▶ Expanded the succession plan, strengthened leadership courses, and selected 60~70 middle and senior managers to participate in the plan to cultivate successors who are with development potential.
▶ Total training expense input for office personnel was over NT$10.68 million, total training hours were over 62,000 hours, and average training hours received per person were around 34.65hours.
▶ Total training expense input for field personnel was over NT$23 million, total training hours were over 335,000 hours, and average training hours received per person were around 35.67 hours.
▶ The pass rate of personal insurance sales representative certificate among new employees was 67.4%. It was better than the average of 42.4%% in the industry. Meanwhile, the number of sales representatives who are qualified for selling investment-linked products in 2024 was 7,677 people in total (pass rate was 75.9%; it was better than the average of 36.1% in the industry). The number of sales representatives who are qualified for selling non-investment-linked products in foreign currency was 7,108 people (pass rate was 77.9%; it was better than the average of 45.4% in the industry).
▶ Training and cultivating digital talents, promoting educational training for each phase, and driving digital transformation.
▶ Strengthening the development of business channels and enhancing the retention rate of new sales representatives in the 13th month.
▶ Increasing the number of professional certificates obtained by sales representatives
Executed and completed according to the annual occupational safety and health management plan.
Improving breastfeeding room and fitness equipment; regularly reviewing equipment of occupational safety and health and strengthening the inspection.
We cultivate and follow up talents with high potentials through the "succession plan" since 2019. In 2024, around 60-70 middle and senior managers were selected to participate in the plan. Through stages of selection, cultivation, evaluation, and review, we cultivate successors who have development potential, reduce gaps of key management talents in the Company, and ensure the Company and the employees working together to move forwards the goals of sustainable management.
To pursue the vision of sustainable development, we devote to cultivate talents with diverse expertise. We respect employees' ambition and intention of career development and actively promote job rotation system under the comprehensive consideration of the management team. Based on the characteristic of business, we encourage employees to participate in job rotation to strengthen the development of competence, enhance cross-department exchange, and reinforce talent cultivation and utilization. Through on-the-job training, we expand the scope of employee career development, enhance diverse professional capabilities, and ensure employees grow along with the Company.
We encourage employees to actively participate in volunteer activities and support public affairs. They can participate in volunteer activities hosted by people's organizations established under the approval of Ministry of Interior or as well as the public welfare institutions, like funds, approved by the competent authority. For the accumulation of three-hour volunteer service, employees are entitled to apply for 0.5-day volunteer leave; for an accumulation of 6 hours, a day of volunteer leave will be granted. Employees are allowed to take maximum two days of volunteer leave every year. In 2024, there were 32 employees applied volunteer leave with accumulation of a total 43.5 days.
We value the development of comprehensive capabilities on office staff and offer courses of core training, management training, and professional training according to job grades and purpose of training for comprehensive enhancement on competitiveness in the workplace to fulfill corporate sustainable management. In addition, we encourage employees to obtain certificates of Life Office Management Association (LOMA) and professional certificates required for their job content as well as offer exam subsidy and relevant incentives to support employees on continuous improvement of professional capabilities. Besides, we established a digital learning platform to enhance learning convenience and accessibility. We have cultivation and development programs that are with both depth and width in place to ensure employees grow with the Company while they pursue self-development. In 2024, total amount input was over 10.68 million. Total training hours provided to office staff were over 62,000 hours, and average training hours per person were around 34.65 hours.
Strengthening ESG professional capabilities to promote sustainable management
Digital transformation and cultivation of innovative thoughts Establishing learning organization and incentive program To enhance our professional capabilities in environment, social and corporate governance and ensure employees are updated with the latest market trend and knowledge of regulatory compliance, we continue investing resources in professional trainings on ESG underwriting and investment; the total budget was NT$ 371,690. The courses included sustainable management in the insurance industry and practice of corporate carbon emission reduction.
Digital transformation and cultivation of innovative thoughts
We hosted several seminars and courses in 2024 to enhance employees' sensitiveness in future market demands and innovative topics. Among them, we provided a seminar, "AI trend and insurance application", to middle and senior managers to enhance the knowledge towards new technology in the management level of decision-making. For general employees, a course of "artificial intelligence and innovative thoughts for financial business" was offered to encourage them exploring innovative service mode to bring innovative thinking style to the Company's future development.
Establishing learning organization and incentive program
We create a learning organization to enhance willingness and motivation to learn. In 2024, we launched "Star Student Challenge" to reward employees who study online internal general courses or elective courses. Through encouragement of learning, we optimize talent development. The total hours of online internal general course achieved 1,516.45 hours with participant of 5,293 people.
