Human Capital Management

We owe our success to our extraordinary talent. Our future success requires that we continue to attract, develop and retain top talent and maintain our unique culture – a culture that cares deeply about the company and is rooted in trust, collaboration, diversity and inclusion and a commitment to one another’s success. Our approach to human capital management starts with our innovative talent acquisition strategies, which are designed to help us attract the best people from a broad pool of talent. Once they join Travelers, we provide our employees with development programs that foster personal and professional growth and an inclusive environment in which our employees feel valued and engaged, allowing them to maximize their potential. And throughout their careers with us, we provide our employees with comprehensive benefits and equitable and competitive compensation plans.

Despite the public health crisis, during 2020, we hired more than 1,900 full-time employees, nearly a third of whom filled important technology and data and analytics positions, and we did not implement any reductions in our workforce or reduce salaries as a result of the pandemic. In addition, our financial strength, long-term perspective and robust planning for the unknown put us in a position to continue to support our employees throughout 2020 and, as discussed further under Total Rewards, find new and innovative ways to be there for each other.

Board Oversight

Our Board takes an active role in overseeing our human capital management strategy, including our initiatives to shape our workforce and workplace to drive business performance and ensure that we are well positioned for the future. Our Chief Human Resources Officer – a member of our Management and Operating Committees – and other senior executives regularly present to the Board on these matters, including the progress the company has made over time. Additionally, consistent with its charter, the Nominating and Governance Committee meets with the company’s CEO to review and discuss succession matters at least annually. The Nominating and Governance Committee of the Board also meets regularly with senior management, including our Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, to review and discuss our strategies to encourage diversity and inclusion within our company. In addition, pursuant to its charter, the Compensation Committee of the Board, which is advised by an independent compensation consultant, reviews and approves the company’s general compensation philosophy and objectives. In addition, the Compensation Committee meets with senior management on a regular basis to discuss the company’s practices designed to help ensure equitable pay across the organization.

We believe that fostering a thriving, vibrant and authentic culture is essential for attracting and retaining talented, diverse and qualified employees. Travelers has a unique and rich culture that has been built over decades and runs deep in the organization. It is a culture that cares deeply about the company and is rooted in:

• Trust. At Travelers, so much of our culture is built on trust – the trust we earn from our customers in challenging times and the trust we place in each other and our agents and brokers every day. That trust is built upon honesty, integrity and accountability – values that are core to who we are. As recently articulated in a communication to all employees by our Chairman and CEO, Alan Schnitzer, one element of that “special something that sets our company apart” is “a commitment to doing the right thing – even when it feels like no one is watching.”
• Collaboration. In another email to employees, Mr. Schnitzer emphasized that “our culture of collaboration, camaraderie and shared responsibility is a treasure that we should never take for granted.” This collaborative approach to how we operate and think about risk and reward runs through every element of our business, from our underwriting reviews and our approach to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) to our Claim operations.
• Diversity and Inclusion. For us, diversity and inclusion is a business imperative. We believe that diverse experiences and viewpoints yield greater insights and better outcomes, raising the bar on individual and team performance, sparking further innovation and sharpening our customer focus. In addition to corporate policies designed to encourage an inclusive culture and protect all employees from workplace harassment and discrimination, we have numerous programs and initiatives, described in the Diversity & Inclusion section of this site, to foster a diverse and an inclusive environment.
• Focus on Merit. These three elements together – trust, collaboration and diversity and inclusion – form the foundation of our merit-based culture. At Travelers, every individual is encouraged to share their opinion and contribute to the decision-making process. We believe that by listening to diverse views and opinions, we can reach the best business decisions. We recognize, promote and reward employees based on their contributions to our long-term success.

More than ever before, employees want and expect a workplace that aligns with their needs, wants and values, and we believe that an engaged workforce drives better business results. Because of that, we strive to deliver an employee experience that engages our team and strengthens our organization.

To evaluate the employee experience and the success of our engagement efforts and to inform the inclusion and leadership strategies we use to enhance employee engagement, we work with an independent, industry-leading survey administrator to confidentially manage our regular employee engagement surveys. To assess our progress, we also conduct periodic “pulse” surveys and focus groups. Based on the results of our engagement and “pulse” surveys, each manager is expected to develop action plans to create an even more meaningful employee experience. These plans are generated, in part, through team conversations and are designed to hold managers accountable for increasing their employees’ engagement. Our Chief Human Resources Officer meets quarterly with our CEO and other senior leaders to discuss employee engagement strategies and our progress.

