Learn more about our stakeholders and how we engage with each other to create value.
Our stakeholders
As an international business, we have many stakeholders. Their relationship with Aegon depends not only on the nature of each stakeholder's organization and activities, but also the value created by that relationship (both for the stakeholder and for Aegon). Aegon defines its stakeholders as 'any individual or organization affected, or likely to be affected, by its business or that may, in turn, affect the environment in which the Company operates'.
Aegon recognizes five main stakeholder groups:
- Customers (individual customers, group and corporate clients)
- Employees (full-time and part-time employees, tied agents, trade unions and other employee representative groups)
- Business partners (distributors, joint venture partners, reinsurers and suppliers of goods and services)
- Investors (shareholders and bondholders)
- Wider community (governments, regulators, charities, tax authorities, community groups and other non-governmental organizations, academic and public institutions).
Aegon's relationships with its stakeholders are based on mutual benefit. Through these relationships, we earn our 'social license to operate' – implicit consent from employees, stakeholders and the general public to continue our business1.
| Stakeholder group | Stakeholders provide Aegon with: | Aegon provides stakeholders with: |
| Customers | Fees, premiums and deposits | Protection and long-term financial security |
| Employees | Time, resources, skills and knowledge | Salaries & benefits, training, career development, safe and productive working environment |
| Business partners | Distribution, reinsurance, goods & services | Financial support, payment of fees, expertise and a reliable, professional relationship |
| Investors | Cash through investment in bonds and shares | Attractive long-term returns for their investments |
| Wider community | Public services, infrastructure, access to labor and markets, regulatory framework | Payment of taxes, community investment, expertise on aging and retirement, responsible approach to investments |
Dilemmas
We recognize that, in creating value for one stakeholder group, we may deplete value for another. In recent years, for example, we've seen significant investment in new technologies in the financial services industry. This investment has improved efficiency, reducing costs for financial companies and strengthening customer service. However, it has also led to job losses, particularly in areas of the industry with clearly-defined processes that can be easily automated.
Recent research from PwC estimated just over 30% of insurance jobs, for example, will disappear by the 2030s because of automation2. Our asset management business faces similar dilemmas: Aegon's recent decision no longer to invest in tobacco, for example, may reduce investment opportunities, but may also bring wider health and social benefits.
Engagement
Aegon engages with stakeholders to understand these 'dilemmas'. Engagement allows us to take different stakeholder views into account when making our decisions. We engage stakeholders regularly through polls and surveys, conferences, perception studies, workshops and face-to-face meetings.
We also organize panels with our customers and employees. We use their feedback to improve our products and services, to make sure we are aware of risks to our business and can continue to deliver long-term value. Engagement takes place at both local and Group level.
Where appropriate, we also embed this process in our policies and procedures. Our Pricing & Product Development Policy, for example, includes the principle of 'reasonable distribution of value'; this ensures fair returns from our products to customers, intermediaries and shareholders.
We also engage regularly with the companies we invest in. These engagements focus on environmental, social and governance issues. In recent years, we have been particularly active, in this area, on climate change.
To support this approach, we are signatories to a number of international agreements, including the Global Coalition on Aging and the UN Principles for both Sustainable Insurance and Responsible Investment. For more information, see our Responsible Investment Report (opens in a new window).
Footnotes
1 Companies may lose this 'license' if they do not create sufficient value for the societies in which they operate (or destroy value through, for example, damage to
the natural environment or financial wrongdoing)
2 Source: 'Will robots really steal our jobs?'- PwC, February 2018
