Performance of the Italgas Group > Putting people first

Putting people first

A focus on efficiency, service quality, protection of the environment and safety in the workplace represents the values on which Italgas has built its way of doing business. In order to reconfirm these values and objectives, Italgas continues to invest in developing the skills and abilities of collaborators and promotes participation, dialogue and the creation of a positive work environment.

The people at Italgas are considered the company’s most valuable asset.

The Company provides all employees and collaborators with career opportunities based on merit, professional and managerial expertise and active participation in company development and improvement processes.

In line with the Code of Ethics, Italgas considers diversity a corporate asset: it respects the dignity of every individual and guarantees equal opportunities in all aspects of the employment relationship, preventing any form of discrimination deriving from differences in sex, age, health, ethnicity, nationality, political or religious opinions.

Personnel

As of 31 December 2020, the Italgas Group had 3,985 employees (compared to 4,096 in 2019). Specifically, 2020 saw 163 staff join the company, 159 of whom were recruited from the market and 4 from extraordinary transactions involving expansion of the scope.

Vice versa, 274 staff left the Group due to termination of employment contracts and other reasons (mainly for retirement).

In all, the female presence in the company is 15.1%, slightly up on last year, also taking into account the traditional male presence in the operational technical areas of the company.

94% of the company population are hired on permanent contracts, while apprenticeship contracts account for the remaining 6%. The 43 apprenticeship contracts terminated in 2020 were all transformed into permanent contracts.

Development programmes

The managerial development programme, launched in 2018 to support development of the managerial culture, digital transformation and the significant generational handover continued during 2020.

The plan’s logic and pillars are as follows: the sharing of a new model of managerial skills and its implementation, the management of performance through the continuous feedback culture, the development of staff potential through an assessment and empowerment programme and the consequent development and career plans.

To implement these, specific programmes were carried out for the different types of human resource (around 280 participants, including graduates, managers and executives).

For graduates who had recently joined the Training and Development Programme (“Italgas School”) it combines classroom-based training activities over several modules with activities for developing potential and managerial skills using the self-empowerment methodology. The programme also involves a development centre (in the two junior and expert formats, according to seniority) downstream of which a meeting is organised for each participant to look at their development profile with HR and their line manager.

The first edition of the Italgas School drew to a close in January 2020 (70 participants); the second was launched in April 2020 with more than 60 participants.

For a group of young engineers hired in 2017, the third rotation has started, concluding the three-year job rotation programme.

The innovation process pursued by Italgas in recent years has entailed a constant search for new STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) profiles, both in the management and development of the gas network and in other areas of business, such as the Digital Factory, who are pursuing the Group’s digital transformation process.

The following continued in 2020: the mapping of the managerial potential of newly appointed managers, also for the purposes of updating the Succession Planning and individual Coaching courses for executives and middle managers who have acquired more responsibilities over the year.

Out of the whole of the population involved by the development routes, i.e. executives, middle managers and graduates aged under 45 years old, for a total of approximately 700 people, 9box mapping was carried out. The 9box mapping positions the population in nine possible cross-over groups between three levels of assessment of the overall role performance in the last 12 months (below expectations, in line with expectations, above expectations of role) and three levels of potential that can be used in the organisation (low, medium, high potential for growth). The mapping represents a process for sharing observations of resources by HR and the line managers and constitutes the guidance by which to direct career development actions, role growth, total reward and HR management. The 9box process was launched in 2018 and is now in its third year; it is an important moment of growth of the managerial culture and assessment of resources.

An extensive managerial development campaign (more than 320 participations) has been dedicated to the dissemination of leadership skills at times of crisis, such as empathetic leadership, team engagement from a remote position and the management of critical issues and priorities.

In 2020, the “Extraordinary Leader” initiative was developed, following the 360 survey that involved – late 2019 – the second and third line executives and middle managers. All participants in the initiative (75) have received feedback on the results and individual action plans have been identified for their managerial development.

In order to support the digital transformation in progress in Italgas, the “Innovative spirits” programme has been developed (more than 220 participations), a path by which to develop the innovation and change management skills by the ICT department and the Technological Innovation Department. The course involves 102 people.

