Aflac Lands 2 Major Honors from FORTUNE and Great Place to Work

COLUMBUS, Ga., December 14, 2016 – Aflac, the leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite in the United States, today announced two major honors for the company and its workforce. Aflac was named to FORTUNE Magazine’s 2016 lists of the Best Workplaces for Diversity and the Best Workplaces for African Americans, according to global research and consulting firm Great Place to Work® and Fortune. Aflac appears at No. 31 and No. 8, respectively.

“These are outstanding honors for our company and our workforce, as we place a great deal of our focus on building and maintaining an environment of diversity and inclusion,” Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos said. “With a marketplace as eclectic as the United States, focusing on diversity is not just the right thing to do; it makes business sense, as well. We want to thank Fortune and Great Place to Work for these special recognitions.”

Aflac’s workforce is comprised of 67 percent women, 45 percent minorities and nearly 30 percent African-Americans. In terms of leadership, 23 percent of Aflac’s officers are minorities, with 11 percent African-Americans, including the company’s U.S. President and its General Counsel, each of whom are African-American women.

Workplaces that prize diversity and inclusivity aren’t just good for specific classes of workers. By promoting environments that are great for all employees, organizations create winning workplaces, according to research Great Place to Work conducted to compile the list. The 50 companies on the 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity list average 24 percent higher year-over-year revenue growth than other Great Place to Work-Certified^TM workplaces that didn’t earn a spot on the ranking.

“We congratulate this year’s winners for showing that diverse workplaces are good for ALL employees,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “Bottom line? Our research shows that the most inclusive workplaces enjoy significantly higher revenue growth than less-inclusive workplaces – evidence that these organizations are cultivating the full human potential of all their people.”

In conjunction with the overall 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity rankings, Great Place to Work is publishing other Best Workplaces for Diversity lists. These include the Best Workplaces for Latinos and the Best Workplaces for Asian Americans.  Great Place to Work also has produced a report with survey data and workforce practices to help other workplaces become more inclusive.

To see the full list of the 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity, click here. To see the 2016 Best Workplaces for African Americans, click here.

When sharing on social media about the 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity, please use the hashtag #bestworkplaces.

About Aflac
When a policyholder gets sick or hurt, Aflac pays cash benefits fast. For six decades, Aflac insurance policies have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the United States, Aflac is the leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite. Through its trailblazing One Day Pay^SM initiative, Aflac U.S. can receive, process, approve and disburse payment for eligible claims in one business day. In Japan, Aflac is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance and insures 1 in 4 households. Aflac insurance products help provide protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. For 10 consecutive years, Aflac has been recognized by Ethisphere as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2016, Fortune magazine recognized Aflac as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for the 18th consecutive year and included Aflac on its list of Most Admired Companies for the 15th time, ranking the company No. 1 in innovation for the insurance, life and health category for the second consecutive year. In 2015, Aflac’s contact centers were recognized by J.D. Power by providing “An Outstanding Customer Service Experience” for the Live Phone Channel. Aflac Incorporated is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFL. To find out more about Aflac and One Day Pay^SM, visit aflac.com or espanol.aflac.com. Aflac herein means American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus and American Family Life Assurance Company of New York.

About the Best Workplaces for Diversity
Published together by Great Place to Work® and Fortune, The Best Workplaces for Diversity ranking is based upon feedback from more than 448,456 employees at Great Place to Work–Certified™ companies who completed the Trust Index^© Employee Survey. Employees from all backgrounds answered 58 questions about how frequently they experience the behaviors that create a great workplace, considering everything from how comfortable they are being themselves; the degree of favoritism or insider politics they observe in the workplace; the fairness of promotions; the feeling of honest connection with co-workers; their access to senior leadership; and who receives information and professional development and who doesn’t.  

To determine the winners, Great Place to Work analyzed how positively women, minorities and LGBTQ employees report experiencing their workplace overall, paying special attention to an index of factors where these employees tend to have a less positive experience than their colleagues. Rankings take into account how favorably women, minorities and LGBTQ employees experience their workplace relative to their male, Caucasian and heterosexual colleagues' experiences, as well as the degree of representation women and minorities enjoy within the workforce as a whole and in executive roles. Organizations needed to have at least 50 employees to be considered and are compared to peers of a similar size.

Media contact
Jon A. Sullivan
706.763.4813
jsullivan@aflac.com

Analyst and investor contact
Robin Y. Wilkey
706.596.3264 
800.235.2667
FAX: 706.324.6330 
rwilkey@aflac.com