Based in part on the surveys and focus groups we conduct, we believe that our engagement efforts are effective. Our employee engagement levels remain strong and have improved throughout the year, despite the pandemic. Importantly, our employee engagement scores are similar, regardless of gender or race.

Our average tenure and voluntary turnover rates demonstrate the power of our culture and the attachment our employees have to the organization. The average tenure at Travelers is 12 years, and over 20 years for the company’s approximately 600 most senior leaders. Our average, global voluntary turnover rate for the past three years was approximately 7%.

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The success of our engagement efforts is also evident in how our employees view the company. Despite the pandemic and the remote work environment, our overall anonymous company rating by current and former employees on Glassdoor.com, a social media site for job satisfaction and engagement, rose consistently throughout the year. Additionally, 86% of our employees said they would recommend Travelers to a friend – the highest level among our rated property and casualty insurance company peers. Based on experiences reported anonymously and voluntarily by our current and former employees on Glassdoor, Travelers was listed by Glassdoor in its 2021 Glassdoor Best Places to Work Awards. Although Glassdoor did not conduct its annual survey of the top 100 CEOs in 2020 due to the pandemic, our CEO, Alan Schnitzer, was included within the top 100 CEOs for each of the prior three years. See our Awards and Recognition page for a full listing of the recognitions we’ve received.

We are confident that our engagement and inclusion efforts will continue to have a strong impact – by shaping a workforce and workplace that drives exceptional business performance.

Our commitment to learning and development is rooted in our belief that for us to be successful, we must provide our employees with the skills and capabilities to enable them to be successful. In 2020, Travelers introduced a new learning experience platform (LXP), a centralized hub for all learning resources at the company where content is both curated and aggregated on a regular basis for a personalized learning experience. This platform is a one-stop shop for videos, articles and courses – both Travelers-created resources and content from third-party providers. It provides an immersive and customized experience to meet our employees’ learning needs. Employees can use the new platform to assess their skills, rate and comment on courses and lessons, and learn from subject matter experts across Travelers. During 2020, more than 85% of Travelers employees engaged with the new platform and accessed over 580,000 learning resources, including articles, videos and courses. On average, Travelers employees logged in to the learning platform every six days.

Because we believe that the best learners are the best leaders, we offer a variety of programs that support our managers in their leadership journey. All Travelers managers receive a monthly Leader’s Digest email, which provides information and tools to improve the employee experience at Travelers, helping our managers and their teams succeed.

In addition, our managers participate in the company’s leadership workshop, The Leadership Challenge®, which provides an overview of key leadership practices at Travelers. These practices are designed to enable leaders to increase engagement and inclusion, lead change, drive innovation, tie business goals to a greater purpose and coach people to higher levels of performance. A critical element of the workshop is a 360-degree assessment tool that allows the manager’s supervisor, co-workers and direct reports to provide feedback on key leadership behaviors, such as fostering an inclusive culture where all employees are appreciated and heard. We also offer three additional foundational workshops centered on leadership: Leadership Principles, Coaching for Performance Excellence and Conscious Inclusion and Unconscious Bias.

• Leadership Principles is a workshop for emerging leaders that helps participants adapt to and connect across diverse behavioral styles; build an understanding of the leadership behaviors that are critical to success; motivate and mobilize engagement and performance; and delegate and develop others more effectively.
• Coaching for Performance Excellence provides leaders with an understanding of the principles of good coaching in the day-to-day leadership of individuals on their teams. During the program, participants explore how a growth mindset impacts coaching; apply various coaching skills to leverage effective communication; use tools to prepare for and conduct individual coaching conversations; and practice using unique conversation models. A 360-degree assessment tool, which measures the frequency with which participants are engaging in various coaching competencies, precedes participation in the program.
• Conscious Inclusion and Unconscious Bias, a two-part program that all employees are expected to complete, explores biases and their impact in the workplace and how we can change behaviors to be more intentionally inclusive in our day-to-day interactions.

We also encourage and support employee development through our Educational Assistance Program. Through the program, Travelers helps eligible employees pay the cost of eligible education classes and professional designation and certification programs, including for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Associate in Claims (AIC). To reinforce the importance of underwriting as a core discipline, Travelers recognizes employees who successfully pass all eight CPCU exams and earn the professional designation by paying for eligible employees to attend their conferment ceremony, which is held each year for new CPCU graduates. In 2020, more than 500 employees received educational reimbursement.