Talent recruitment activities
We actively participated in campus talent recruitment activities hosted by colleges and universities, including National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Taipei University, and National Central University as well as held the enterprise recruitment briefing at Yuan Ze University, Ming Chuan University and National Central University to establish connection with different departments and find out excellent talents in diverse academic areas. To help students understand career development better, we invited senior employees to share their working portfolio and experience so that students can understand development opportunities in different departments.
Talent review
We conducted "talent DNA- leadership management assessment" on employees and supervisors in specific job grades. Using potential and performance as coordinates, we distributed talents to nine squares in a three-by-three arrangement to layout different management levels and understand the status of talent reserve for each level to implement the succession plan.
To ensure excellent talents step into their career in the life insurance industry without worries and develop steadily, Mercuries Life Insurance launched "reserve supervisor program" and "assistant manager training program"; these are professional training program in a duration of 27 months in total. We hope to help and supervise business personnel developing faster through program training and ensure business supervisors achieve effectiveness of win-win-win in personal performance, personnel cultivation, and organizational development.
Three training processes, "Foundation", "Rooting", and "Promotion"
Mercuries Life Insurance established a complete talent cultivation system. To make sure field new personnel able to set clear goals and directions in the beginning of their life insurance career, we divide the training into three key parts, "foundation", "rooting", and "promotion". Starting from supervising field new personnel to obtain professional certificates, develop their sales and recruitment skills to further cultivate professional elites for insurance business in the future and establish a correct concept on the business of life insurance.
Basic training - The first step to enter life insurance business, also the most important threshold, is to obtain professional certificates. For this, except offering certificate training courses regularly through regional training units to supervise employees' professional knowledge, we also prepare training materials for each certificate qualification to assist employees obtain certificates. Moreover, to assist new business personnel to know the products and legal regulations that shall be noticed for sales in the shortest time, we offer regular product-related courses related to help employees become professional and quality life insurance sales personnel.
➡ Relevant courses: Association Introduction, Foreign Currency Insurance Product Certificate, Investment-linked Insurance Product Certificate, and Product Introduction.
Roots-building training - Professionalism of sales representatives is one key indicator of Mercuries Life Insurance's professional image. Other than marketing our professionalism, policy holder services are the key point that we never ignore. Through roots-building training and on-the-job administrative training, we strengthen the professional abilities of our sales personnel. Besides, we hold life insurance sales representative tests regularly to exam whether business personnel understand the clauses related to the company products, various administrative operating procedures, and relevant legal regulations. In 2024, 282 of our sales representatives passed the life insurance consultant test (pass rate: 87.6%) to demonstrate our strict monitoring on the Company's professional image.
➡ Relevant courses: Administrative On-the-job Training (beginner/ advanced) and Sales Representative Roots-building Training.
Training for promotion - Along with the promotion of the job position, business personnel shall set a clear development goal for each stage. Sales representatives shall focus on the development of good habits and the advancement of selling skills while business supervisors must be familiar with how to promote life insurance business as well as develop good recruitment concepts and attitude. For this, we arrange promotional training in the beginning stage of each promotion for business personnel. We not only encourage them to review their competence through the courses but also exchange with and learn from peers in the same rank to develop more efficient management strategies and methods for business promotion.
➡ Relevant courses: Sales Supervisor Promotional Training, Business Assistant Manager Promotional Training, Business Manager Promotional Training, Middle and Senior Manager Training, and Division Manager Promotional Training.
Cultivating professional life insurance consultants
Enhancement in professionalism From overcoming the terrifying cold calling to proactive visits and from self-management to comprehensive leadership, we cultivate business talents that stun the industry through all-round systematic training.
Advanced professional cultivation: international certificate AFP/CFP® and RFA certificates In addition to expertise in life insurance, we also focus on comprehensive development of our business personnel. Through enterprise-based training, we hold exam preparation courses for advanced financial certificates. The courses cover Associate Financial Planner (AFP), Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), and Retirement Financial Advisor (RFA). The course content for AFP/CFP® includes basic financial planning, risk management & insurance planning, employee welfare and pension planning, investment planning, tax and estate transfer planning, and all-round financial planning. RFA courses include aged society and retirement system, geriatrics and long-term care system analysis, introduction of retirement-related insurance products, and retirement goal and need analysis. After several dozen hours of training and passing tests and certification, sales representatives will receive certificates awarded by the association. In the future, they will need to participate in a certain training hours required to maintain the validity of the certificate. The solid training help sales representatives to combine theory and actual practice on real work by planning insurance products that are close to the needs of customers.
