Materiality

We performed a business impact assessment on the 20 impact areas, using our Incident and Issue Management standards to assess the:

• Scale of impact on QBE (Financial, Reputational, People, Regulatory, Business Disruption);
• Scope of QBE's impact;
• Management difficulty to realise opportunities/mitigate risks; and 
• Timing of when impacts become material.

The topics were also tested with internal subject matter experts (SMEs) for their input on the appropriateness of the topics and their definitions. 

We surveyed a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to assess the severity of the impact areas to QBE’s operations.  More than 1700 employees participated in the online survey, a response rate of approximately 13.5%.   

External stakeholders included investors, brokers, suppliers, partners, Premiums4Good customers, NGOs, government and other stakeholders. Over 70 external stakeholders provided feedback on the impacts of the list of sustainability topics.

Through a structured online survey, we asked respondents to rank the 20 impact areas through two separate lenses:

• ‘How important do you think the following impact areas are for QBE to achieve its purpose and strategy?’ (i.e., (financial) impact on QBE).
• ‘Where could QBE have the most impact on society?’ (i.e., impact through QBE).

We conducted supplementary interviews with executives to enrich the survey results. The interviews explored the reasoning for the respondents' ranking choices, opportunities and risks for these areas, and improvements. 

We combined the results from the external and internal surveys and calibrated with the outputs of the business impact assessment. 

The results are reflected in the updated materiality matrix. Each topic is positioned on our revised matrix with the ‘Impact on QBE’ score against the x-axis, and the ‘Impact through QBE’ score mapped against the y-axis. The clusters of topics are consistent with the three different stages of relevance and maturity:

Priority – Topics of high importance to our stakeholders, with a significant impact on the environment, economy and society. These require significant management and strategic focus.

Ongoing and emerging importance – Topics of strategic significance for which we have well-established management processes, or where topics have increased in importance since the last reporting period Stakeholder interest in these topics may vary.

Monitor– Topics of relevance to our stakeholders. Several of these topics will benefit from activities related to the Priority and Ongoing Importance topics.  While not primary priorities, they are monitored for issues and opportunities that may elevate their materiality 

On completion of the revised materiality matrix, as part of validation process, we held discussions with the executive management. During discussions they were asked to rate the five most important impact areas which QBE should focus on keeping in mind both impacts on QBE and through QBE’s business. 

The final matrix was  approved by the Group Executive Committee and the Group Board.