Empowering our people

As a company with a mission to help all Americans retire better, our success lies in earning the trust of our clients each and every day. We do that by hiring skilled employees and developing them with ongoing training, developing a performance-oriented culture, ensuring the inclusion of diverse perspectives from people with diverse backgrounds and ensuring adherence to our company values.

To measure our success in these areas, we track meaningful metrics such as employee engagement and satisfaction (i.e., employee volunteering, employee giving and results of the Organizational Health Index survey), total employees receiving performance reviews, average hours of training, turnover rates and rate of return from leave. We also review these metrics in the context of diversity and therefore, where possible, break out data by gender, employment type, geography and other factors that help ensure equal opportunity in our workplace.

Our Mission

Our corporate mission is to make a secure financial future possible — one person, one family, one institution at a time. As we carry out our work to realize our mission, we do so in a way that is ethically, economically, socially and environmentally responsible. This guides us in everything we do, from our strategic direction, our product development and the way in which we deliver services to our ethics training, our engagement in the community and the benefits we offer our employees.

Corporate Values

The heart of our vision and strategy is building a company with value — and with values. We believe that profitability and integrity are inextricably connected. Our values define us. They are our compass and filter through which we make every decision. The following are the Voya Financial corporate values:

We Have Customer Passion

We empower our customers to achieve a secure financial future. We provide the best customer service, providing objective advice, listening to our customers and responding with a sense of urgency.

We Do the Right Thing

It’s simple: We tell the truth. We uphold both the letter and the spirit of the law. We treat everyone with respect. And we say what we mean and mean what we say.

We Are the We

We are one team, accountable — individually and collectively. We act as owners, creating value through profitable growth.

We Have a Winning Spirit

We operate with an optimistic attitude. We are agile and adapt to meet our stakeholders’ needs. We are focused, and we never settle.

We Care

We take care of our people. We positively impact our communities and our planet. We make products and services that add value to people’s lives. We are inclusive and incorporate diverse perspectives in all that we do.

We believe superior human capital management is a key component to a high level of corporate performance. We are differentiated by our talent review process, leadership development, succession planning and, in our Investment Management business, personality assessments and essentials of finance training for employees in non-financial roles.

Sustaining a High-Performing Culture

Human capital is key to fostering Voya’s high-performance culture. Our talent review process is focused on putting the right people in the right positions at the right time to build a sustainable leadership pipeline. To do this, our succession planning activities include:

  • Ensuring that we have the best possible talent in key business success-critical positions.
  • Assessing our leaders based on leadership competencies, focusing on both the “what” and the “how.”1
  • Creating succession plans for key critical roles.
  • Identifying, developing and retaining a diverse pool of top talent, rising stars and emerging leaders.
  • Increasing talent management capabilities of business leaders and HR staff through the use of common tools and language.
  • Validating talent review processes for consistency and calibrating top talent across Voya’s businesses and functions.

We focus on key outcomes stemming from the following:

  • SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis in each major business and function.
  • Succession plans for the top four layers of the organization (and mission-critical positions) including scans of potential external candidates in the event of turnover.
  • Determination of top internal talent with the highest performance and potential for growth.
  • Vulnerability analysis to assess leaders with the highest flight risk and impact of departure.

Our philosophy is to hire the best person for the role by first looking internally, but also to look externally to ensure we have a balance between internal talent with institutional knowledge and external talent with a different perspective. We have found that this balance produces a culture of continuous improvement.

Our goal is to make leadership development an integral part of personal career development and employee engagement, ultimately improving our business performance.

In 2019, 100 percent of employees completed their mid-year review process, and 95 percent of employees completed the year-end process.

Voya Investment Management develops well-rounded employees

At Voya, diversity includes and goes beyond gender, religion, sexual orientation and race. It encompasses the differences with which we are born and those we acquire throughout our lives. Diversity of thought is a key component to both empowering our people and better serving our clients. Our Voya Investment Management (IM) business lives this principle every day.

Voya IM differentiates itself from other asset management organizations through its focus on tuition reimbursement, manager development, robust succession planning and performance management programs focused on both “what” employees accomplish and “how” they accomplish it. In addition, two new key initiatives emphasize our continual investment in our greatest asset — our people.

Launched three years ago, the Enneagram personality assessment helps Voya IM to better understand team dynamics. Individuals within a team are assessed via an online inventory and gain an understanding of motivations, core values and blind spots of nine different personality types. With this data, teams better understand the different styles of their teammates and themselves, and can apply this knowledge to the creation of an inclusive environment where we embrace and leverage the diversity you see and diversity of thought.

They learn how to do the following:

  • Effectively leverage different personalities to accomplish goals.
  • Determine the most effective communication modes to reach people in each personality type.
  • Round out project teams with diverse personality types to foster innovative client solutions.

As of December 2019, 71 percent of Voya IM’s employees have completed an Enneagram training session, with plans to continue to roll out this program across the remaining employee population.

In addition, Voya IM believes in empowering employees at all levels and functions to better succeed in the challenging world of asset management. To complement the program that sponsors employees who want to earn their Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certificate, in 2017, Voya IM launched the CFA Investment Foundations program, offering financial education to IM professionals outside of investment teams.

The program features both online and in-person modules targeted to employees in information technology, human resources, legal, marketing and other functional departments. This six-month intensive education is designed to provide participants with a clear understanding of the essentials of the investment management industry. The program covers seven topic areas across 20 chapters and culminates with a comprehensive knowledge exam offered by the CFA Institute. As of December 2019, Voya IM had 141 CFA charterholders and over 121 employees who have either earned, or are in the process of earning, their CFA Investment Foundations Certificate.

