Snam considers communication to be a fundamental driver for promoting personal participation, going beyond information to create awareness, sharing and debate.
Through an integrated approach to group-wide internal communications, while still respecting the different company needs, Snam shares values, challenges and goals, increasing the degree of employees’ satisfaction in performing their activities.
Sharing values and principles, as well as projects and initiatives, takes place through numerous channels and tools.
The group’s intranet site is structured not only as an information tool, but also as a place for sharing and developing knowledge. Boxes are used to delve into current issues in depth, support initiatives and launch projects. In 2011, videos were mainly used as tools for immediately disseminating crucial issues and reporting significant events; there are films, for example, in which top management communicates objectives, values and results (such as the video series “Looking at 2011”, published in early 2011 and focused on near-term strategies and objectives) or comments on Company milestones (such as the report for the first year of the Objective Safety Project). Other videos, on the other hand, involve people and turn highlights in corporate life or significant events into common heritage; this is the case, for example, with the Objective Safety Project’s Safety Walks, the 10th anniversary of Stogit and the launch of the new Snam brand.
The 62 news items posted online in 2011 give preference to topics associated with results and corporate life, sustainability and workplace safety.
The distinctive factor characterising the group intranet site is shared content management. The energy corporate network calls, in fact, for widespread writing at the level of the organisational units, which, with a network of more than 120 correspondents, feed and update the section on the site under their responsibility with content and documentation, so that the website is the result of contributions from the different organisational areas of each company and makes specific knowledge and skills available to all.
In order to involve all group personnel, including those difficult to reach with the computer network, Snam makes and uses many paper tools: posters, flyers, brochures and newsletters (Objective Safety News, Work Force Management News, and the “energie” newsletter). In particular, the “energie” newsletter, distributed to everyone at the four companies, followed corporate and market developments in 2011, commenting on regulatory changes that open up new business and organisational scenarios, so that everyone at Snam has a wealth of information to feel part of a group that pursues ambitious goals and is going through important changes.
Reaching everyone in a timely manner is a signal that values both the person, involving families too, and the message: for this reason, the “energie” newsletter is sent to each group employee’s home.
In 2011, the Sustainability Report was also sent to group people in order to share the stages of the sustainable development process, demonstrating the great commitment and initiatives undertaken with people, the environment and the local areas in which Snam operates.
Another important area in which time and resources are invested is meetings between people, a significant vehicle for knowledge and sharing. In 2011 this area was broken down into a series of events and initiatives in which top management communicated results, goals, scenarios and values to people.
Sapernedi+ is an initiative that organises group-wide opportunities for meetings, the dissemination of corporate values and strategies and the sharing of issues, problems and solutions identified by the individual organisational units. It is also an opportunity for increasing managers’ managerial skills and consolidating their role as bosses through a time for involvement and communication with their employees. Sapernedi+ was carried out in autumn 2011 at all organisational units, with a “cascade” process that enabled it to reach everyone at Snam, becoming a significant opportunity for involvement on new scenarios and the coming group reorganisation, as well as for debate on activities and projects of the organisational unit itself.
Help from the network, corporate volunteering that comes from being involved
In 2011 Snam developed a project that identifies and implements corporate volunteering actions. Involvement by Snam people in every project phase and the intent to build a dialogue between company areas and the volunteer world are the basis of the project.
The three cornerstones of the project (as shown in the chart) are: integrated sustainability, involvement and participation, and meeting points.
In its launch year, the project was focused on the group’s two main management sites: San Donato Milanese and Turin, which have a target population of more than 1,100 people.
In May 2011, an internal survey was conducted, the results of which, used to guide the next phases of the project, attest to strong interest in the world of volunteering. Employees were also involved in choosing the name to be given to the corporate volunteering project: thus “Help from the network” was born.
In 2001, the project’s first important initiative was held: the Snam “Volunteering Week”, which saw a meeting between Snam people and the non-profit sector and led to a week of events at corporate sites, during working hours, in which volunteer associations, foundations and non-profits introduced themselves independently to employees interested in the initiative, out of the conviction that, through knowledge, the right conditions can be created for increasing interest in the world of volunteering and implementing occasions for meetings and cooperation.
Even in the phase of identifying the associations to be invited to the initiative, the Company chose its people’s involvement as a distinctive factor of the project. Employees were thus prompted to point out non-profit organisations of interest to them, because often they are active there as volunteers, and 83% of the associations invited came from this channel.
The gatherings, open to all employees at the two sites involved, were held from 21 to 25 November 2011, with 340 participants.
The 34 associations joining the initiative presented their activities and their areas of intervention, focusing on the volunteering opportunities offered in their sectors, ranging from the environment to social assistance, from international cooperation to socio-educational issues, and from health to protecting rights. Among the participating organisations, large and extremely well-known non-profit organisations were side by side with small associations established in local areas and operating in specific fields. During the gatherings, participants showed great interest and asked a number of questions, meaning the presentations turned into dialogues.
Following the week of gatherings, the group created Volunteering Round Tables, ad hoc spaces set up to renew contact and become better acquainted with the associations involved, where informational and educational materials brought by the associations (brochures, magazines, leaflets and flyers) were made available to Snam people.
A detailed communications plan supported the project during 2011, identifying tools, channels and timings: the project logo, posters, emails, detailed programmes and news were used to launch the project, raise awareness in advance of the initiative and get people involved in corporate volunteering.
For 2012, additional initiatives are being studied, so that the meeting point between Snam people and the world of volunteering will develop and grow.
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Meeting up
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Integrated sustainabilityThe company aims to achieve a sustainability profile that creates synergies, involving the outside world (with special attention to local social specifics) with the internal culture (increasing personal awareness, sustainable actions through Snam people). |
Involvement and participationPersonal involvement is at the heart of the project:
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