Training programmes

Training at Italgas is intended to ensure an increase in the skills required by the business strategies. All employees, regardless of their job description or contract type, plus all new resources, are offered dedicated training activities.

In 2020, the training accelerated and multiplied the opportunities for initiatives to be undertaken “remotely”. Training courses and initiatives – initially offered in a classroom format – were held in virtual remote classrooms, also thanks to Italgas advanced technologies that made it possible to guarantee the continuity of training. Technical-specialist know-how, typical of technicians and manual workers, is transferred and promoted through the development of specific skills in network and system maintenance activities. The specific training paths for various professional figures were specifically redesigned in 2020 for a “digital learning” format, involving over 16,800 hours of training and 2,400 attendees.

A community of 65 Digital Ambassadors was also established. Present in all areas of the main offices and across the territory, they contributed to support the transfer of digital expertise at Italgas with their willingness to rise to the challenge as internal teachers, participating proactively and with commitment in the training initiatives offered.

On MyLearning, a multimedia platform dedicated to training created in 2019, various training actions were launched on issues of compliance (Legislative Decree 231 and digital podcasts) and cybersecurity, the latter intended to promote awareness and maintain the focus on risks associated with the dissemination of company information and, in particular, the cyber-attacks and fraud that take place through malicious phishing campaigns. In order to foster the knowledge transfer and professional refresher courses in technical areas, 9 training videos have been prepared with the help of expert employees, also optimising the results of the work carried out in the Italgas Digital Factory.

In 2020, a total of over 75,000 hours of training were provided and every employee on average received around 19 hours of training.

In addition to that already described, the main training programmes developed in 2020 were as follows:

Insertion of new hires: the training programme dedicated to new graduates included in the Group has been developed in an all-digital format, with specific interventions on the history, culture and competences, Italgas’ values and identifying elements; strategic and business lines, technical and operative aspects of distribution, basics of economics and finance for the business and teamwork. The programme involved 97 new employees for a total of 1,062 hours of training delivered. In 2020, the course was also enriched with a module dedicated to Sustainability topics. In preparing the training interventions, use of in-house teachers was preferred, by the Company management team who, through their testimonials shared with their new colleagues information about their own personal and working experience.
Young Graduates Programme: the in-depth module on the economic-strategic logics of the regulated markets in Italgas also continued in 2020, delivered in virtual classrooms and enhanced with experiences and business cases and in-depth reviews of the economic aspects on the main Key Performance Indicators of interest for the Italgas business. The programme involved 76 participants for a total of 636 hours and also envisaged a specific module on the reference framework, analysis of the lines of Italgas Digital Transformation Programme and an overview of the first experiments launched in the Network.
Developing executive programme: 2020 marked the end, for a group of 36 colleagues from different business areas, of the two-year managerial development and training programme “Italgas Leadership Way” for a total of 486 hours and with the organisation of two modules in collaboration with SDA Bocconi School of Management: “Mastering Digital Evolution” and “Corporate Entrepreneurship”.
Female leadership: Italgas has stressed its commitment to gender equality and attention to diversity, renewing its collaboration with Valore D. As part of the initiatives taken to optimise the diversity of gender, generations and different cultures, approximately 25 colleagues took part in inter-company training and laboratories aimed at developing inclusive leadership capacity.
Training for the Integrated Supervision Centre: a specific training and refresher course has been developed for the operators of the Integrated Supervision Centre with the aim of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the service provided by the Emergency Intervention call centre. All 32 operators of the Integrated Supervision Centre received the training, so as to guarantee the operation and shifts of the call centre. The training was customised to specific business cases for a total of 128 hours.
Training course on Picarro: in support of the Scheduled Search for Leaks, various training initiatives were organised on the technology, use of Surveyor vehicles and portable backpack analysers. The initiatives involved 400 participants for a total of 2,255 hours.
Training course for the control and positioning of road signs: in line with Italgas’s commitment to pay constant attention to safety matters, the theoretical part of the training for the control and positioning of road signs has been carried out, intended for work pursued amidst vehicle traffic (Decree Law of 22 January 2019 implementing Article 161, subsection 2-bis of Legislative Decree no. 81 of 2008). The programme involved 374 participants for a total of 2,932 hours and comes under the scope of training on safety carried out in collaboration with the HSEQ department.

