Released on: November 28, 2007, 3:35 am

Press Release Author: Alexandra Lewis

Industry:

Press Release Summary: Aon Consulting UK is piloting a '9 day fortnight' (9/10) for
employees to take more control over their work-life balance. Employees at the
pensions, benefits and HR consulting firm will condense their normal working
fortnight into nine days, allowing them to take off one day every two weeks.

Press Release Body: Aon Consulting UK is piloting a '9 day fortnight' (9/10) for
employees to take more control over their work-life balance. Employees at the
pensions, benefits and HR consulting firm will condense their normal working
fortnight into nine days, allowing them to take off one day every two weeks.

The idea was generated by employees who were consulted on how they wanted to achieve
a flexible working culture at Aon Consulting. 9/10 is now being tested as part of a
wider set of initiatives to support staff and create an even better place to work,
including flexible career paths, coaching and development for leadership and an
environmentally friendly scheme in all offices.

Aon Consulting's Leeds and Bristol offices will be piloting the 9/10 scheme for six
months, after which consideration will be given to introducing this option across
Aon Consulting's 12 offices with over 1100 employees.

Gary Cowler, client relationship director at Aon Consulting in Leeds, said: \"To
achieve our business objectives we need the best people. 9/10 is the latest
initiative we're piloting to differentiate ourselves in the market place. Employees
are seeking rewards beyond the annual salary and bonus so we're looking to help our
people by offering an excellent work-life balance.\"

The initiative will not operate on a clocking in/out basis. Employees will be
responsible for their own timekeeping and are expected to work the committed hours
to ensure high service standards are maintained.

Gary added: "We have bright and committed people who we trust to deliver valuable
work and advice to our clients; we must also trust them to manage their time. We'll
approach this as a team and discover if we can make the pilot succeed for all
stakeholders; our clients, our business and our people."

The pilot will gather valuable feedback from employees, as well as tracking progress
against a set of measures, including:

*
are we still delivering excellent service to our clients?
*
are we still meeting our business goals?
*
are we seeing an improvement in absence, recruitment and retention?

CASE STUDY - Marcus Hurd

Marcus Hurd is a senior consultant and actuary at Aon Consulting in Leeds, as well
as a regular spokesperson on the finances of UK pension schemes. He and his wife
have two young children both under the age of two.

He comments: \"Financial rewards alone are not always sufficient to achieve a desired
lifestyle. On those occasions, initiatives such as Aon\'s 9 day fortnight are
priceless. My role means that I am always \'on call\', but spending an additional day
at home with the children helps maintain a work-life balance when it matters the
most.\"

Earlier in the year, Aon also allowed Marcus to take five weeks extended paternity
leave following complications after the birth of his second child.

CASE STUDY - Gaynor West

Gaynor West, office manager at Aon Consulting in Leeds, looks after her stepchildren
every other weekend, in addition to shopping for two elderly relatives.

She comments: \"The extra day off makes life so much easier as I can now spend
quality time with the kids rather than having to drag them round the supermarket at
weekends. Work permitting, it's fantastic as it means an extra day each fortnight to
do the ironing or shopping for my mother in law."

Gaynor will actually be enjoying two days holiday next week as she has been given an
extra day off for her birthday, another Aon initiative to celebrate the company\'s
20th anniversary this year.

Aon UK is ranked by A.M. Best as the number one global insurance brokerage based on
brokerage revenues and voted best insurance intermediary, offering classic car
insurance, high value home insurance, entertainment
and media insurance and construction site insurance.


Web Site:
http://www.commercialservices.aon.co.uk/commercialservices/microsites/entertainment/


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