insurance issues – a competition organized by PSK employees to popularize knowledge about the organization and insurance;
- Enter a higher level of innovation – a series of workshops with Bartek Stawski about coming up with innovative ideas and looking for solutions.
Knowledge sharing
The knowledge and experience of the PZU Group’s employees represent the company’s enormous capital. As we understand how important this is for the society and the economy, PZU rolled out new knowledge sharing standards. Participating in various types of events, conferences and symposiums and activities to benefit business development, science, new technology and financial education makes it possible to convey some of the expert knowledge to employees and the company while showing our care for the common good. One example of such an approach is the issue of proper risk assessment. This is a key skill in many positions, not only ones that are directly related to the insurance industry. Many pre-eminent experts related to this area work in PZU.
In 2020, PZU LAB in partnership with the Kozminski University launched “Risk and insurance” postgraduate studies. During classes, students were able to acquire tools necessary for correct risk identification and analysis and to apply an effect risk management method. Practical knowledge was shared with students and participants by professionals that are appreciated in the market, who deal with the topics of insurance and risk management. The classes were launched in November 2020 and lasted until September 2021. 22 individuals successfully defended their thesis.
In 2021, PZU LAB in collaboration with the Main School of Fire Service launched a training course entitled the Pyramid of Competences, devoted to issues related to the safety and risk management in enterprises. The series of training sessions is addressed predominantly to specialists responsible for fire and explosion safety in industrial plants, brokers and insurance agents, experts, designers and architects, and others interested in the application of good practices in risk management and safety in industrial facilities. In December 2021, the first training course on “Fire safety of production and warehouse buildings” was held, attended by 11 participants. The training program is scheduled to be continued.
Programs for students
Internships and apprenticeships are also a method of sharing knowledge. They allow students to gain professional experience and get to know the organizational culture of a large organization. PZU and PZU Życie have a “Procedure for apprenticeships and internships” in place, which defines the rules of organization of internships and apprenticeships and specifies the course of the processes related to application, recruitment and employment of apprentices and interns.
The main goal of the apprenticeship program at PZU is to ensure the inflow of young talents to the organization and build the image of the company as an attractive employer. The program allows the students to gain professional experience and learn the company’s culture. In 2021, the program started in July: the term of the apprenticeships was three months and of the internships – six months. Apprenticeships are offered by various business areas of the company in different locations, e.g. in Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań and Wrocław. A package of development activities was prepared for the participants, supplemented with a FRIS study to boost the effectiveness of activities by identifying the style of participants’ thinking and acting and translating it into cooperation within the team. The whole package was delivered completely online.
On average, 115 people replied to each of the offers. After over 340 remote meetings with the candidates, 62 participants were recruited: 31 apprentices and 31 interns. After the completion of the Apprenticeship and Internship Program, nearly 71% interns continued their cooperation with PZU. According to the results of the evaluation survey, 100% of the surveyed interns confirmed that the program met their expectations.
Cooperation with the academic circles is an important part of social commitment and building the image of PZU as an employer among students. Students organizations, universities whose profile matches the recruitment needs and fits the performed actions in the employer branding are periodically invited to cooperate.
Through participation in academic events, PZU tries to reach the group of ambitious students, who will soon enter the labor market. Therefore, PZU organizes various projects addressed both to students and graduates, i.e. Apprenticeship and Internship Program, Business Open Door Days, or Ambassador Program. Thanks to such engagement in the academic life, many students choose precisely PZU as a place to begin their professional career.
Among the flagship activities are the Business Open Door Days – a workshop event for students from across Poland. It offers students an opportunity to face the real business issues and become familiar with the unique daily challenges in the area of their choice. They are also able to extend the knowledge gained during their studies. Through the workshops, they learn the organizational culture and work at PZU and are encouraged to participate in other events designated for students and graduates.
In 2021, PZU also participated in the 6th edition of the Go4Poland Program – Choose Poland, held by the GPW Foundation, as part of which PZU became involved in the Mentoring Program. In 2021, PZU also continued its partnership with the Warsaw School of Economics. Within the framework of this cooperation, PZU employees are jurors of the “Business Sails” competition, and materials promoting programs targeted at students appear regularly in the “Gazeta SGH” magazine. The Company is always first to be chosen for projects organized by the School.
All actions and cases of cooperation translate into a large number of high-quality CVs received by PZU in connection with projects addressed to students or for junior positions.