HSEQ training – traditionally undertaken via classroom teaching, as well as in the field – was also overhauled into digital, while maintaining the same standards of effectiveness and in accordance with the legislative requirements set out to enable specific activities.

Employee training for safety at work also continued in 2020, with the relative periodic refreshers, as per the State/Regions Agreement, through courses taken in an eLearning format.

With the integration of Toscana Energia, some of the Italgas Group training initiatives have been progressively extended, such as the Digital training course (digital “pills” in e-learning format, webinars on collaboration tools and digital workshops) and specific in-depth training has been provided on Italgas’s technical systems. In December 2020, the MyLearning training platform was then also made available to Toscana Energia and Toscana Energia Green, thereby allowing employees to make use of all the digital training contents already enabled for the other Group businesses.

The average number of training hours (19 in 2020) has decreased slightly on the previous year, apart from training hours delivered to office staff.

The reduction in the training hours, in the face of a significantly increased number of participations, is due to the fact that the training contents had to be reorganised digitally (virtual classroom and e-learning) and, consequently, shorter interventions created (32,915 participations in 2020 vs 14,138 in 2019).

The Digital Training Course to promote the Digital Transformation

In 2020, following a survey on digital skills, Italgas launched a major digital reskilling plan to promote the culture of digitisation and allow all its people to gain a greater insight on the trends and main technological innovations in progress in Italgas.

Right in the heart of the health emergency that struck the country during the early months of the year, the Digital Training Course was launched, continuing on from the technological innovations developed in the Digital Factory, to speed up and develop a digital mindset.

The course is structured as follows:

Library of 17 digital pills made available on MyLearning for the whole of the company population in March 2020, regarding the main topics of digitisation, divided up into three main parts: basic, advanced and transverse, thereby offering a clear overview of the technologies and approaches taken to digital;
50 Digital Workshops starting July and until December 2020, which saw the active participation of more than 1,200 employees who were given the chance to compare notes and discuss aspects relating to the digital transformation and how Italgas was combining these with the technological innovations developed in the Digital Factory. The distinctive element of the workshops was the constant presence of teachers by our Digital Ambassadors.
6 webinars developed in collaboration with the ICT department to foster the spread of digital initiatives through the corporate collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams and Onedrive, involving 1,600 people.

The Digital Training Course allowed for a progressive spread of digital skills throughout all territorial sites and training that is increasingly focussed on inclusion and digital development and which brings with it new, enriching stimuli.

Compensation system

Italgas promotes employee commitment and performance through the definition and implementation of compensation policies, differentiated based on performance and professional and managerial abilities, to reward merit by considering:

the responsibilities assigned;
the results achieved;
the quality of the professional contribution and people’s potential for development.

The compensation systems are periodically assessed and updated based on a comparison with best practice and the remuneration markets of reference in relation to criteria inspired by meritocracy, internal equality and external competition in order to ensure the recognition of the results achieved, the quality of the professional contribution made and people’s potential for development, plus the attraction and retention rate of key individuals in order to contribute to the achievement of complex business objectives.

In 2020, the performance evaluation was extended to all department managers of the Group companies with the objective of further strengthening the performance culture, the focus on results and internal meritocracy.