As a good-standing enterprise for insurance with the strength to keep the society calm, we pay attention to the fact that Taiwan is stepping into a super aged society. By then, the population of people more than 65 years old will account for 20% of the total population. Other than social insurance providing basic protection, we will need business insurance for protection gap. Correct concepts on risk planning and protection require professional sales representatives to promote. Therefore, we spare no efforts in cultivating advanced professional personnel. From 2021 until now, the pass rate of training courses for AFP/CFP® by our personnel has been always higher than the pass rate in the country published by the association. The statistics from Financial Planning Association of Taiwan shows the number of employees with certificates jumped to the third in the industry in 2023, and we maintain the performance all the way to today.
Advancement in digitalization In response to the trend of financial digitalization, we integrate cutting-edge technology with the promotion of Agent_Pro program to create a learning and sales platform and cultivate professional life insurance consultants for the digital era.
The Company is devoted to provide diverse and complete welfare measures to enhance work satisfaction and life quality. We established welfare methods to offer office staff business trip allowance, holiday gifts, flexible working hours, maternity leave, incentive travel, and employee preferred stock to ensure employees have supports in balancing their career development and life quality.
In addition, we also provide professional exam reward system, club activities, employee marriage and birth allowances, funeral allowance for employees and their direct blood relatives, family care leave, annual health examination, group insurance, and shuttle bus from MRT stations to take care of employees' families. To encourage employees to take care of their physical and mental health through travelling, employees who are on board for one year in full will be granted travel subsidy of NT$6,500 every year.
Mercuries Life Insurance has been awarded "iSports Enterprise Certificate" three times. To encourage employees work out for fitness to relieve work pressure, we installed sports and fitness equipment in the workplace and subsidize employees to participate in sports-related clubs. We host sports day and family day every year to offer diverse channels for sports participation. While enhancing interaction between employees and their family, we create a happy environment in the workplace.
We set "Occupational Safety and Health Management Plan" every year for the implementation of matters related to safety and health. Through execution, discussion, and improvement, we ensure the safety in the working environment. Moreover, we also have "Workplace Safety and Health Rules" in place. It has been published and announced to employees for compliance. The Company established Occupational Safety and Health Committee; other than the employer, it consists of occupational safety and health personnel, labor health nursing personnel, and labor representatives. An "occupational safety and health committee meeting" is held regularly every quarter to collect opinions from the employees for discussion and improvement. The member of the Committee is responsible for discussing matters related to safety and health, reviewing current actions, and evaluating potential risk and improvement. We develop coping strategies for items required improvement, carry out the execution, and follow up the effectiveness of improvement in order to build up a safer, healthier, and sustainable working environment.
The Company is classified as a tier-3 workplace, and it is with lower level of overall risk. To ensure a safe and cozy working environment, the air quality in the office has been monitored and tested regularly according to law. The office lighting is bright with sufficient illumination, and the testing result meets the legal requirements for occupational safety and health. The filter of the water dispenser in the office is replaced and maintained regularly, and the water quality is tested regularly to ensure water safety for employees. Through environmental maintenance by cleaners every day, we ensure the cleanness and hygiene in the workplace. There is no hazardous factors of biological, chemical or noise pollutions.
We conduct inspection of fire-fighting equipment in the office regularly every year as well as fire evacuation drill to help employees get familiar with the emergency evacuation process and location.
We encourage employees participate in external training courses of first-aid personnel and have installed AED (automated external defibrillator) in the office building and the reception as well as barrier-free facilities and assign security personnel to ensure the safety of our employees and visitors.
Physical health
We have personnel for labor health service to offer employees services of health instruction and promotion. Every year, we provide employees health examination, which is better than the requirement by law. Through regular health promotion, we deliver correct knowledge related to health. We drafted four key plans for health for implementation accordingly. For female employees who are pregnant or deliver a birth within a year, we provide fresh milk or soybean milk every week and prepare a breastfeeding room for them. Health examination in the hospital is held regularly as well as the service of on-site doctor consultation. Based on the result and suggestion of the health examination, we provide health instruction for those who are in high risk and carry out continuous follow-up.
The Company has a gym for employees to facilitate their health management and life balance.
Mental health
To prevent workplace misconduct, we carry out regular promotion and establish a complaint hotline. Based on long-term commitment, we work with Employee Assistance Programs Service Center, Hsinchu City Life Line Association for EAP program. The service of hotline consultation is provided with no limitation of time and frequency; professional psychologists and consultants will be available for physical and mental health advice.