Package of development activities for PZU apprentices and interns
To encourage participants in the Apprenticeship and Internship Program to cooperate with one another and to improve their soft competencies, a development program was organized for the apprentices and interns. Online workshops, a VUCA CHALLENGE training game for interns and a Mission Mars 2050 for apprentices were organized. These activities were held online and served as an alternative to the meetings and sessions organized in the previous editions. The group of 62 students distributed across Poland had an opportunity to establish contacts with one another and to cooperate in team projects and learn new competences.
As part of the VUCA CHALLENGE, a group of PZU interns was transferred to a training game the main purpose of which was to familiarize and test a model of effective teamwork in the VUCA environment and the benefits of striving to achieve a shared objective. An additional goal was to build a culture of agility and focus on the client in the team and to come up with effective ways to solve problems in dispersed teams. Before the meeting, each participant received individual tasks that exerted an impact on the game in its later stages and solved case studies.
The purpose of the Mission Mars 2050 was to build a team around values such as cooperation, respect, shared responsibility, engagement, creativity and making the right decisions based on these values. With the use of online cooperation tools, participants had the opportunity to experience the atmosphere of cosmic challenges and face tasks requiring efficient cooperation in a virtual setting. Participation in the workshop developed their skills in the areas of negotiation, analysis of clients needs and presentation.
PZU Ambassadors are a group of proactive students, who represent the PZU Group in their universities and act as liaisons between the company and the academic community. They help engage the best students in their universities in the projects, cooperate with local career offices, recommend student projects in which it is worth participating. Owing to their activity in, among others, local governments, organizations and science clubs they are popular at their universities, which contributes to a higher effectiveness of joint actions. This year, the Ambassadors were recruited fully remotely and the cooperation with them started with workshops devoted to social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram) and techniques that would allow them to create engaging contents.
In the academic year 2021/2022, a total of 17 PZU ambassadors have been active in the largest academic centers in Poland.
PZU Ambassadors provide a very strong support for PZU during recruitment for flagship programs dedicated to students. It was partly owing to the strong commitment of the Ambassadors in this year’s Business Open Door Days that over 400 submissions were received.
PZU intends to provide students with the best development opportunities possible. Bearing in mind the digitization, the direction of the industry development and the interest of students with technology topics, PZU is going to focus on the Information Technology Division and offer a broad range of apprenticeships and internships to students – from maintenance teams to development teams.
In 2021, as part of the Apprenticeship and Internship Program seven apprentices and interns were employed in the IT area, six of which have continued their work and further development at PZU after finishing the program. In order to develop the IT area among students, one day during the Business Open Door Days was devoted in whole to workshops concerning this topic. 20 students learned the characteristics of work in the area of artificial intelligence and Big Data. The participants had the opportunity to learn about the specific nature of work in IT units and see for themselves how data may be collected, processed and analyzed, also with the use of AI models.
Also, as part of the promotion of the Apprenticeship and Internship Program, PZU participated in the Warsaw IT Days. It is the largest job fair for IT students and graduates.
“For Professionals. For You.” campaign
The autumn campaign promoting the PZU employer brand in 2021 was addressed to professionals with professional experience in various areas of business.
In its communication, PZU emphasized the diverse range of jobs offered. The video clip was recorded with an FPV sports drone piloted by a multiple champion of Poland in this field. A large part of the recording was done in the office building, to which the PZU Head Office will move in 2022. The video spots were available, among others, online (on the social media and the largest recruitment portals), in office buildings of six largest cities in Poland and on screens in urban transportation.
The campaign is a continuation of image activities that PZU has been conducting for three years on the labor market under the slogan “A job with a purpose” promoting career development opportunities in the PZU Group. It offers a place for insurance experts, but also specialists in other fields, such as IT, data analysis, finance, sales, customer service, communication or law. The campaign emphasizes PZU's flexibility as an employer that makes it easy to reconcile professional and private roles. The modern production of the campaign spot as well as the presentation of an office providing the highest standards and work tools enabling effective work not only in offices and branches, but also at home, in the field, or directly with clients, reinforced the message of PZU's attractiveness as an employer in the present times. More on the main campaign website: www.pzu.pl/takapracamasens
The activities promoting PZU as the best employer will continue in 2022, emphasizing the stability of employment, work-life balance, competitive remuneration and benefits, as well as development, challenges and innovations being the core of PZU's employer value proposition.