Additionally, Travelers offers various career mentorship and development programs for both entry-level and experienced professionals. For example, our multiyear Leadership Development Programs provide entry-level employees with an opportunity to progress through a steady career path in a specific discipline such as Actuarial, Business Insights & Analytics, Data Science, Finance, Human Resources, Operations or Technology. Participants complete assignments and rotations designed to help them build upon their technical, strategic thinking and leadership skills and strengthen their business acumen. Our Leadership Development Programs also include mentorship and networking opportunities, including with senior leaders, as well as speaker forums designed to keep participants up to date on industry trends and company initiatives. In addition, our one- to two-year Development Programs – in Underwriting, Investments and Product Management – provide the foundational knowledge and technical skills necessary for success at Travelers and include on-the-job training, classroom instruction, self-study materials and independent work in an assigned business area. Like our Leadership Development Programs, these programs provide mentorship opportunities and exposure to Travelers leaders. Participants in both our Leadership Development Programs and Development Programs are invited to compete in the company’s annual hackathon-style Innovation Jam. These programs have been a part of our talent strategy for many years. Many participants have gone on to hold senior roles at Travelers.

Leadership Development Programs

Development Programs

In 2020, we also added a senior-level position responsible for monitoring the development of talented employees to support them in developing the skills necessary to advance their careers and help them expand their relationships to facilitate their success.

Our performance management strategy is designed to develop the company’s talent and equip employees with the skills and resources necessary to ensure the company’s continued success. Through our annual performance management process, managers assist their direct reports with setting and monitoring goals, developing a plan to achieve those goals, evaluating progress against those goals and discussing opportunities for improvement throughout the year. Managers are expected to complete a year-end progress update for each of their direct reports. This includes a meaningful conversation with each employee to discuss what went well and what can be improved.

To make sure that managers have the skills necessary to guide our employees and help them reach their potential, we build their skills with our Coaching for Performance Excellence Workshop; the workshop helps managers develop their questioning, listening, reflecting and exploring abilities.

We also conduct a comprehensive annual talent review, which includes succession planning, to identify and prepare talented employees for future leadership positions. Each line of business identifies talented employees and succession candidates for targeted development and advancement opportunities with individualized action plans. This talent review process culminates with the CEO and his direct reports meeting to review succession plans for key positions. In addition, the CEO meets with the Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee and the full Board of Directors to discuss succession-related matters at least once a year.

Travelers is focused on building a pipeline of talent to position the company for future success and is committed to hiring and developing a diverse and sustainable workforce across race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, marital status, genetic information and sexual orientation. Our recruiting efforts are designed to help us attract and retain top talent from a broad pool of candidates and continue to increase diversity in our hiring.

To maintain our competitive advantages, we increasingly need industry-agnostic talent. Historically, running an insurance company required actuaries, underwriters and finance professionals, among others; in addition to those types of professionals, we now also need roboticists, data scientists, artificial intelligence experts and behavioral economists. This compels us to reimagine our talent acquisition strategies. While we continue to recruit from within our industry, we are increasingly recruiting from outside our industry for disciplines that are fundamental to our future. We deploy talent acquisition strategies, including advanced sourcing tools, employment branding advertising, social channels and diverse slate requirements, to help us create a pipeline of strong candidates.

We are focused on inspiring the next generation of insurance professionals and actively encourage students and graduates to explore career opportunities in the insurance industry and, in particular, at Travelers. To help us attract new talent to the industry, we have long-standing affiliations and partnerships with a number of organizations that share that mission, including InVEST, Insure My Path and Gamma Iota Sigma. In addition, our signature career pipeline program, Travelers EDGE®, provides a unique, holistic approach to education for underrepresented students. Through partnerships with colleges, universities and community-based organizations, Travelers EDGE increases access to higher education and provides students with opportunities to excel. We also have strategic partnerships with Girls Who Code and AnitaB.org to help us mentor and attract the next generation of women in technology. To learn more about our efforts to bolster our diverse talent pipeline, see the Diversity & Inclusion section of this site.

Our compensation and benefits programs are designed to attract, motivate and retain high-performing employees and to help employees be healthy and productive in all aspects of their lives. Our long-standing pay-for-performance philosophy differentiates awards based on individual and company performance, regardless of gender, race or any other protected classification. In addition, our comprehensive, flexible benefit options are designed to meet the physical, mental and financial needs of employees and their families.

