What we do
Gjensidige shall be an attractive workplace that attracts engaged and motivated employees. In order to be able to give our customers the help they need, our employees undergo
thorough training in ethics, data protection, information security, knowledge of our products and management training in our own school. This is intended to enable us to treat customers with trust and respect, provide professional and ethical advice based on necessary qualifications and knowledge of the customer’s situation.
Diversity
The right competence in the right place at the right time is vital to maintaining competitiveness. It is important to Gjensidige to facilitate diversity. We look at alternative work methods that include diversity, and that also make it possible to work even more efficiently across the organisation. Our experience is that such work methods are perceived as enriching and generate new approaches and solutions to different problems.
Gender equality

Gjensidige has had a strong focus on gender balance and increasing the percentage of women in senior positions. There is zero tolerance for all forms of discrimination. Requirements relating to greater diversity are included in the senior management’s Performance Agreements, and in the basis for the assessment of bonus. Diversity is followed up in the biannual People Review, which covers all members of the senior management.
Wage growth for women and men is continuously measured and followed up. Any unexplained differences identified receive special followup.
We have established a collaboration with Seema in 2018, which aims to increase the focus on and understanding of the importance of diversity and diversity management as a sustainable competitive advantage.
Notification
Reporting procedures are in place for employees who experience discrimination. Gjensidige has an equality and discrimination committee that convenes as necessary. The committee comprises staff from the HR department and employee representatives. It is the Group’s HSE manager who decides when to convene the committee. The committee held one meeting in 2016 , one in 2017 and one in 2018. The topic of these meetings was equal pay for women and men.
ILO and cooperation with employee representatives
All of our employees have full freedom of association. Collective bargaining takes place in accordance with the agreements with the different trade unions. Gjensidige recognizes the main ILO conventions, and supports the International Labour Organization’s promotion of decent work based on social justice and internationally recognised labour rights.
The cooperation between the Company’s management and the employees’ trade unions is systematic and good, and it is based on a well-established structure with regular meetings of various committees. Rules have been adopted for what processes and decisions employee representatives shall be involved in. Employee representatives are paid by the Company. Under Norwegian law, employees of the Group are entitled to be represented on the Company’s governing bodies. Employee representatives are elected by and from among the employees.
The Company management maintains a close dialogue with employee representatives in connection with restructuring processes. The company shall attend to those who are affected in the best possible way. This concerns everything from decisions, information, finding alternative positions in the company, to offering assistance from external advisers and finding new jobs for those who are made redundant.
IW enterprise
Gjensidige shall be an inclusive workplace for all employees. We are an Inclusive Workplace (IW) enterprise and cooperate with the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) on job training for people who, for various reasons, have been unemployed. NAV pays subsidies for employees who suffer from chronic illnesses but who still manage to work.
Gjensidige has a range of measures and a special programme for entities with a high level of sickness absence. Our ‘Focus projects’ have had a great impact, leading to reduced sickness absence and greater employee satisfaction. Gjensidige has measures in place that help to ensure that older employees can continue working until they reach retirement age. The measures vary between countries. Examples of measures include the possibility of reduced working hours and extra holidays.
All our big office buildings are universally designed in order to accommodate employees with disabilities.
Health, safety and the environment (HSE)
Systematic health, safety and environmental work is given high priority in Gjensidige. Our goal is not only to prevent sickness absence and injuries, but also to ensure that Gjensidige is a health-promoting workplace. We therefore work on preventing and following up sickness absence and on making adaptations for employees with disabilities.
The work stations of all new employees are inspected as soon as possible by a physiotherapist or an occupational therapist, if practically possible. The purpose of this is to adapt the work station to avoid repetitive strain injuries, and to provide information about the prevention of health problems.
Special adaptation procedures have been adopted for employees who have or wish to prevent such problems arising.
The HSE work is monitored through audits and followed up internally by employees with special responsibility for HSE. All incidents that can represent a risk must be reported in the Company’s nonconformity system. In 2018, as the year before, three such audits were carried out in Norway, two
in Denmark, and one in Sweden.
Working environment issues are integrated in the annual employee satisfaction survey that is conducted among all employees to identify matters that require special attention.
All managers review the survey with their staff in cooperation with the HR department. Each department defines an action plan that is followed up by the respective managers.
General measures that are intended to promote health and a good working environment include:
- Arrangements to facilitate cycling to work in the form of bicycle parking and changing rooms
- Gym rooms
- Short exercise breaks during working hours
- Company sports club that organises a range of activities
Competenceraising to meet the needs of the future
It is important to Gjensidige that everyone has the opportunity to develop in their job. We facilitate work across national borders in all the countries we operate in. This generates new perspectives, learning and a better result for our customers.
Gjensidige has a flat organisational structure and the Company believes that diversity and cooperation are important preconditions for building a good delivery culture and being attractive in the labour market of the future. We have implemented a development model that highlights that most learning – 70 per cent – takes place in connection with day-to-day tasks. The remaining 30 per cent comes from organised tuition and training.
Employees who work in sales and customer advice take part in an extensive course programme leading up to an exam that tests their professional knowhow, ethics and the customer dialogue. Advisers targeting the private market are certified in accordance with a national industry scheme for the sale of general insurance.
The Gjensidige Customer and Brand School ensures that all employees have the necessary prerequisites for implementing the Group’s customer orientation strategy. The school’s main focus areas are sales, claims settlement and management. It offers courses and programmes that underpin our group strategy and requirements for certification of customer advisers.
All new Gjensidige employees take part in an introduction day where the CEO and other key personnel talk about the Company’s strategy, competence-
building, culture, brand, ethics and more practical information.
Talent development
It is important to Gjensidige to attract and retain skilled employees. The People Review enables senior managers to follow up developments in the talent pool for experts and managers. Internal mobility is facilitated for the purpose of broadening the employees’ range of competence and specialised knowledge.
We have also established an internal mentoring programme, as a supplement to the personal growth and development of individual employees and managers. The programme will help us to retain critical expertise, promote Gjensidige’s culture and contribute to internal career development across divisions and business areas.
Customised management development programmes have been developed for groups of managers with different experience backgrounds, from newly appointed managers to the senior group management.
Gjensidige is highlighted as an attractive employer, both through digital channels and activities at relevant educational institutions, such as stands and presentations to students. In accordance with our employer branding strategy, we have established an internship scheme where students work for us for a whole academic year in order to gain relevant work experience. The work is intended to be relevant for their studies by putting theory into practice. Every year, we organise the Gjensidige Day at Gjensidige’s head office, which offers a varied programme for students.
Cooperation with educational institutions
We have established a cooperation with BI Norwegian Business School, and sponsor their master’s programme in Analytics. The cooperation between BI Norwegian Business School and our analytics environment is an important means of showing students the job opportunities that are available in Gjensidige and in the insurance sector in general.
We also run a management programme at the senior executive level in cooperation with the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), the Administrative Research Unit AFF and HEC Paris.
HR analysis
It is important to Gjensidige to work in an analytical manner to secure a good factual basis for our HR-related decisions. An analytics team has therefore been established that cooperates with other analytics resources in the Group. In 2018, the analytics team has focused on the following topics:
Employee surveys
The Group’s annual employee surveys provide important feedback on whether our employees are engaged and motivated in their work. All managers receive feedback from their employees through a structured process. We see that it pays to involve individual employees in establishing measures that will help them to be happier at work.

