How Allianz Partners is using job swapping to boost creativity

With the goal of transforming differences into opportunities and to align all executives around a shared understanding of the company strategy, Allianz Partners has created an Executive Excellence program.

Since 2018, this one-week in-person program has welcomed more than 460 top executives.

Every session is comprised of around 30 participants from around the world and is sponsored by a board member who presents the company strategy, vision and ambitions.

Engaging sessions follow, where participants share their respective industry and market knowledge, identify best ways to tackle market challenges and realize opportunities together.

They are also invited to participate in several team building activities including a two-hour Digital Escape Game, to reinforce their company knowledge and digital skills.

Moreover, the Executive Excellence program allows participants to spend time working in another function and location alongside a colleague from their session, with whom they agree to job swap/shadow.

For one week, the participants can experience his/her counterpart’s responsibilities, get to know other functions, boost creativity and gain a fuller perspective of the company.

More than 300 Executives have shadowed or swapped alongside their colleagues from another area since the beginning of the program.

Alesha Keeler, Chief Financial Officer, Allianz Partners New Zealand, said the job swapping is a truly unique experience which allows the company to put into practice the common understanding shared during the EEP session.

“It gives a sense of continuity to the effort of building better collaboration across functions and regions,” said Keeler.

“We get a better perspective of how each person and function contributes to our business, and how we can better support each other and not just see each role and team as a silo.”

Claudia Reichmuth, Director of HR and Change Management, Allianz Partners Group, said that as the leader in a highly competitive market, the company must improve its organizational processes constantly.

Moreover, it must promote a common culture if we want to be an agile, innovative and effective partner for our customers.

“The Executive Excellence program enables participants to build their knowledge of the company, industry, and markets,” said Reichmuth.

“It also empowers them to become better, more collaborative and inspired leaders, an essential part of building a One Company Culture.”

After the success of the first wave, the Executive Excellence program has also been cascaded further into the organisation and has been redesigned for employees from sales, underwriting, marketing and operations functions,

The idea is to improve effectiveness through smoother collaboration between these functions, and to optimize customer experience of all four lines of business.