AIG believes that supporting the health and wellness of our colleagues is necessary to ensure our team has the stamina and capacity to deliver excellent results to our clients. AIG’s benefits and wellness programs take a holistic approach to addressing and supporting employee health and wellness, and we regularly reassess these programs to ensure they provide holistic support to our employees’ well-being.
At AIG, occupational safety and health is a shared responsibility between employees and corporate stakeholders. AIG’s GHSE Policy requires that AIG take appropriate measures to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses, create a safe and healthy work environment and meet regulatory and duty of care responsibilities regarding the health, safety and welfare of employees engaging in AIG business activities.
As a leader in understanding risk, AIG appreciates the importance of being protected against everyday issues as well as unforeseen events. Our benefits coverage includes programs for medical, dental, vision, life, disability, business travel accidents and general wellness, which are integrated with social programs where possible. Our coverage also includes commonly offered plans in local markets, including commuter reimbursement, parking benefits and accidental death and disability coverage.
AIG also supports initiatives that support our employees during some of the most critical times of their lives. These include childcare support, same-sex partner benefits and maternity, parental and bereavement leaves.
AIG provides comprehensive, competitive benefits to all of our colleagues. This helps us live up to our commitment to be a socially responsible employer and allows us to attract and retain premier talent, particularly as job seekers increasingly value factors beyond their salaries when searching for new roles.
As a leader in understanding risk, AIG appreciates the importance of being protected against everyday issues as well as unforeseen events. Our benefits coverage includes programs for medical, dental, vision, life, disability, business travel accidents and general wellness, which are integrated with social programs where possible. Our coverage also includes commonly offered plans in local markets, including commuter reimbursement, parking benefits and accidental death and disability coverage.
AIG also supports initiatives that support our employees during some of the most critical times of their lives. These include childcare support, samesex partner benefits and maternity, parental and bereavement leaves.
AIG believes that having access to medical care is critical to attracting top talent, empowering our colleagues and creating an environment that lives up to our DEI standards. We seek opportunities to protect our colleagues from discriminatory medical practices, including by reviewing our medical plan provisions annually to assess whether additional coverage options are needed.
For example, in 2021, AIG’s Adoption and Surrogacy Assistance Program increased reimbursement for qualified expenses per eligible child from $13,800 to $14,440. Reimbursements are limited to a lifetime maximum of a combined total of two qualified adoptions and/or surrogacy arrangements per employee.
Other benefits changes targeted specific regions in our AIG community. In Canada, we adjusted medical benefits to provide improved paramedical coinsurance and higher limits on psychologist consultations. In our Asia Pacific (APAC) region, as part of our Inclusive Leadership Forum on Pride, we conducted a broad review of benefit programs to ensure LGBTQ+ employees and their partners are eligible to participate. The Asia Pacific region also completed a review of our mental health benefits as part of a new Inclusive Leadership Forum in APAC on Health and Wellness at Work that resulted in all countries in the region providing employees with mental health insurance.
U.S. Preventive Care Program
AIG’s 2021 U.S. Preventive Care Program enabled our colleagues to earn a $120 credit toward their employee medical plan contribution in 2022. Employees could earn the credit by completing an annual physical exam or preventive screening, with 7,456 employees participating in this program.
U.S. Tobacco Cessation Program
All AIG U.S. employees completed the tobacco attestation on the 2021 Annual Enrollment website. Employees who attested they had not used tobacco within three months prior to the annual enrollment and who completed the Quit For Life Tobacco Cessation Program did not have a tobacco user surcharge applied to their medical plan contribution rates. During 2021 Annual Enrollment, 316 employees committed to enrolling in the Quit For Life Tobacco Cessation Program, with 110 employees completing the program.
AIG recognizes how important it is for parents to bond with their child. AIG follows relevant regulations and requirements for parental leave set by individual countries and states.
In the U.S., AIG offers eight weeks of time off with full pay for employee parents for the birth of a biological child, the adoption of a child or the birth of a child born via a surrogacy arrangement. This time off may be taken at any time within 12 months of the child’s birth or adoption.
Outside the U.S., AIG follows all relevant regulations and requirements for parental leave. AIG also engages Bright Horizons and MyFamilyCare to provide a parental leave support portal for employees and managers in the U.K. This portal helps smooth the transition before, during and after leaves of absence, including parental leave. Additionally, consistent with regulatory changes, AIG increased maternity leave in Canada from nine weeks to 15 weeks.
AIG continues to support parents after they return from parental leave by partnering with organizations to provide meaningful assistance and discounts for services that help them better balance their personal and work obligations. Our “Balancing Work and Life: Benefits & Programs to Help You” guide provides comprehensive information about all of our U.S. wellness programming to make these resources as easy to access for our employees as possible.
In the U.S., AIG partners with Bright Horizons to provide discounted services including childcare, eldercare, pet care, tutoring and test preparation. This partnership includes our U.S. Backup Care Program, which specifically helps employees who need last minute or emergency care for a child or adult. Through this program, employees can receive discounted, emergency care for a total of 30 backup days, increased from 15 this year. Employees who receive this care through a Bright Horizons center pay a $25 daily co-pay for care of a single child, or $8 an hour for in-home care for children, adults or the elderly. In 2021, employees took advantage of the Backup Care Program, utilizing a total of 1,133 backup days. Our Bright Horizons partnership also provides employees with toolkits, presentations and remote learning activities to help parents and children navigate back-to-school challenges.
AIG also provides employees with access to the Sittercity program to book babysitters and caregivers. Through this service, employees can also contract a virtual sitter to help a child with homework assignments or play a game.