1 In 2012, we introduced leadership competencies — where performance is measured by “what” objectives employees achieve as well as by “how” those objectives are accomplished. In 2016, we rolled that out to employees at all levels. In 2017, we encouraged a focus on performance, coaching discussions and development plans.

Because we are committed to developing employees, we maintain robust learning programs to help employees develop as they advance their careers and/or transition into different roles within Voya. We also maintain programs and benefits that support our employees who are retiring or following their career journey on alternative paths.

In-company learning

We offer the Voya Learning Center, our company resource for employees’ personal and professional development. Continuing education and courses included in The Learning Center cover a wide variety of subjects and span instructor-led classes, online courses and access to online books.

Leadership development plays an integral role in shaping our company. With a culture of Continuous Improvement at our core, Voya empowers our employees with the tools they need to expand their capacity to perform in leadership roles. Voya leaders facilitate the execution of the organization’s strategy through building alignment, increasing employee engagement and growing the capabilities of others. Voya’s Talent Development team offers a host of intensive and engaging general programs and works across the company to customize programs to meet specific needs of leaders, functions and business units. A selection of our leadership development solutions includes:

  • Five Behaviors of Cohesive Teams
  • Presentations That Work
  • DiSC and MBTI (personality type indicators)
  • Focus Group Facilitation
  • Strategic Planning Session Facilitation
  • Team-Building Activities
  • Negotiation Skills

The 6Ps are specific leadership behaviors that, when put into practice by leaders, create a culture of Continuous Improvement, which in turn leads to increased performance and better employee experiences. The behaviors are a subset of Voya’s Leadership Model. The six principles that make up the 6Ps are purpose, people, process, performance, problem-solving and partnering.

Our management development program is specifically designed to support employees during a transition to a managerial role. This program provides managerial candidates with instructor-led courses that focus on topics such as employee engagement, crucial conversations, situational leadership, leading effective meetings, delegating, time management and how to sustain a positive work environment. In addition to learning how to manage employee development and performance, the program is designed in a “just-in-time” format — allowing participants to practice newly acquired skills immediately after training. New managers are automatically enrolled in the program within 60 days of receiving their promotion or joining the organization.

As part of a partnership with LIMRA (opens new window), a worldwide research, learning and development organization and a trusted source of financial services industry knowledge, we offer an extensive curriculum of impactful and results-driven courses for senior leaders. LIMRA brings in top business leaders and leading professors to facilitate sessions while using the latest assessments and learning tools. Select course topics include:

  • Conflict to Collaboration
  • Creating a Culture of Achievement
  • Leadership Strategies
  • Mentoring for Impact
  • Strategic Talent Management

We also offer employees the ability to participate in the LOMA (opens new window), an international trade association for the insurance and financial services industry, designation programs. By completing these designations, employees build business acumen in a self-paced, self-study format. The designations include:

External learning opportunities

Voya’s Office of Corporate Responsibility manages Voya’s employee volunteer sabbatical program. Through a competitive nomination, application and colleague voting process, a selection of Voya employees are chosen annually to participate in a week-long sabbatical project that supports Voya Foundation’s giving priorities. Employees travel to a location of need and volunteer their time to support that community. The sabbatical program offers employees learning opportunities in areas of team building, networking, relationship building, leadership, project management and cultural understanding.

As part of the benefits offered at Voya, employees have the opportunity to pursue learning opportunities through the tuition reimbursement program and personal leave. The tuition reimbursement program provides access to experienced educational and financial advisors to help develop customized education plans, tuition savings at accredited schools and reimbursement for eligible courses. With manager approval, employees may choose to take unpaid leave (up to a maximum period of time) to pursue learning opportunities.

Retirement and financial planning

Helping improve the financial wellness of our employees is an important part of our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) promise and can be especially valuable when employees transition into retirement or change jobs. To help meet these and other needs, we offer a complimentary appointment with a financial advisor through Voya Financial Advisors®, a broker-dealer affiliated with the Voya® family of companies.

In relation to health care needs in retirement, Medicare-eligible retirees may choose from several health insurance options that best fit their individual needs. Because insurance can be complicated and choosing a plan can be stressful, Voya works with Mercer Marketplace 365 to offer one-on-one counseling with benefit counselors to help retirees understand their options and enroll.

Health care coverage during early retirement (retirement prior to age 65 or becoming eligible for Medicare) is available through the same health plans that are available to active employees. Voya provides access to retiree health care coverage for employees whose employment ends after they have attained age 55 and have completed five consecutive years of service.

Continuing career services

A severance pay plan is provided to employees to ease the financial burden due to unexpected job loss. This plan provides salary continuation payments and other benefits to assist employees with career planning and transition to future employment when they experience a qualified separation.

Outplacement services, depending on job roles, are also provided at no cost to help employees prepare résumés and assist with job search activities.

Voya Financial is committed to fostering a work environment where the differences that we are born with — and those we acquire throughout our lives — are understood, valued and intentionally pursued. Bringing our differences together to positively influence our culture, service our clients and enrich our communities is a reflection of how we live our purpose and aspire to our vision — to clear your path to financial confidence and a more fulfilling life.

Learn more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Voya.

As a company in an industry that relies on a skilled workforce, and in certain roles, a highly skilled workforce, the development of a high-performing workforce is important to the functioning of our business. Human capital development has therefore been found in our GRI-based materiality analysis to be a focus area for us. As such, we maintain robust talent recruitment and retention programs, including attractive employee benefit plans and career development programs.

Learn more about Human Capital.