More specifically, the programme involved 57 executives (7 of whom were women) and 234 non-executives (37 of whom were women), coming to a total of 291 people, divided among the various Italgas Group companies as follows:

Italgas (35%): 98 people, 33 of whom were executives (6 of whom were women) and 65 of which were non-executives (18 of whom were women)
Italgas Reti (59%): 173 people, 16 of whom were executives and 157 of which were non-executives (16 of whom were women)
Medea (2%): 7 people, 2 of whom were executives (1 of whom was a woman)
Toscana Energia (1%): 4 executives
Seaside (1%): 4 people, 1 of whom was an executive and 1 woman
Gaxa (1%): 3 people, 1 of whom was an executive and 1 woman
Italgas Acqua (1%): 2 people, 1 of whom was a woman

Italgas has always defined its remuneration policies with the aim of assuring consistency and balance within the organisational structure, acknowledging, as described above, the merits and responsibilities assigned. The analysis of the fixed remuneration, which is therefore connected with the nature and responsibilities of the role, highlights the consistency of this approach; the ratio of fixed remuneration paid in 2020 to the CEO and the average fixed remuneration of Italgas employees in 2020 is 1:20, a ratio that remains effectively unchanged on the previous year.

In order to assure the realisation of the strategic plan and the achievement of the business objectives, Italgas assigns incentive systems to managerial roles, and the CEO and Key Managers first and foremost, from time to time assessing their performance and only disbursing the related incentives where the objectives assigned have been achieved, thereby assuring a strong focus on results and solid tie between remuneration and performance.

Relations with trade unions

In 2020, relations between the Italgas Group and the trade unions saw the involvement and participation of structures at national, local and company levels. During the year, relations with trade unions were particularly intense, punctuated by a much higher number of meetings than in the previous year, mainly due to the need to jointly manage the COVID-19 health emergency.

In particular, significant agreements were reached on the following issues: Company Protocol for the Italgas Group regulating measures to combat and contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the workplace and subsequent updates; fundraising campaign for the Civil Protection; using up annual leave and collective closures to manage work activities during the health emergency; smart working; implementation of new welfare measures; vulnerable workers; workplace dynamics and professional development.

During the course of 2020, 213 meetings with Trade Union Organisations were held, 42 of which were at the nation level and 171 of which were at the local level (the data includes the meetings – 30 in all – held at Toscana Energia, and Toscana Energia Green). The figure confirms the constantly increasing involvement of representatives at all levels. At the end of 2020, 48.53% of employees were members of a trade union.

As of March 2020, in order to address the COVID-19 health emergency and guarantee employee safety, the smart working method was extended to all company staff with compatible duties, with no maximum limits on weekly use. All operating personnel, on the other hand, in order to avoid gatherings in the offices, implemented a work method whereby they departed from home. For this purpose, company vehicles were assigned to individuals. Following an evaluation by the Medical Officer, employees with specific diseases were also granted paid leave in order to avoid the risk of infection. In 2020, more than 120,000 permit hours were granted.

The lawsuit with employees and former employees of the Italgas Group, although basically stable over time, has increased on 2019, however this is mainly due to the fact that 17 serial appeals were lodged connected with a single dispute relative to the interpretation of the collective national bargaining agreement on the potential absorption of an element of remuneration in the event of promotion, by employees of the former AES of Turin. Legal action brought against the Group companies (Italgas Reti, Medea and Toscana Energia) mainly referred to the following situations: difference between professional category and related remuneration, economic claims of various types, occupational illness, challenge of disciplinary measures inflicted, including dismissals.

Welfare

To protect and encourage the well-being of employees, Italgas makes services and initiatives available that are designed to find a work-life balance. Specifically, the Welfare programme takes into consideration the family and caring for children, maintaining good mental and physical health, handling everyday tasks in terms of time and money, organisation of recreational activities and artistic-cultural initiatives.

In 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 health emergency, in addition to guaranteeing the continuity of the offer of services envisaged by the Welfare Plan, Italgas also took a series of initiatives to help its company population, including the activation of insurance coverage for colleagues affected by COVID-19 and services to support families, such as free vouchers for school tutoring, babysitting services, personalised social and healthcare advice plus assistance for elderly family members for a total of 155 vouchers issued. In addition, with an even greater focus on the health and safety of its employees, Italgas was able to reward the “Italgas young people”, who did not want to miss out on the summer camp experience this year. All events were held in respect of all health and prevention measures.

In 2020 too, the welfare services were once more accompanied by direct communication initiatives for a total of 36 initiatives, plus 2 information webinars on the Welfare Plan, which replaced the “welfare corners” held in 2019.