Total backup days employees took advantage of in 2021, as part of the Backup Care Program
AIG believes that mental, emotional and behavioral health are just as important as physical health. To that end, AIG supports programs and initiatives that help our employees learn and find support as they focus on these areas of their health.
Nearly every country in which AIG operates has an EAP that provides digital, telephonic and—when safe and appropriate—in-person mental, emotional and behavioral health support with licensed counselors and providers, at no cost to the employee or their household members.
AIG’s primary EAP initiative highlights for 2021 include:
- Conducting AIG Health & Wellness sessions for HR leaders and managers on identifying and responding to employees with mental health challenges
- Addressing ongoing challenges of AIG’s Asian American Pacific Islander population
- Holding quarterly program check-ins with AIG’s APAC team to provide consultation on program promotion and support for employees through organizational change
- Facilitating proactive outreach to employees and family members following tragic events such as death of a family member or loved one
- Coordinating 62 AIG-specific Training Sessions for more than 2,000 attendees
- Coordinating support for 10 Critical Incidents involving 90 employees, including employee fatality and downsizing impact
- Facilitating over 690 EAP Counseling referrals and more than 30 work-life support cases globally with local professionals
AIG’s EAP programs provide helpful feedback about our colleagues’ most pressing concerns. The top 5 topics for live counseling sessions with AIG employees and household members:
- Stress
- Anxiety
- General psychological
- Depression
- Partner/relationship
The top 5 online topics for AIG’s global population in 2021:
- Emotional well-being
- Marriage and relationships
- Stress and anger management
- Divorce and domestic Issues
- Personal growth
In October 2020, AIG launched the Global Wellness at AIG mental and social health initiative to expand and complement existing local programs.
This year, as part of this initiative, AIG granted all employees two mental health days as company paid time off to be used in observance of World Health Day and World Mental Health Day.
Additionally, AIG’s globally accessible internal forum, Yammer, was used to share stories and encourage participation in mental health events and conversations.
“We want to work towards removing the stigma associated with seeking care and ensure our colleagues feel as comfortable seeking treatment for mental health as they do for other health matters.”
Lucy Fato, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Global Head of Communications and Government Affairs
AIG takes the overall wellness of our colleagues seriously. We frequently communicate about wellness programs and benefits information through a variety of platforms, including the Wellness Homepage and the global How To Be Your Best page on AIG's Intranet, the AIG Wellness Yammer page and monthly U.S. Wellness & Benefits newsletters. We also include information about locally coordinated wellness programs, present in almost every country in which AIG operates, which include nutrition education, wellness coaching, digital wellness apps, physical activity opportunities, mental health education seminars and financial wellness seminars.
The AIG Wellness Champion Network maintains and improves employee health culture at AIG. Wellness Champions promote and support existing wellness programs and benefits, act as local wellness contacts for employees and motivate colleagues to lead a healthy lifestyle. The network is automatically available to all U.S. employees and is available to employees outside of the U.S. upon employee inquiry. In 2021, the Wellness Champion Network had a monthly average of 57 Wellness Champions throughout 28 locations.
AIG continues to prioritize our colleagues’ health by creating programming to help employees develop healthy habits and improve their physical and mental well-being. In 2021, we developed the AIG Wellness Commitment, a confidential commitment for employees to prioritize their own health and well-being. We also offered 226 virtual wellness activities for all U.S. employees, including webinars, challenges, workshops and movement breaks. The highest-attended activities in 2021 included Mindful Movement Breaks, Mental Health Webinars and the Financial Wellness Series.
In 2021, we developed the AIG Wellness Commitment, a confidential commitment for employees to prioritize their own health and well-being.
Health and Wellness Programming: Canada
This year, AIG Canada introduced a three-year well-being strategy based on four strategic holistic pillars: 1) physical, 2) emotional, 3) financial and 4) social. The objectives in Year 1 were to address current needs and provide opportunities for education. This year’s programming included creating reading materials, webinars and well-being challenges centered on monthly wellness themes. These events were shared along with wellness tips and tricks at monthly regional town halls, and included:
- 4-week Sleep Challenge
- On the Move Challenge with the Canadian ERGs
- Building Your Motivation Toolbox webinar
- Understanding and Preventing Burnout webinar hosted by Homewood Health
Health and Wellness Programming: APAC
In September 2021, Wellness Ambassadors for the Asia Pacific region launched the Step It Up virtual challenge. The objective of this successful challenge was to collectively log steps equivalent to walking the distance between Korea and New Zealand, approximately 15,672 km. Not only did the group meet this challenge, but they also doubled the target, collectively walking or running more than 38,759 km by the end of the two-week challenge.
logged steps equivalent to walking the distance between Korea and New Zealand
AIG’s digital wellness platform, Rally, is available to all U.S. employees and family members ages 13 years and older. Employees can complete Rally’s Health Survey for personalized wellness recommendations, and both employees and their spouses can work one-on-one with certified wellness coaches to develop better eating, sleeping, exercising and relaxation habits. Participants can also complete health-related missions and participate in step challenges to earn Rally coins, which can be redeemed for prizes.
Additionally, Rally hosted this year’s new “Walking on Sunshine” wellness challenge. Created by AIG Health & Wellness in collaboration with the AIG Global Corporate Citizenship team, this challenge asked employees to track their steps and mindful minutes each day using Rally’s app or website. Participants who achieved the challenge goal were entered into a raffle to win one of five $100 Cause Cards, which could be donated to the winner’s nonprofit charitable organization of choice.
Awards and Recognition
In 2021, AIG was awarded, for the first time, the Gold recognition for the American Heart Association Workplace Health Achievement Index for its U.S. wellness programming and workplace policies and environment.