In addition, through Human Resource Department, local communication offices, and regional divisions, we gather the statistics of occupational accidents. We hope to seize the golden hours of rescue through complete prevention and emergency responding capability and reduce risks and incidents of occupational accident to maintain workplace safety and health. For employees who are leaving the Company, if needed, we offer face-to-face counselling for mental health and career development planning.
No matter employees retire in new fund system or old fund system, the Company will appropriate sufficient retirement pension and severance pay that is superior than legal requirements to protect employees' life after retirement and ensure sufficient life security after retirement for our employees. We offer employees with seniority in old fund system retirement pension superior than legal requirements. For employees who meet retirement qualification, we adopt 55 units of calculation base that are superior than legal requirements as the upper limits of pension calculation (maximum 66 units for field business supervisors). For employees who do not meet retirement qualification, we issue severance pay based on seniority. The Company may relax the age limit on retirement for those who shall be retained for services according to the organizational development and needs of human resource.
We kicked off a “succession plan” in 2019 to cultivate and keep an eye on high-potential talents. In 2023, the Company selected around 60-70 middle and senior managers for the plan. Through stages of talent selection, cultivation & development, evaluation, and review, we cultivate successors who have development potential, reduce gaps of key management talents in the Company, and ensure the Company and the employees working together to move forwards the goals of sustainable management.
Outlining the vision of the Company’s long-term development, we cultivate professionaltalents by promoting rotation based on the respect of intention and ambition of talents as wellas the comprehensive consideration by the management team. Each unit shall consider itsbusiness nature and encourage employees to rotate their job in order to strengthen their dutyexperience, expand talent exchange, and develop & obtain employment qualification for otherjob duties through talent cultivation and effective talent utilization. We increase the scope ofpromotion and rotation through on-the-job training to achieve the purpose of experiencingvarious job duties.
For the encouragement of employees participating in volunteer activities, we suggest toparticipating in volunteer activities hosted by people’s organizations that government agenciesand Ministry of Interior approved as well as the public welfare institutions, like funds, approvedby the competent authority. For the accumulation of every three-hour volunteer activities,employees are entitled to apply for 0.5-day volunteer leave; for an accumulation of 6 hours, aday of volunteer leave will be granted. Employees are allowed to take maximum two days ofvolunteer leave every year. In 2023, there were 22 employees who participated in volunteeractivities. A total of 28 days of volunteer leave were applied for.
We value the development of comprehensive capabilities for office personnel and offer courses of core training, recruitment activitiesmanagement training, and professional training according to job grades and purpose of the course to enhanceemployees’ workplace competitiveness in order to cultivate professional management talents and fulfill corporatesustainable management. The Company also encourages acquisition of certificates, including Life OfficeManagement Association (LOMA) and professional certificates required for the job content as well as offer examsubsidy and other welfare measures. Besides, we established a digital learning platform to enhance learningconvenience and accessibility. We have cultivation and development programs that are with both depth and widthin place to ensure employees grow together with the enterprise. In 2023, total amount input was over 9.51 million.Total training hours provided to office personnel were over 57,000 hours, and average training hours per personwere around 31.89 hours.
To ensure excellent young partners rest assured when stepping into life insurance business and develop steadily, Mercuries Life Insurance launched “reserve supervisor program” and “assistant manager training program”; these are professional training program in a duration of 27 months in total. We hope to help and supervise business personnel developing faster through program training and ensure business supervisors achieve effectiveness of win-win-win in personal performance, personnel cultivation, and organizational development.
We worked with Chunghwa Telecom to create an internal enterprise MOD educational training platform and entrusted Chunghwa Telecom to install receiving and viewing equipment at our business locations all over the world. Besides, we installed dedicated studio and purchased video recording and editing equipment at the Headquarters as well as recruited talents from communications and media related educational background. A huge amount of costs has been invested in the educational training. MOD Morning Training Program releases a new episode every week. By the end of 2023, we have already broadcasted 387 episodes and achieved the average viewing rate of more than 82%. MOD Morning Training focuses on deepening the content. We hope to enhance participation of sales representatives, gather team cohesion, and increase effect of motivation through online questionnaire survey and communication with business units.
In 2023, we invested more than NT$23.81 million in total. Total training hours for field business personnel were more than 329,813 hours, and the average training hours per person were 33.39 hours.
The Company established welfare methods to offer office personnel business trip allowance, preferential mortgage loan, holiday gifts, maternity leave, incentive travel, and employee preferred stock. Moreover, we also provide professional exam reward system, club activities, employee marriage and birth allowances, funeral allowance for employees and their direct blood relatives, family care leave, annual health examination, group insurance, and shuttle bus from MRT stations. Besides, employees who are on board for one year in full will be granted travel subsidy of NT$6,500 every year to encourage employees seeking balance between physical and mental development.
