Even though AIA started its Hong Kong operations way back in 1931, the company’s achievements in recent years have been just as exciting as any of those in its history.
“Since our initial public offering in October 2010, we have opened a new chapter,” says Jacky Chan, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Hong Kong and Macau. “We strive to be the pre-eminent life insurance provider in Asia-Pacific that plays a leadership role in the region’s socio-economic development. Our brand’s promise to our customers is to partner with them as they go through life’s various stages by giving them life protection and wealth management solutions. By giving peace of mind to themselves and their family members, we enable them to live healthier, better and happier lives.”
Since going public, AIA Hong Kong and Macau has achieved strong, sustainable growth. It has continued to climb to new heights this year, reporting 60 per cent year-on-year new business growth.
“This outstanding growth is supported by our operating philosophy of ‘doing the right thing, in the right way, with the right people, and the results will come’,” Chan says. One solid example is implementing the Premier Agency strategy, which embraces the development of financial planners to attain the internationally recognised Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) distinction. “We recognised the need to transform our capability training for our financial planners to include emphasis on leadership and soft skills. This resulted in the AIA Premier Academy being set up in 2011 to attract and train high-quality young financial planners. Among the 1,500 recruits, more than 700 have already attained the MDRT within just a few years.”
Along with uplifting financial planner capabilities, AIA Hong Kong and Macau’s new chapter involves developing a series of innovative products. As a preeminent life insurance provider in the Asia Pacific region, their diverse product slate provides solutions to meet the financial needs of everyone from individual customers to high-net-worth clients (considered as those with minimal sum assured of US$5 million). AIA Hong Kong and Macau recognise the need to possess a diverse, innovative product portfolio to serve all societal segments in Hong Kong.
AIA Vitality for all
In line with this product innovation and its strong belief in “happy employees, happy customers”, AIA Hong Kong and Macau introduced its Vitality programme to link insurance protection to a broader goal of promoting an active and healthy lifestyle to its employees, customers and the broader Hong Kong society.
Vitality is an integrated health and wellness initiative created by South Africa’s medical insurance market leader Discovery. AIA Vitality encourages the adoption of healthy lifestyle practices through a reward-incentive scheme. Boasting 3.4 million members around the world, Vitality was brought to Asia by the group’s Chief Executive and President Mark Edward Tucker and launched last year. AIA Hong Kong and Macau has exclusive rights to adopt Discovery’s Vitality programme in the local Hong Kong and Macau market.
To accelerate and disseminate the AIA Vitality platform to more people in Hong Kong, the company launched its AIA Vitality Weekly Challenge. The 12-week AIA Vitality Weekly Challenge started in August and runs until October this year. It rewards customers who achieved the weekly activity target – 7,500 steps walked each day on any five days in a week – with a free Starbucks drink of up to HK$25 value. Each participant can earn a maximum of 12 drinks. In total, AIA Hong Kong and Macau will give away 850,000 Starbucks drinks valued at over HK$21 million, since its launch one year ago, AIA Vitality has also given out more than 25,000 free UA cinema movie tickets and more than 3,000 Mannings vouchers.
“We offer these benefits to motivate customers who have purchased our AIA Vitality backed insurance products,” Chan says. “To encourage healthy and active lifestyles, AIA Vitality members receive a 10 per cent discount on their premium to start. Customers who lead healthy lifestyles and gain AIA Vitality Points will achieve different recognition levels (silver, gold and platinum), with platinum-level customers enjoying up to a 15 per cent discount on their premiums.”
Extending AIA Vitality’s external scope even further, the team is spreading AIA Vitality to corporate clients. “While some of our personal insurance products in Hong Kong have been tied to AIA Vitality since last year, we are partnering with enterprise clients to pilot AIA Vitality to enhance their current employee wellness programmes and help improve their employees’ health, engagement and productivity,” Chan says.
Aside from benefitting customers and the broader society, AIA Vitality also benefits AIA Hong Kong and Macau employees – 100 per cent of which have signed up to the platform. Through AIA Vitality, active and healthy living has become ingrained into the company’s corporate culture.
“AIA Vitality is not a one-off initiative,” says Wei Wei Watson, Chief Human Resources Officer at AIA Hong Kong and Macau. “It is an integrated, core and long-term initiative to foster behavioural changes and encourage an active and healthy lifestyle. Our employees are getting increasingly excited about being active; they talk about it at town hall meetings and in casual conversations around the office. People are taking the stairs to attend meetings. Others are sitting on medicine balls instead of their chairs to increase blood flow and enhance posture. Increasingly, employees are embracing the healthy food offerings provided in our common areas. We all go to work every day wearing fitness trackers to track our physical activity levels.”
Chan explains that to reinforce the company’s focus on active and healthy lifestyle, AIA Hong Kong and Macau gave out more than 1,200 fitness trackers at the last All-Employee town hall. “While younger and tech-savvy AIA Hong Kong and Macau employees may be particularly attracted to AIA Vitality’s digital platform, the reality is that all employees of all levels and age groups are encouraged by AIA Vitality and its various benefits.”
This article appeared in the Classified Post print edition as Growing from within to enhance the lives of both employees and customers.