Compensation

Paying our employees equitably is the foundation of our performance-based culture. Our equitable pay statement outlines our approach to ensure that we compensate our employees without influence from bias. We have compensation processes and controls in place and review our compensation practices annually with independent, outside experts, in each case to help ensure equitable pay across the company. Based in part on these measures, we believe that we pay our employees equitably, regardless of gender, race or any other protected classification.

Our minimum hourly wage in the United States is $15. As calculated and reported in our 2021 Proxy Statement, in 2020, excluding our Chairman and CEO, the median annual total compensation of all our employees was nearly $113,000. The median annual total compensation of our full-time U.S. employees who worked for Travelers for the entire year, who represent more than 90% of our workforce, was nearly $120,000, putting us in the top quartile for employee pay in the S&P 500.

Travelers’ compensation mix includes base salary, performance-based cash awards and equity grants. The mix of these rewards varies depending on the employee’s role at the company.

• Many employees receive most of their total rewards in the form of base salary and medical and retirement benefits. Travelers pays a higher percentage of health care costs for employees with lower salaries.
• Variable compensation (annual bonus and equity) becomes a larger portion of the total rewards mix for employees at higher levels in the organization. Furthermore, the senior-most executives, who are responsible for the development and execution of our strategic and financial plans, have the largest portion of their compensation tied to performance-based incentives.

Health & Wellness

Because our employees are our most valuable asset, we are committed to helping them be healthy and productive in all aspects of their lives. We know that when employees and their families are well – physically, emotionally, mentally and financially – they can be more fully engaged both personally and professionally. That’s why we offer comprehensive, flexible benefit options that, for our U.S. employees, include medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage; health savings; and flexible spending accounts.

In the United States, our medical plans cover 51,500 individuals (23,600 employees, 18,700 children and 9,200 spouses/domestic partners). In 2020, we paid nearly $240 million in medical-related costs on behalf of our U.S. employees and their dependents. In our international operations, we provide medical coverage that supplements government-provided plans to our 2,000 employees and their families, subsidizing between 90% and 100% of total employee health benefit costs.

Employees and their eligible family members, including spouses, domestic partners and children, are generally eligible for coverage from the first day of employment. To keep rates affordable, Travelers subsidizes premiums on its health care plans through a cost-sharing model. We subsidize health benefits more heavily for less-compensated employees as compared to higher-paid employees, such as the company’s named executive officers. Accordingly, our higher-paid employees pay a significantly higher percentage of the cost of their health benefits as compared to our lower-paid employees. We did not increase employee premiums for health care coverage in the United States for 2021.

We have a forward-thinking approach to our benefit plan design. We deliver new, innovative ways to support employee health and well-being, including financial incentives for some employees to choose high-quality, low-cost providers and safeguards regarding the use of opioids to help ensure that doctors, pharmacists and patients work closely together on treatment plans for pain management.

Our wellness program provides easy-to-use tools and resources that empower employees with the information and support they need to achieve their wellness goals. In the United States, our program includes the following offerings, among others:

• Our myWellness platform is a mobile-friendly, easy-to-use application that serves as a repository of wellness tools and resources to help employees achieve their physical, mental and wellness goals. Using the platform, employees can set physical and mental wellness goals, track healthy habits, find top-rated doctors in their area, review information about a new diagnosis or treatment, challenge friends to health competitions and more.
• Life Balance, our employee assistance program, provides employees with access to professional in-person, digital and text-based counseling services, life coaching, personalized mentoring and support resources for daily life needs. All Life Balance services are free, confidential and available 24/7 to employees and their household family members.
• Grand Rounds is a free service for employees and dependents enrolled in a Travelers medical plan that matches members with top-ranked doctors, helps employees obtain second opinions from leading specialists and assists in navigating the health care system.
• MSK Direct is a free service for Travelers employees and their family members facing a cancer diagnosis. It provides guided access to expert cancer treatment and care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center facilities.
• The diabetes management program, a no-cost service that combines the latest technology with real-time support, helps make handling diabetes easier for employees and their adult family members enrolled in a Travelers medical plan.
• Wellness champions in more than 50 local offices help cultivate a culture of wellness at Travelers by leveraging employees’ interests and ideas to implement healthy initiatives at local offices.

