Community

Our community programs target road and home safety, crime prevention, workplace safety, emergency services and climate change.

Risk reduction in these areas leads to safer communities and therefore fewer claims, which in turn contributes to the long-term affordability of insurance. It makes good business sense to focus our community efforts on these areas.

In 2005/06 we were proud to support and work with a significant number of community groups, including St John Ambulance Australia, Kidsafe, CareFlight, Salvation Army Emergency Services, Queensland Fire & Rescue Services, and our crime prevention initiatives/Social Capital Investment Programs (SCIPs), New Zealand Fire Service, Victim Support, Community Patrols New Zealand, Neighbourhood Support and WWF New Zealand.

Our wide-ranging communityhelp program provides many opportunities for our employees to not only reduce risk, but to get involved in their communities. For example:

• communityhelp workplace giving allows our employees to donate to selected charities through their regular pre-tax pay. IAG matches donations dollar for dollar;
• communityhelp champion roles provide employees with the opportunity to take the lead in their community. This network of employees encourages employee participation in our variety of community initiatives;
• communityhelp volunteering enables our people to take one day of paid volunteering leave per year to participate in and contribute to their local communities; and
• communityhelp grants allow employees to nominate a community group that is working to make communities safer for a grant of up to $5,000.

In the past year, results for our community programs have been very solid. In Australia, IAG’s employee volunteering has increased by 38%, with a total of 7,771 hours being spent in local communities. In 2006, we awarded 139 communityhelp grants worth over half a million dollars to Australian community organisations. In addition, our employees contributed more than $300,000 (including IAG’s dollar matching) through our workplace giving scheme.

Our employees highly value our commitment to and action within the community, with 94% of Australian engagement survey participants positively responding to our work in the community.