A followup survey is conducted in addition to the main survey, if necessary, to see whether measures are effective. Special measures are implemented for entities that deviate significantly from the goal of employee engagement and job satisfaction.
Work engagement is included in the followup of managers and the Performance Agreement for the senior group management.
HR reports
An HR report is prepared every quarter, showing the status of HR trends in gender balance, developments in wage disparities between women and men, the status of measures after the employee survey, turnover, sickness absence, the proportion of consultants and temporary staff. Work is now underway to ensure that measures are implemented to follow up competence goals.
People review
The Performance Agreement, which makes up part of the bonus evaluation, also measures senior managers’ management and strategic staff planning process.
Effect of our efforts
- Employee satisfaction in 2018 shows a figure of 75 per cent, which is higher than the average for financial undertakings in Norway and the Nordic countries in all criteria.
- Equileap has ranked Gjensidige the best company in Norway in terms of gender balance, and 19th in the top 200 companies worldwide – up from number 40 in 2017.
- Gjensidige was fifth among the 60 biggest companies in Norway with respect to gender balance, according to EY’s She index.
- Sickness absence was 4 per cent in the Group in 2018.
- Number of occupational injuries: 2.
- In 2018, 84 per cent of the Company’s employees in Norway were covered by collective agreements. In Denmark, 80 per cent of our employees were covered by collective agreements, and in Sweden 100 per cent.
- In 2018, 100 per cent of our employees took a course on the GDPR.
- In 2018, we had 22 students in the internship scheme.
- Universum ranked Gjensidige Norway's most attractive employer in the insurance industry in 2018.
- The Gjensidige Customer and Brand School had 5,982 course days in 2018 (6,960 course days in 2017).
- E-learning plays an increasingly important role in the school’s programmes In 2018, 11,805 e-learning courses were completed and passed, compared to 7,927 i 2017.
New measures

- Integrate diversity management based on experience from the collaboration with Seema on diversity and diversity management, and assess the need to initiate measures to reduce covert discrimination.
- Follow-up to ensure that all employees have relevant development plans in place based on analyses of Gjensidige’s needs.
- New training measures for employees relating to sustainability.
- Assess how we can include ESG in Performance Agreements.