Mercuries Life Insurance emphasizes workplace safety and health. In 2023, we invested more than NT$4.53 million topromote improvement measures for the enhancement of workplace safety and health.
The Company establishes annual occupational safety and health management plans every year and reviews andimproves matters related to safety and health according to the plans. Besides, we also have the Workplace Safetyand Health Rules in place. It has announced to employees and requested for compliance. We hold an occupationalsafety and health committee meeting regularly every quarter to collect opinions from the employees for discussionand improvement. The member of the Committee is responsible for discussing matters related to safety and healthas well as evaluating whether there is any item that required improving and the improvement methods and results.
The Company is classified as a tier-3 workplace, and it is with lower level of risks. Air quality in the workingenvironment has been tested according to law, and it meets the legal requirements for occupational safety andhealth. The lamps used in the office provide bright lighting with sufficient illumination. We commission with cleaningpersonnel for workplace cleanup every day, and there is no hazardous factor of biochemical or noise pollution.
The Company’s office building and locations with customer service counters are all installed with AED (automatedexternal defibrillator), accessible facilities, and security guards to ensure employee safety. Through the attendancerecords from the Human Resource Department, local communication offices, and regional divisions, we keepstatistics of occupational incidents. With complete prevention and preparation, we hope to enhance the success rateof rescue gold time.
No matter employees retire in new fund system or old fund system, the Company will appropriate sufficient retirement pension and severance pay that is superior than legal requirements toprotect employees’ life after retirement and ensure sufficient life security after retirement for our employees. We offer employees with seniority in old fund system retirement pension superiorthan legal requirements. For employees who meet retirement qualification, we adopt 55 units of calculation base that are superior than legal requirements as the upper limits of pensioncalculation (maximum 66 units for field business supervisors). For employees who do not meet retirement qualification, we issue severance pay based on seniority.
The company has established a pension committee that meets quarterly to effectively oversee matters related to the contribution, storage, and disbursement of workers' retirement reserve funds.
To cultivate and continuously track the talents with high potential, we have activated the “Succession Plan” in 2019 and selected 60-70 intermediate and senior supervisors to participate in the plan in 2022. Through the stages of talent selection, cultivation and development, evaluation and review, we aim to cultivate the successors with potential and development capability, thereby reducing the deficiency in the key management talents in the Company and allowing both the Company and employees to head toward the goal of sustainable business together.
For the Company's long-term development vision as the outline, cultivate professional talents, and respect their own will and ambition according to the comprehensive consideration of the management leadership team to promote rotation. Each unit may, depending on the nature of its business, encourage colleagues to rotate in enhance job experience, expand personnel exchange, and increase the scope of transfer through on-the-job training for the purpose of cultivating talents, effectively utilizing talents, and developing qualifications for appointment to other positions.
To encourage staff to participate in volunteer activities, they may participate in volunteer activities organized by public welfare organizations such as government agencies, people's organizations approved by the Ministry of the Interior and funds approved by competent authorities.0.5 days of volunteer leave will be applied for if more than 3 hours of volunteer activities are accumulated; and after 6 hours, you can take one day off. You can apply for up to 2 days a year. In 2022, 69 people participated in volunteer activities and applied for 119 volunteer leave days.
We pay attention to the development of all-round ability of internal employees and classify the trainings into core training, management training, and professional training according to the job ranks and course objectives, so as to improve the occupational competitiveness of employees, cultivate the professional management talents, and implement sustainable business. Furthermore, we encourage the employees to obtain the US license of Life Office Management Association (LOMA) and relevant professional licenses for the work fields, and provide the welfare of examination subsidy. We build a digital learning platform to provide the employees, so as to improve the convenience and accessibility of learning. We also provide the diverse training plans with depth and breadth, so that employees can grow together with the enterprise. In 2022, we invested a total exceeding NT$ 7.31 million training expense, and the total training hours of internal employee exceeded 50,000 hours, with an average training hour per capita of 28.51 hours.
The Company has formulated the Employee Welfare Committee Method, providing not only business trip allowance, preferential housing loan, holiday gifts, maternity leave, employee insurance or bonus, incentive travel and employee preferred shares for internal employees, but also professional examination incentive system, club activities, employee marriage, and maternity subsidy, travel allowance, and annual health examination, etc. Moreover, an annual tourism allowance of NT$ 6,500 will be provided to employees who have been on the job for one year, to encourage the balanced development of both body and mind.