Employee turnover

In 2009, employee turnover reached 13%, down from 14% the previous year. Of the total, 6% left the company voluntarily to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Employment was terminated for a further 6%, either because of internal restructuring or individual underperformance. The remaining 1% was due to a policy, in certain business areas, of not replacing those employees leaving the company either to take up other jobs or to retire. At the end of 2009, AEGON employees had, on average, spent 8.6 years with the company, up from 7.7 twelve months earlier.

During 2009, AEGON decided to restructure or sell a number of its activities. These decisions were part of an ongoing review of the company's portfolio of businesses, which began in 2008, as well as wider efforts to reduce operating costs and improve returns from AEGON's existing businesses.

Among the activities affected by AEGON's portfolio review were:

• AEGON's life insurance operations in Taiwan, which were sold in April 2009
• The spread-based institutional business in the United States, which AEGON decided to place in run-off
• There was also further restructuring of AEGON's businesses in the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

AEGON took steps to limit the number of compulsory redundancies as a result of these decisions:

• In Taiwan, a clause in the sales agreement guaranteed employees jobs for at least twelve months.
• In the Netherlands, there were no redundancies in 2009. There will, however, be approximately 200 redundancies in 2010 as a result of the reorganization of AEGON's Dutch sales operations. AEGON has already agreed a redundancy plan with unions in the Netherlands. This plan provides a series of arrangements designed to help those employees involved, including additional training, outplacements and redundancy packages. Employees are also given priority when applying for other jobs within the company.
• Similarly, in the United Kingdom, AEGON has been working closely with trade unions to minimize the number of compulsory redundancies. Measures include freezing external recruitment, restricting or discontinuing agency or temporary contracts and introducing more flexible working hours. For those employees at risk of redundancy in the United Kingdom, AEGON also has an extensive consultation and support program, which involves among other things additional training, career counselling and help finding alternative employment. Employees in the United Kingdom are also given priority when applying for jobs elsewhere in the organization. In such circumstances, in both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, AEGON also offers voluntary redundancy packages for those employees who wish to leave the company.