We also offer:

• Fitness center discounts for employees.
• On-site chiropractors and physical therapists for employees at our Hartford campus.
• Free on-site wellness screenings at our Hartford and St. Paul campuses.
• On-site counseling services for employees at our Hartford campus.
• Free seasonal flu shots for employees through on-site clinics and various retail pharmacies.
• Mobile mammography for eligible employees in certain locations.
• Free tobacco cessation programs for employees and family members enrolled in Travelers medical plans.
• Weight management programs with personalized coaching support, resources to help employees make positive changes and digital tools for users to track progress over time.
• Health insurance benefits for transitioning employees and family members to cover professional counseling, hormone therapy and, if clinically appropriate, gender reassignment surgery.

Health_Wellness_Accordion

Savings & Retirement

Our 401(k) Savings Plan provides employees with a vehicle to save for their retirement and the opportunity to receive a company match on those contributions. Employees can contribute from 1% to 75% (in whole percentage increments) of their eligible pay as pre-tax 401(k) or after-tax Roth 401(k) contributions, up to the maximum allowed under IRS limits. Travelers annually matches employee 401(k) contributions dollar for dollar, up to 5% of eligible pay. The company match contributions made in early 2021 were based on 2020 contributions with a maximum annual company match of $7,000. Employees become 100% vested in company matching contributions after three years of service. Ninety-seven percent of our employees currently participate in the Travelers 401(k) Savings Plan. Outside of the United States, we provide defined contribution retirement plans for more than 2,000 employees, with an average company contribution rate of over 8%.

Travelers recognizes that the high cost of education and the obligation of repaying student loans prevents many people from saving for their retirement. In 2019, we announced a new and innovative retirement savings benefit, The Travelers Paying It Forward Savings Program, for employees facing student loan debt. Starting in 2020, when an eligible employee makes a payment toward his or her student loans, Travelers makes an annual contribution of that amount into that employee’s 401(k) Savings Plan account, dollar for dollar up to the first 5% of eligible pay, to a maximum of $7,000. As of December 31, 2020, Travelers spent more than $3 million to match student loan payments for more than 1,300 employees who had enrolled in this new benefit.

Travelers also assists employees with meeting their retirement needs through the Travelers Pension Plan, an active defined benefit pension plan. Travelers pays the full cost of the employee’s plan benefits; we do not require employees to contribute personally. The plan determines the benefits under a cash balance formula, which provides pay and interest credits to a hypothetical account maintained for the employee with an annual pension credit of approximately 4% of the employee’s pay. In 2020, nearly $550 million went to providing our employees with security in their retirement through pension payments and credits and 401(k) matching contributions.

We also support our employees’ financial success through financial planning services. Thousands of our employees have taken advantage of this offering. Among other things, we offer our U.S. employees:

• A financial wellness assessment that allows employees to get a financial wellness score and personalized checklist to help meet their financial goals.
• Online and text-based retirement planning services, including complimentary consultations and workshops to assist in savings and retirement planning.

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Work-Life

Additional benefits we offer our U.S. employees include:

• Life insurance.
• Short-term and long-term disability coverages.
• Paid time off, starting at 20 days per year, up to a maximum of 30 days per year based on years of service, plus the ability to purchase up to six additional days per year.
• Paid parental and adoption leave.
• Child care discounts.
• A corporate discount program.
• Paid time off for volunteering.

Taking Care of Each Other During Unprecedented Times

During this unprecedented year, we continued to take care of each other as we all adjusted to a new “normal for now.” In keeping with our focus on mental well-being, we promoted mental health resources, including those focused on mindfulness, stress reduction and resiliency, to assist employees through the difficult circumstances of 2020. Recognizing the particular challenges faced by many working parents and caregivers striving to balance their personal and professional commitments this year, we launched our first-ever Working Parents & Caregiver Resource Group – a forum where Travelers parents and caregivers can come together to share tips, exchange resources and offer support to colleagues in similar situations. We also put together a Travelers volunteer corps of Homework Helpers to work with the children of fellow Travelers employees who can use some help, whether by lending an ear for nightly reading or assisting with a homework assignment. Our employees continue to have 24/7 free and confidential access to Life Balance, our employee assistance program in the United States and Canada. Life Balance provides access to professional in-person, virtual and text-based counseling services, life coaching, advice on how to manage working from home with kids and support resources for daily life needs, such as finding child care or tutor services.

We also recognized that some of our employees may need more flexibility than usual to manage conflicting work and school/caregiving schedules. With that in mind, our CEO called on our managers to be creative and flexible about finding solutions that allow our colleagues to continue to be there for their families while performing their jobs safely and effectively.

For more information on how we protect the safety and health of our employees, including during the pandemic, see the Safety & Health section of this website.