Editors’ Note

Claudine Macartney is a member of the Executive Leadership Team and has worked for the company since 1997. Previously, she was Senior Vice President of the Human Capital Planning and Business Partner Practice. She has also served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources. She earned a B.A. in Political Science from Stockton University.

Company Brief

American International Group, Inc. (AIG; aig.com) is a leading global insurance organization. Founded in 1919, AIG member companies provide a wide range of property casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement products, and other financial services to customers in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. These diverse offerings include products and services that help businesses and individuals protect their assets, manage risks and provide for retirement security.

How has the role of Chief Human Resources Officer evolved?

At AIG, I oversee the alignment of the company’s human resources and people strategy for nearly 50,000 colleagues in roughly 80 countries and jurisdictions. We are a global company that is focused on growth and adapting AIG for a new era where we will fundamentally improve risk selection to deliver a better quality book of business, deploy capital toward the best opportunities for profitable growth and improve our operational process. In human resources, this means we will try to ensure we are taking a leadership position in developing new and innovative approaches. Our people and their intellectual power are at the heart of what we do. Our colleagues work with customers and clients from around the world to help them solve complex problems. This makes my job and our team’s work critical. My priority is to build a thriving workplace that embraces innovation, respects and promotes the diversity of our people, and reflects an inclusive, winning culture.

Attracting top talent is essential for our business and its leaders, especially as many in the insurance industry near retirement. To fill this gap, we’ve built an early-career program that focuses on individuals who might be new to the workforce, just coming out of university, retiring from the military, or want a change in their careers. Some have started in another sector and now want to try insurance. We created the AIG Insurance Academy, a global, enterprise-wide structured training and development program, to help colleagues like this transition into insurance. It’s designed to provide AIG’s early-career talent with the core skills, knowledge and support to succeed in the insurance industry.

Particularly in the complex insurance space, we realized that we need to have an apprenticeship. This isn’t as simple as bringing people in from university. We also need to provide them with mentorship from an experienced manager for them to be successful.

While we are always looking for skilled and experienced individuals to join the insurance industry, retaining leadership talent is also important at AIG. We offer three enterprise leadership training programs that include mentoring from AIG executive sponsors and networking.

We are also exploring industry and alumni networks: How can we tap into those who have vast insurance experience to help mentor and sponsor some of our industry newcomers? How critical is culture for a firm like AIG?

How critical is culture for a firm like AIG?

Culture is important for any firm. At AIG, our culture has remained steadfast through crises and a handful of different leadership and structural changes. I feel privileged to be the steward of the company’s culture.

We believe in conduct that reflects integrity, ethics, and resilience. Maintaining a resilient culture is paramount for an insurance company.

We’re also collaborative and compassionate, as well as innovative and smart problem-solvers. A company of our size is always confronting new, never-before-seen problems. There are many variations, and the strength of our culture keeps us motivated to succeed.

As we continue to grow, we are keen to build a diverse and inclusive culture. We have had to understand how different cultures think and operate, what matters to them from a risk perspective, and how we can help them have all the confidence they need to advance.

Our results show that diversity is embedded in our culture and is part of who we are. Because of that, we have become an attractive organization for people who want to work with a diverse group of colleagues.

We are in the business of securing and restoring lives – whether our employees are in underwriting, sales, actuarial, distribution services, claims or functional support. When we have diverse teams offering their ideas for how we respond to our clients’ needs, and are there for them at the end of the day, we are unbeatable.

How critical are metrics in tracking your diversity and inclusion efforts?

As an organization, we’re very goal-oriented and use metrics to measure our progress. This allows us to track our development in different diversity areas and to apply our efforts globally.

The world is ever-changing, and we use metrics to ensure the efforts we’re putting in place are achieving our objectives.

How is inclusion related to diversity?

We need to be mindful of everybody’s differences. So inclusivity is a goal for us, not just as an organization, but overall. We want to create an environment where we respect people’s differences, but also where we can learn from, challenge, and help one another understand each other better. We proactively encourage this through our more than 100 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and their allies. Our ERGs represent multi-cultural professionals, women, members of the LGBT community, veterans, young professionals and other key employees whose development and growth is integral to the company’s success.

How important has it been for you to have support from senior leadership in your role?

Our CEO, Brian Duperreault, and the Executive Leadership Team at AIG recognize that our people are our greatest strength. In partnership with human resources, we have worked to expand diversity, mentoring and reverse mentoring in early-career programs, which all help us create a winning, forward-looking culture.

How will technology impact the future workforce in the insurance industry?

Just like any other large organization, there are elements of how we operate that can be replaced with automation and this is something our clients and colleagues will demand.

People want this when it helps save time and provides immediate service and information. But I can’t foresee a day in my lifetime where we’re not going to need someone who has experience in understanding how people and organizations should consider new and existing risks and how to best protect themselves.