Our purpose
Embedding our purpose through shared value innovation
Overview: Applying shared value as a business model supports connections between our business objectives and our purpose, to make the world a safer place. This year, we continued to build commercially viable solutions that make individuals and communities safer, stronger and more confident. We also increased our focus on inclusive products and services that work for all our customers. Our partnership with the innovative Airtasker helped us incorporate shared value into the gig economy.
Making our roads and homes safer
We conduct research at our IAG Research Centre and share the results with manufacturers. This helps to improve car design in areas like anti-theft security, crash safety and whiplash reduction through head restraint design. In 2018, the IAG Research Centre broadened its focus on emerging issues affecting vehicles and mobility, such as the development of autonomous vehicles. In partnership with the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council we created a program to look at cyber security and vehicle theft.
Distracted driving has been shown to significantly increase the chance of crashing and the NRMA Safer Journeys app was developed to address this. Users score points for not touching their phone and get rewards for doing this consistently. See the website for more details: https://saferjourneys.com.au/.
IAG has a history of helping people understand risks at home with initiatives like Safer Homes, Need2Know and First Place virtual reality that were covered in this review last year. This year, we engaged a group of NRMA Insurance customers to pilot Safety Hub – an app designed to build awareness around common risks and help people deal with them safely. For example, damaged flexi hoses are a leading cause of water damage in homes in Australia. Safety Hub alerts people to check if they have a flexi hose, helps them find a qualified person to repair it, and rewards them for doing so.
Discussion: Balancing disruptive opportunities while staying true to our purpose
The markets we operate in are increasingly affected by disruptive forces like automation, the gig economy and insuretech. We need to embrace these forces to remain competitive and continue to provide customers with the experiences they expect. Sometimes, these changes also introduce new risks. We will navigate through these challenges by keeping our purpose in mind when designing strategy, keeping communities safer and our economy resilient.
To achieve the balance required, innovators from inside and outside our business are working together to reimagine how we design and deliver insurance so that we can make our markets more sustainable and resilient as they change.
Following on from our ShareCover insurance for the sharing economy, our recent investment in Airtasker demonstrates our customer-led innovation strategy in action. With more than two million Australians using the Airtasker platform, our partnership will help us to understand emerging insurance needs and explore what type of protection the sharing economy requires to thrive.
Responding to the needs of all our customers
Our commitment to customer equity delivers on our purpose and is aligned with our ambition to create world-leading experiences for all customers, regardless of age, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental and physical abilities, culture, language or financial situation.
In Australia, we developed a Customer Inclusion Program to continue to remove barriers that prevent customers from fully experiencing our products and services. This year, we delivered employee compliance training on Mental Health and Domestic & Family Violence; removed blanket exclusions on travel policies; and participated in awareness-building events including the White Ribbon Walk and R U OK? Day.
Demonstrating our purpose in claims
servicing and managing our supply chain
Partnering with like-minded suppliers
Our Supplier Governance Framework enables us to assess risks across our global supply chain and use increasingly sophisticated tools to manage performance. We have established systems to pull real-time data from more than 500,000 sources to monitor risk exposure across our global supply chain, and engaged Made In A Free World to help us monitor human rights across our network. In 2019, we will continue these initiatives, focusing on modern slavery and climate change.
Positive impacts through our supply chain
We promoted diversity and talent by supporting the Women in Collision award with Australasian Paint & Panel magazine and the Future Leaders award with the National Collision Repairer magazine. Our environmental accreditation program, EcoSmash, helps repairers comply with good environmental practices. In 2018, we built on the program’s impact by developing a monitoring framework. We now require top level compliance for all new exclusive repairers and are introducing minimum requirements for partner repairers.
In 2018, IAG supported Indigenous enterprises by continuing to partner with Supply Nation. We are proud to now be working with 18 Indigenous suppliers, surpassing our original target of 12 by December 2018. While our impact has expanded, several engagements were one-off events. Our new Reconciliation Action Plan, launching in 2019, will expand our Indigenous supplier engagement and find opportunities for longer-term relationships.