Sustainability in our UNIQA community

Strategic focus in the area of People & Culture

Our nearly 16,400 employees are the backbone of the UNIQA community and the heart of our sustainability journey. They accompany and inspire our customers in their everyday lives and are committed to our vision of a better life. Group People looks after and supports our employees within the UNIQA Group with attractive offers for personal and professional development. In this way, we create a constructive and positive working environment and ensure the continued success of our company.

As part of our UNIQA 3.0 strategy, we launched and implemented new initiatives in 2022, both Group-wide and with a focus on our core market of Austria. The central focal points were the optimisation of the "Employee Experience" as well as comprehensive structural and corporate culture projects aimed at making UNIQA the most attractive employer by the end of 2025. 

Diversity & Inclusion at UNIQA

A community the size of our UNIQA community lives and works through diversity. Regardless of gender, age, origin, physical ability, sexual orientation, religion, worldview or other differences, we value and respect each other.
Diversity and inclusion are embedded in the company through the D&I Strategy. By doing so, we actively strengthen employee engagement, reduce turnover, and combat the shortage of skilled workers. We focus on fostering a trusting environment and recognise each other not only in our professional roles but also as individuals in all our differences. Our diversity is a reflection of our humanity. This allows our employee community to grow and support our customer community.
Living inclusion, consisting of policies, practices, behaviours, and attitudes, enables us to harness the full potential of a diverse organisation.

Cultural transformation: with our GUIDING Principles to the UNIQA target culture

We want to create a working environment in which our employees can develop and in this way noticeably improve the lives of our customers. 
The UNIQA Group Corporate Strategy, which is based on the GUIDING principles of ‘Customer first’, ‘Simplicity’, ‘Integrity’, ‘Responsibility’ and ‘Community’, is also reflected in the corporate culture in that these values are anchored in the daily actions of employees. 
A corporate culture that is not lived or is not clearly or inadequately communicated to employees leads to employees' individual development being inhibited and their performance in their day-to-day work being significantly impaired.

The foundation for the UNIQA target culture consists of our
five GUIDING Principles:

Labour and human rights

At UNIQA, respect for human and labour rights is essential - both for our employees and in the value chain. 
Labour and human rights include the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining as well as protection against gender, religious, political and national or social discrimination. UNIQA does not tolerate child or forced labour, (modern) slavery or human trafficking in its business activities under any circumstances. 
To this end, the ten principles of the UN Global Compact have been incorporated into the Code of Conduct, which is binding throughout the company. All known violations are investigated and followed up by the compliance function in line with the general whistleblowing process.

Training and personnel development

At UNIQA, we define requirements and standards for employee development in order to support the corporate strategy and be recognised as an attractive employer. 
To ensure that the necessary skills are in place to achieve the company's goals, there is a wide range of mandatory training for all employees on topics such as compliance, data protection training and cyber security. A comprehensive learning programme on various topics is also available.
The learning strategy is based on the three pillars ‘Provide’, ‘Enable’ and ‘Optimise’ and forms the foundation for employee development.
The introduction of a learning management system with customised learning paths and gamification elements is planned for 2025.

Sustainability in variable remuneration & gender pay gap 

A portion of the variable compensation for the Executive Board of UNIQA Group and executives in our Austrian core market has been tied to climate-related interim goals since 2023. Starting in 2024, this model will be expanded to include the boards in other markets.

The consideration of sustainability is integrated into both the short-term incentive program (STI) and the long-term incentives (LTI) and includes, among other things, ESG targets related to CO₂ emissions reduction in our own operations, the CO₂ emission intensity of our investment portfolio (WACI) and the reduction of the adjusted gender pay gap.
Reducing the adjusted gender pay gap was also set as a strategic goal of the UNIQA 3.0 Growing Impact programme for the future. The adjusted gender pay gap measures the average pay gap between men and women. Factors such as professional experience, qualifications and position are taken into account.
The adjusted gender pay gap was 3.1 per cent in 2024 and was therefore reduced by 0.1 per cent (compared to the 2023 financial year).

Further details on the specific design of the variable compensation can be found in the in the (Consolidated) Non-Financial Report in the Group Management Report, available here: 

or in the UNIQA Remuneration Strategy: 

Sustainability in our mobility

The UNIQA Group's travel policy takes into account a form of mobility that conserves resources as much as possible and uses fundamental principles to ensure that climate-relevant aspects are taken into account in business travel.

Both in the choice of means of transport and in the compensation rules granted, the avoidance and reduction of emissions is a goal that is also pursued. We rely on public transport, give preference to rail transport and reimburse its use per trip when private climate tickets or public transport tickets are used.

The relevant provisions in a summary of the travel policy: