American Express Company 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

GRI INDEX
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT (CONT.)
VALUING OUR PEOPLE
Boosting high-potential
employees
We have two high-potential development
programs:
• Accelerated Leadership Development
(ALD) aims to strengthen the global
pipeline of senior management by
developing our high-potential vice
presidents. Participants are nominated
by their business unit president, with
approximately 25 participants per
annual class. As of 2015, ALD has
graduated 93 participants with 59
percent of participants receiving at
least one promotion after the program
completion.
• Accelerate Your Growth (AYG) focuses
on filling the pipeline of future vice
presidents by developing managers
and directors. The employees, who are
potential successors to the executive
teams across the world, participate
in AYG for six months. The program
includes a 360-degree assessment and
one-to-one executive coaching to help
participants identify how to focus their
development.
Exceptional service begins with great
people, and we employ some of the best
talent in our industry. Our employees
relish the challenge of finding new
solutions to meet our customers’ needs.
They adapt, persist and champion
innovation within their teams and across
the organization.
We strive to ensure our people feel
valued, recognized and supported—and
we continually measure our progress. Our
consistently high employee satisfaction
scores are a testament to the strength
of our relationships. In 2015, 84 percent
of our employees who responded to
our annual survey said they would
recommend our company as a great
place to work.
Listening to employees
Our annual employee survey, The
Pulse, provides insights into employee
satisfaction, leadership efficacy, learning
opportunities and career development.
The survey results help us improve the
employee experience, our culture and
business results.
Even though participation in the survey
is optional, employee completion rates
are high. In 2015, 85 percent of our
employees took the survey. One of our
clear strengths is the employee/leader
relationship, which has a direct impact on
engagement and loyalty. Our employees
give high marks for fair treatment,
coaching, motivation and inclusion.
We want to foster a culture in which
employees feel free to share their ideas
and opinions. Beyond The Pulse, other
feedback sources include town halls
and small lunch meetings with leaders.
And our Listening Post platform lets
employees offer anonymous feedback to
Human Resources.
The American Express
Human Capital Scorecard
We have a robust program in
place to assess and manage
human capital risks – identified
as talent-related issues
that can affect productivity.
Senior leaders assess human
capital risks annually through
workshops, and track progress
against plan to mitigate top
risks quarterly. Senior Human
Resources leaders are assigned
annual compliance goals,
and performance against
these goals directly impacts
compensation and year-end
decisions.
The American Express Human
Capital Scorecard, which
measures top company leaders
against the organization’s
workforce priorities, reports
across three categories:
• Performance advantage:
Building, retaining and
engaging a high-performing
workforce.
• Talent development:
Differentiating and
developing top
leadership talent.
• Diversity and inclusion:
Building a diverse
leadership pool.
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