Aspects concerning the management of personnel

Relevance and related risks

The relevant topics related to personnel management, in relation to Snam’s activities, are as follows:

• Diversity and inclusion: for Snam, protecting employees promoting merit and diversity means actively advocating the creation of an inclusive and effective work environment through initiatives of dialogue and collaboration.
• Developing and safeguarding human capital: Snam is constantly committed to the development of the expertise and potential of its people, encouraging professional development and policies for attracting and retaining talent and promoting the transfer of skills and expertise. Increasing the technical, managerial and organisational skills of its employees, including through training activities and the activation of systematic listening systems for employees is therefore of vital importance. In addition, Snam is convinced of the importance of the work/life balance and for this reason it has developed numerous welfare initiatives to support its employees.

The issue of employment is considered to be important by Snam, but it did not emerge as material from the analysis conducted, taking into consideration the fact that the Company operates in countries featuring well-defined rules on the protection of workers.

With regard to the material issues, the most significant risks, managed by the competent corporate functions, are limited to situations in which “key” personnel are lost or the inability to attract, train or retain qualified personnel or situations in which the capacity to implement the long-term business strategy is negatively affected as a result of serious disputes with employees.

For a more extensive description of the main risks generated or suffered by Snam in relation to the management of persons, please see the chapter “Risk and uncertainty factors” of the Integrated Management Report and the item “Employees and personnel in key roles” within Operational risks.

Policies, commitments and management model

Snam guarantees all workers the right to express their thoughts freely, to join associations and to engage in trade union activities. Dialogue with social partners⁵⁷ is classified and regulated by the current Protocol for Industrial Relations, signed in 2013.

Through the Policy for Sustainable Development and the new Diversity & Inclusion policy, Snam is committed to:

• develop its system of professional and managerial skills supporting the growth of its resources;
• attract and retain qualified resources;
• ensure the involvement of staff so that they participate actively in the improvement processes;
• adopt work practices based on a culture of diversity and equal opportunities ensuring that all employees and contractors are treated with dignity;
• create a welcoming work environment with no direct or indirect discrimination of any kind.

With particular regard to the commitment to ensure gender diversity ⁵⁸, this has been strengthened with Snam joining Valore D, the association of companies that promotes diversity, talent and female leadership for the growth of companies and the country. In addition, Snam is a partner of InspirinGirls, the international campaign that aims to reinforce the awareness in young women of their talent freeing them of gender stereotypes.

The actions and initiatives for the implementation of these policies are reported in detail in the Report on Integrated Management:

• for aspects of performance and quality of employment see the paragraphs “Summary data and information – Operational performance” and “Employment in times of change” in the “Development of human capital”: these paragraphs contain general data on performance and employment in terms of staff joining and leaving, geographical distribution and types of contracts;
• for aspects of the development of human capital, see the paragraphs ’’Development of roles and skills”, “Training” and “Corporate welfare and the work/life balance” in the “Development of human capital“: this section contains the corporate actions for increasing the development of its employees such as performance evaluation systems and training initiatives, as well as the corporate welfare system;
• for industrial relations, see the paragraph “Summary data and information - Industrial relations”: this paragraph contains details of meetings with the representatives of trade unions and the content of the issues discussed;
• for aspects of gender diversity, see the paragraph “Diversity” in “Development of human capital”: this section contains the Company’s actions to promote inclusion and equal opportunities and some data concerning female employment, including the gender pay gap.

The diversity of corporate bodies

The Company believes that diversity is a value that makes a positive contribution to the effectiveness of the actions of corporate bodies. In effect, in the composition of the administration, management, and control bodies it pursues a target of integration of professionals having different profiles, thus acknowledging the importance, for the good functioning of corporate bodies, of complementary experience and skills, to be combined with the diversity of the genders and age groups of the corporate body members. Snam adopts all the necessary measures to ensure diversity under the profiles expressed above, not least the approval, on 23 October 2019, by the Shareholders’ Meeting, of a change to the by-laws, which makes the criterion of gender distribution in the Board of Directors and the Board of Statutory Auditors permanent for at least one third of the total members.

In the light of the data shown below it is believed that in the composition of its corporate bodies Snam ensures an adequate gender diversity, highlighting the growth of the less represented gender, namely female. In effect:

• two Chairmen of the Committees out of 4 are female;
• on the Board of directors 3 out of 9 members (or one third of the total) are female;
• the Board of Statutory Auditors is composed of three Standing Statutory Auditors (one of whom is a female) and of two female Alternate Statutory Auditors.

The Company also carefully analyses the wealth of expertise of the members of the administrative and control bodies and commits to the continued enhancement of the various skills present within the various bodies, so as to establish administration, management, and control bodies having expertise in relevant sectors for Snam, such as the engineering sector in infrastructure and/or energy businesses. The Company ensures the monitoring of the situation in relation to diversity and the complementary nature of professional profiles and contributes to increasing the wealth of knowledge of members of the administrative and control bodies through board inductions , through which specific industry expertise is acquired.

As far as age is concerned, Snam’s by-laws do not contain specific limits for members of corporate bodies. It is believed that statutory limits are not required because adequate diversity is already guaranteed, as demonstrated by the following figures:

• the age of Snam’s directors varies between 42 and 67 years, with an average age of 54;
• the age of Snam’s statutory auditors varies between 43 and 68 years, with an average age of 54.

In addition, with regard to the methods adopted to implement diversity policies, note the board evaluations conducted with the contribution of an external advisor. Snam carried out an evaluation, on 18 March 2020, of the functioning of the Board of Directors and of its committees and of their size and composition, also considering elements such as the professional characteristics, the experience — including managerial experience — and the gender of its members and their seniority.

For further details on the subject of diversity in relation to the composition of the administrative, management and control bodies pursuant to Article 10 of the Decree, please refer to the paragraph “Description of the Snam policy on diversity” in the 2019 Report on corporate governance and ownership structures.

Performance Indicators

The following are representative indicators of the results of the management of social and personnel-related aspects, with an indication of the reference GRI standard.

Note, in the main changes between the 2019 and 2018 values, an increase in the number of hours of training provided to employees equal to 5%, also attributable to the provision of e-learning to the entire corporate population in 5 modules, of around 1 hour each, on Compliance. The following topics were dealt with: Market Abuse, Privacy, 231 Model, Anti-corruption and Antitrust. In addition, there was an increase in 2019 in total departures, following an early retirement scheme which involved 77 people. The managerial class of the Company, composed of middle managers and senior managers, includes 604 people, 18% of whom are women, in line with 2018.