Policies, commitments and management models

Through the Sustainable Development Policy, the Human Rights Policy and the new Diversity & Inclusion Policy, enhanced in 2020, with the Diversity & Inclusion Policy: Gender equality and Diversity & Inclusion Policy: Recruiting, 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, safeguarding the dignity, freedom and equality of all employees and partners;
• Create a welcoming work environment with no direct or indirect discrimination of any kind;
• Protect jobs, working conditions and trade-union freedoms;
• Guarantee pay rises based strictly on merit and skill;
• Protect the system of values and principles in matters of transparency and sustainable development.

The Group commitment to ensure gender diversity⁵⁴ has been strengthened with Snam’s membership in Valore D, InspirinGirls and Parks, associations and campaigns that promote diversity, talent and female leadership for the growth of companies and the country. Internally, the Group has published the Inclusive Language Manifesto to spread a culture of language that respects all identities, conditions, affiliations, orientations and cultures, and has implemented, thanks to the Inclusion Team, the #Snam4Diversity Talks, training events aimed at discussing diversity and inclusion issues.

In addition, Snam has once again been acknowledged by Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index (GEI) 2021, which tracks the financial performance of companies most committed to promoting gender equality in the world.

Finally, Snam guarantees all workers the right to express their thoughts freely, to join associations and to engage in trade union activities. Dialogue with social partners⁵⁵ is classified and regulated by the current Protocol for Industrial Relations, signed in 2013.

For more information on employment dynamics and industrial relations, see the chapter “Performance in 2020”, while for information on employee engagement activities in 2020, see the chapter “Snam’s Profile – Stakeholder relations” contained in the 2020 Annual Report.

Trends in employment, diversity and inclusion

To continue to play a key role within an ever-changing environment while establishing as leaders in an international market abundant with opportunities, it is necessary to exploit the full potential of the human capital and help it to grow continuously.

Creating a shared corporate culture through purpose, promoting transparent and constant internal communication, and working on the growth of know-how enables the creation of a cohesive community of workers, in which their personal development is encouraged and praised through entrepreneurship, motivation and capacity to make the change.

Snam, in alignment with its Sustainable Development Goals, generates stable and continuous employment relationships involving qualified and specialist activities (54% of employees have a technical diploma and 29% are graduates). Moreover, the Snam Institute aids the Company in its ambition to exploit the potential of its skills not only internally, but also externally.

As of 31 December 2020, out of a total of 3,249 employees, 93.4% have a permanent employment contract while 42 have part-time employment contracts and 197 apprenticeships contracts; a further 43 employees have a third party contract (32 in 2019). The average age of Snam Group employees is 44.5 years, while the average length of service is around 17.2 years.

Staff aged under 40 (1,274) account for 39.2% of the company workforce, increased by 110 employees compared with 2019, partly thanks to the hiring of young talent in recent years.

The absenteeism rate of 5.9% in 2020 is broadly in line with previous years and is slightly increased because, in agreement with trade unions, those who were unable to work from home were granted a period of paid leave equal to or more than 6 days.

The turnover rate for 2020 (11.9%) is consistent with the 2019 figure thanks to the hiring campaign, as well as acquisitions completed during the year.

Gender diversity and inclusion are issues to which Snam pays particular attention, which is why the Inclusion Team was created, a cross-functional group of 35 people representing diverse employees and which promotes a culture of diversity and equal opportunities, in order to create an environment that fully exploits the potential of the different individuals that contribute to the business. The Inclusion team has drawn up the action plan “#Snam4Diversity, Energia che Include”, which comprises a series of initiatives aimed at spreading a culture of diversity.

With regard to the gender distribution of employees, at the end of the year, there were 507 female staff members, an increase on the previous year (+14.9%), while the Group employed 117 people with disabilities, who Snam aims to include and integrate in company processes.

Development of human capital

As last year, Snam’s career and skills development activities focused on improving the leadership model, consolidating the new skills model, identifying and developing talent throughout the organisation, keeping succession plans solid and structured, thereby guaranteeing a sustainable succession line, and increasing engagement levels.

