NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ), a global provider of lifestyle and housing solutions that support, protect and connect major consumer purchases, today published its new Social Responsibility Report. The Report highlights Assurant’s commitment to building a stronger company for its customers, employees, investors and communities through environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) initiatives, details its strategic social responsibility framework and outlines its newly-established Guiding Principles.
“As a purpose-driven company with a strong social responsibility commitment, we have long considered the needs of multiple stakeholders as we serve our customers, innovate and take the important actions to drive the long-term growth of our business,” said Alan Colberg, president and CEO, Assurant. “We are making significant progress towards more fully integrating our social responsibility efforts with our long-term business strategy and day-to-day operations. We have intensified our focus on critical areas such as diversity and inclusion, data security and privacy programs, integrity and ethics standards, and our customer experience commitment.”
“Since publishing our initial social responsibility report in the fall of 2018, Assurant established a Governing Oversight Board to help identify priority initiatives and investments to advance key ESG matters. Guiding Principles were developed to inform the company’s actions and progress against the most important ESG priorities for the company. The goal of our new social responsibility report is to provide stakeholders with a more complete picture of our efforts to deliver greater value as we operate our business and execute our long-term strategy,” said Colberg.
Social Responsibility Strategic Framework
Assurant’s social responsibility strategic framework helps identify opportunities to track and further improve the company’s progress on significant ESG topics that are core to its business. Organized under four key pillars – Responsible Employer, Impact on Society, Integrity and Ethics and Customer Commitment – the framework is dynamic and includes multiple dimensions that align with the company’s long-term business strategy.
Key Highlights of Social Responsibility Report
Responsible Employer
- At year-end 2019, Assurant’s diverse global workforce was comprised of 62 percent women with 51 percent representation of racial or ethnic groups. At the managerial level, women filled 35 percent of the roles, with 31 percent of leaders representing racial or ethnic diversity as of year-end. Four of 11 members of Assurant’s senior Management Committee are women.
- Fifty percent of Assurant’s Board of Directors (“Board”) is racially, ethnically or gender diverse, including the Board chair. Two new directors were added in 2019, enhancing the Board’s breadth and depth of experience and diversity, with additional mobile and auto industry experience as well as consumer, data and digital expertise, in support of the company’s strategy.
- Assurant continued to take steps to increase gender, racial and ethnic representation in leadership roles in 2019, which is key to ensuring equality. As part of the company’s pay equality initiatives, Assurant expanded a multi-step process to ensure that all employees are compensated equitably following an internal compensation assessment.
Impact on Society
- In 2019, Assurant Asset Management managed the company’s investment portfolio of more than $13 billion to generate consistent levels of risk-adjusted, long-term investment income while minimizing realized losses. Assurant’s portfolio management professionals, as well as third-party asset managers, integrate ESG considerations into due diligence, monitoring and investment decision making and will increasingly reflect these factors in investment processes and policies going forward.
- Assurant has reduced energy consumption at its owned and leased facilities within its current portfolio by at least two percent each year for the past 10 years. In total, energy consumption decreased by more than 57.6 million kilowatt hours over the past decade. Efforts to reduce energy consumption have cut carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 24,750 tons in the past decade, which is the equivalent of consuming more than 2.78 million gallons of gasoline, burning nearly 27.27 million tons of coal, or 12 months of electricity for 4,190 homes.
Integrity and Ethics
- In 2019, Assurant built on its long-standing integrity and ethics commitment with the creation of a dedicated Ethics Office and the launch of a global “Speak Up!” campaign to reinforce the importance of and commitment to the reporting process and to create additional channels for employee feedback.
- As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to strengthen its data privacy and protection standards, in 2019 a total of 239 cybersecurity audits were completed successfully within Assurant. Additionally, more than 13,600 employees completed mandatory privacy training and cyber security training.
Customer Commitment
- In 2019, Assurant augmented resources and global coordination by creating an enterprise customer experience center of excellence to more deeply embed core principles into the company’s culture and recognition and reward programs.
- Assurant increased investment in training, tools and emerging technologies. This included earning additional customer experience certifications, implementing an enterprise-level “Voice of the Customer” platform and deploying AI to build additional self-service capabilities preferred by many consumers.
- Assurant leveraged consumer insight research in the design of evolving products and services that deliver more customer value.
The full report and additional information about Assurant’s ESG initiatives is available online at https://ir.assurant.com/our-story/corporate-responsibility/default.aspx. An infographic that highlights key ESG initiatives is available at https://www.assurant.com/newsroom-detail/Features/2020/March/making-progress-on-our-commitment-strengthening-our-pledge-to-be-a-purpose-driven-company-(infographic).
About Assurant
Assurant, Inc. (NYSE: AIZ) is a leading global provider of lifestyle and housing solutions that support, protect and connect major consumer purchases. Anticipating the evolving needs of consumers, Assurant partners with the world’s leading brands to develop innovative products and services and to deliver an enhanced customer experience. A Fortune 500 company with a presence in 21 countries, Assurant offers mobile device solutions; extended service contracts; vehicle protection services; pre-funded funeral insurance; renters insurance; lender-placed insurance products; and other specialty products. The Assurant Foundation strengthens communities by supporting charitable partners that help protect where people live and can thrive, connect with local resources, inspire inclusion and prepare leaders of the future.
Learn more at assurant.com or on Twitter @AssurantNews.