Active users, namely the employees who have registered with the dedicated website since the start of the programme, accepting the general conditions, reached approximately 90% of the company population, whilst users using at least one service amount to 40% of all employees.

Finally, in line with previous years, the level-two trade union agreement which, among other things, confirmed the “Flexible Benefits” plan for the three years from 2020 to 2022, was signed again in 2020.

The agreement provides for the possibility of converting the Production Prize into Welfare services (pensions, family care, study aid, mobility, free time). Every employee who voluntarily joins the Plan, Italgas offers a bonus equivalent to 18% (and 16% for Toscana Energia employees) of the prize converted into Welfare Credit. In 2020, in total, approximately 10% of the company population chose to convert the Prize into Welfare, 83% of which chose the maximum possible portion to be converted.

In collaboration with the HSEQ Unit, the Welfare portal was used to allow the employees benefiting from the Zero Accidents Bonus to avail of their bonus in vouchers to be used for the purchase of selected national brands belonging to a wide range of commodity categories.

Diversity

At such a complex time for the Italian occupational and economic panorama, Italgas reiterates it’s attention to people and commitment to gender equality and attention to matters of diversity, renewing its collaboration with Valore D, the first association of businesses in Italy that, for more than ten years, has been committed to spreading a culture of inclusion in our country.

This has led Italgas to adhere to the Manifest for female occupation, a document created in 2017 under the umbrella of G7 Italy, intended for businesses and institutions and developed over nine main points. The purpose of the Manifest is to define precise instruments, in line with the Global Reporting Initiative indicators, for the promotion of concrete actions to optimise and include diversity in all corporate processes.

The Manifest focuses on essential topics such as innovation, sustainability, agile working and the impact of gender diversity on growth and economic development. For each of the 9 points proposed, each business undertakes to gradually achieve clear, measurable objectives through performance indicators and periodic monitoring. All companies that have put the points of the Manifest into practice, confirm, by signing, the commitments made and acknowledge the relevant effectiveness. One change made in recent years has resulted in the hiring of approximately 500 young men and women in the last 4 years, of whom almost 45% are women, in the technical/operative areas (engineering, design, investments, technical offices and plants).

As regards the insertion of new graduates, more than 52% of new profiles are women.

In 2020, various initiatives were implemented in the south of Italy to optimise the female component. For this category, in fact, the apprenticeships contracts went from 0 in 2018 to 19 in 2020.

Italgas always makes sure to look externally too, as shown by all the projects and initiatives pursued together with some of the most important schools and universities of the country, such as, for example, the Grow Data Girls project with the Luiss Business School, which has just started up again with a new edition of the challenge and the adhesion to Stem By Women, an association of businesses established with the aim of encouraging girls to take up scientific and technological studies.

Health and safety in the workplace

The Italgas Group, from the start of the COVID-19 emergency, has established a Crisis Committee with the task of constantly monitoring the situation and assessing any action to be taken in response to the evolution of the emergency situation and the consequent directives given by the competent authorities. The company has taken proper prevention and protection measures in regard to all its workers, identified to prevent the spread of the virus in the workplace, implementing the measures defined by the reference Authorities that envisage, amongst others, the supply of specific personal protection equipment (e.g. FFP2/3masks, surgical masks and disposable gloves) and the adoption of organisational measures aimed at minimising people’s travel and fostering social distancing (suspension of transfers, smart working, permits, etc.). In 2020, 19 communications were sent to all staff, through the HSEQ department, containing the protocol adopted by the Company updated according to the indications of provisions issued by the competent authorities.

In 2020, as regards information, meetings with suppliers should be highlighted, which, due to the COVID-19 health emergency, were held over the internet (with the exception of 5 specific meetings of the METERING unit held in the early months of 2020). In all, 8 meetings were held during which the data on incidents was examined and commented and awareness was raised on safety topics. In addition, 8 specific digital conventions should be noted with the territorial poles addressed in particular towards raising awareness to injuries, the analysis of incidents, including near misses, and the definition of corrective actions to be implemented.

Management report

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

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