During 2020, the third Performance Management cycle was launched, but, because of limitations caused by the Covid-19 emergency, it did not include the entire Snam workforce in its assessment scope as planned. This initiative has therefore been postponed until 2021.

To assess the performance of Snam’s employees, all roles, with the exception of senior directors, undergo analytical and overall evaluation on the subjects of Complexity, Responsibility, Experience and Autonomy (CREA). In 2020, 320 CREA assessments were approved.

Training plays a fundamental role in supporting management and the entire company population in pathways to developing managerial capacity, technical skills, and a background of specific expertise. In order to preserve technical know-how to develop it and transfer it to the new generations, Skill Centres were set up in 2019: groups of people across the organisational structures who possess consolidated and recognised know-how and expertise in specific areas that are important for the business. The 16 Skill Centres that were set up involved 110 Group staff, identifying 175 experts and 145 trades, working to create the 16 volumes that make up the Snam technical “trades” encyclopaedia.

These centres are also supported by an Internal Faculty composed of 80 employees who transfer their technical and business expertise to other colleagues through a by-Snam-to-Snam logic.

During 2020, 66,385 hours of training were delivered with 17,277 participations, involving 90% of the company workforce (95% of women participated in at least one training course). On average, 20.4 hours of training took place per employee (20.8 hours on average for male staff and 18.5 for female staff). The decrease in the number of training hours compared to the previous year is attributable on the one hand to a reduction in the number of compulsory training hours, and on the other hand to the need to redesign training in order for it to take place in a remote setting.

A great deal of effort has been put into employee training programmes on sensitive issues such as health, safety and the environment. On the matters of business ethics and anti-corruption, in 2020 1,414 hours of training were provided with 1,408 participants.

Company welfare

From 2018, as part of a Welfare Plan to respond to people’s current needs and requirements, the digital platform named “Snammy” was developed with five areas of interest: Family, Education, Work life balance, Wellness and leisure, Health.

In the Family and Education area, in addition to the “dediCARE” service – which helps solve small and large family problems, from care for the elderly to school tutoring – specific psychological, relational and family support services have been set up to deal with the problems arising from the pandemic. Employees were able to access a search portal for childcare services, which also provided for partial reimbursement of any expenses incurred, and a platform was set up with online lessons for children of employees at all levels of education with a school guidance service.

In the Wellness and Leisure area, in addition to agreements with major health institutions and prevention programmes, a range of topical workshops were introduced, for example of pilates, yoga, posture training as well as mindfulness, healthy eating and digital detoxing. Furthermore, in the post-emergency phase, a psychological support and resilience webinar with a specialised psychologist was set up.

In the Health area, comprehensive support was provided for some health initiatives, such as the introduction of monitoring services for vital signs through the distribution to all staff of pulse oximeters, capable of remotely raising alarms for abnormal saturation values. Health guidance is also available with the aim of helping employees find a general practitioner or suitable specialist. In addition, an insurance policy has been signed to provide cover for all employees, fully paid for by Snam, in the event of hospitalisation after contracting Covid-19.

Even before the health emergency, Snam offered its staff flexible working schemes, including remote work, flexible working hours, and “short Fridays”, i.e. the option of stopping work at 1 p.m. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, our welfare system was enriched with a number of tools made available to employees in order to better cope with the difficulties caused by the health emergency, including authorising all the Group’s local offices in Italy to work remotely immediately from the beginning of the crisis, ahead of the government regulations of March 2020 (which stipulated the closure of all businesses not deemed necessary or strategic).

The “Flexible Benefits” system has also been continued, increasing the purchasing power of employees who take part in the initiative, transforming a portion of the profit-sharing bonus scheme, up to the entire amount, into a welfare credit that can be used to purchase services in the areas of health, school and training, cultural and sporting activities, travel, mobility and supplementary pension contributions for staff and their family members. The advantage of converting part of the bonus into a welfare credit is that, for this amount, no tax is due and the company is able to grant staff an additional bonus, increased proportionally from 8% to 20% depending on the amount converted.