Ongoing commitments to employees.

In 2009 we have developed a new management development module in collaboration with third sector experts "Three Hands" called "Risk and Reputation - The Business Case for CSR". The session is designed to make senior managers a lot more comfortable about discussing the positive and negative impacts of the businesses and products that they run in a responsible way. We assess the effectiveness of these sessions using the Net Promoter Score methodology. CSR Sessions have been scored 7 out of 10

An extract of the methodology can be found here

2009 saw a reduced spend on employee development as we reduced headcount. Development of managers within Legal & General continues to be supported with focussed programmes, individual development and coaching.

Development also focuses on inspirational leadership and self-awareness. Programmes now also include strengths development to encourage people to excel at what they are good at. These programmes are aligned to our HR Cycle of activity and are measured against improved business performance. Information gathered from programmes enables management development to provide cultural trend analysis; this helps determine actions to take to develop our culture. Development is benchmarked externally to ensure it is 'fit for purpose' and delivers 'best practice', also external qualification routes for management qualifications are being made available.

Our partnership agreement with Unite has been in place since 1997. Union recognition is across all parts of the business for staff grades and junior management. The Management Consultative Forum (MCF) collectively represents Senior and Middle management across the business. We actively consult with Unite on employee remuneration, CSR, environmental policy, health and safety, equality and diversity through their representation on these group wide committees. Union membership held up in 2009 versus 2008 figures at 36% of Employees (Excludes LGIM).

As an employer it is important that we have ways for our employees to support communities and areas that they are passionate about.

We continue to have a three-strand approach to community strategy.

• Employee driven charitable schemes. Designed to be part of the employment package of working for our company and supporting employees at a personal level in areas in which they are passionate. (Matched Funding, GAYE, Volunteering).
• Community donations - Our employee driven location committees are given budgets to spend on real issues, which need to be addressed within their local communities.
• Social investment budget - Group driven bespoke projects, which are designed to better inform our decision making in the businesses and markets that we operate in.

In 2009 we have maintained our commitment to supporting the third sector in the UK by contributing at least £2.5m to the sector as a whole and providing at least 500 working days volunteering through our employees.

On 7 December 2009, Tim Breedon, CEO and Sir Rob Margetts, Chairman presented the 2009 Making a Difference (MAD) Awards. This year we had over 100 nominations for MAD awards.

We make awards in the following areas.

• Charitable Champions - Charites needs donations, but they also needs doers. Our colleagues have been out there running, digging and cycling for charitable causes this year. We also match the memployees give up their free time and expertise to support their local communities. These local champions are reviving community spirit and changing people's lives.
• Green Giants - We all know caring for our environment is vital. We wanted to reward our green giants, who are out there sowing the seeds for a more environmentally friendly world.
• Office Angels - We spend so much time at work, shouldn't it be time well spent? We wanted to recognise employees who make outstanding contributions that change the way our business is run and set us apart from our rivals - turning ideas into action.

All of our employees are required to complete computer based training on key areas, such as treating customers fairly, equality and diversity, data protection, money laundering, fraud prevention and whistleblowing. This is then built upon at each team level through training relevant to jobs.

2009 has seen the roll out of our Group wide environmental CBT, which has been positively endorsed by Tim Breedon, our CEO, to prepare our employees for the impacts and opportunities that the Carbon Reduction Commitment will bring the organization as we move into the qualifying year.

There are a number of employer networking forums, which we use to share knowledge and understand best practice and to develop our approach to managing people, which include The Financial Services Group Banking Sector Employee Relations Network Group (a financial services sector information sharing network).

We have also taken part in the Sunday Times Best Companies survey for the last two years. This means we are able to benchmark our employee engagement with the best companies in the UK.

Employees receive a total reward statement each year, giving them details of their total remuneration package. In 2009 the total reward statement was re-branded to show different elements of their reward package, including what matters to employees in terms of their community and how the company supports their charitable donations.

We have undertaken an assessment of our policies and practices in respect of disability in HR and training and development to determine the actions we need to take to support disabled employees carry out their role

We are a member of external employer forums such as Opportunity Now, Race for Opportunity and the Employers Forum on Disability in order to ensure we maintain best practice on best practice on equality and diversity. The insurance sector has recently set up a forum to promote equality and diversity in our sector.

We now have an agenda set out for equality and diversity, which has been signed off for 2010 through our November CSR Committee. It will focus upon the integration of disability issues into our products, services and workplace. Giving employees with a disability the same access to opportunities as all our other employees is important to us and we are currently trying to understand in detail how we are performing and where the gaps are.

The Equality and Diversity Committee reviews a scorecard showing our performance against benchmarks. The Committee meets at least 4 times a year. The committee oversees the implementation of

• Pay and reward.
• Redundancy
• Purchasing
• Recruitment and selection
• Employee survey responses by gender, age and ethnicity to see whether employees in these groups believe they are disadvantaged in terms of access to learning and development.
• Bullying and harassment

Last year, the Equality and Diversity committee also undertook a review of the profile of employees who had been made redundant to ensure there was no bias behind redundancy decisions and shared this information with Unite.

We carry out an equal pay audit every year and share the results with Unite. Prior to each pay review, we identify employees whose salary is below the range to determine whether there is an equal pay review and address anomalies prior to pay decisions being made. As well as gender, the audit analyses pay by ethnicity and age.

No one was seriously injured or needed hospital treatment as a result of us operating our business in 2009. The Group Health and Safety Committee governs the Group Health and Safety Policy.

Legal & General continues to monitor health & safety performance via local committees, which report into the Group Health & Safety Committee. The local health and safety Committees meet regularly and represent a cross section of departments and also encourage staff to participate and raise awareness across the business.

A number of initiatives have been run across the business in 2009, including the importance of near-miss reporting, and the promotion of healthy and attractive lifestyles. Examples include, NHS PCT support for staff on National No Smoking Day and osteopathic back stretching workshops.

In 2009 our externally verified OHSAS 18001:2007 safety management system was audited and re-certified for its scope at Legal & General's Kingswood and Cardiff locations.

Stress and its prevention provide the biggest area of concern for us in the management of our people particularly during times of restructure. The biggest risk we manage for employees is making appropriate interventions, implemented at an early stage to identify employees suffering from stress, anxiety or other psychological illness before they are absent, to ensure a healthy and engaged workforce.

Our default position is that any employee whose sickness absence is for reason of stress, anxiety or other psychological reason is referred to the Company's Occupational Health Provider and counseling and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is provided as necessary. Employees with sickness absence over 15 days' duration (for any reason) are also referred to our Occupational Health Provider.

The Health and Safety Committee is advised about the number of calls made to the Company's Employee Assistance Provider (EAP) about stress, anxiety or other psychological disorder and is also given details of absence broken down by site and by sickness category to identify whether there are any trends.

The Committee is also provided with details of the volume of face-to face counseling provided by the EAP. Training on recognition and prevention of stress is currently available to managers via our intranet.

All employees are eligible to request to work flexibly (not just employees with a statutory right to request).