Selection system
At Iren Group, the personnel search and selection process is based on the principles of equity and transparency, which are also declared in the Code of Ethics, and is structured in compliance with the Model 231 (Italian Legislative Decree 231). Candidates are recruited from outside the Group only after it has been verified that there are no potential internal candidates with profiles that are consistent with the position to be filled.
Applications for open positions can be made via the channels on which the active searches are published: the “IrenFutura” portal, the “jobs” page of the Group’s LinkedIn profile, specialist recruitment websites (Infojobs), social media pages and specialised channels using recruiting agencies appointed by Iren following specific tenders, on the basis of specific reference profiles (operational, technical, specialist and managerial). Applicants can select the advertisement that best meets their skills and interests or submit their application, without attaching it to a specific advertisement. Other candidates may be students at leading universities and schools in the areas where the Group operates, with which solid partnerships have been established. As regards high schools and technical institutes, the mutual acquaintance between the Group and the applicants can also occur through Pathways for Transversal Competencies and Orientation (PCTO, formerly School-Work programmes).
All candidates are assessed by professionals with experience in the sector, based on well-defined and transparent criteria, which are shared between the company departments involved, taking the Group’s system of roles and competences as a reference. Every CV is assessed on the basis of how well it matches the requirements of the vacant position. If the profile meets the requirements, it is included in the selection process; if it does not meet the requirements of the position to be filled, the CV may be taken into consideration for other relevant positions.
The selection processes may include various types of tests (technical, practical, etc.), as well as interviews, so as to gain in-depth knowledge of applicants and to guarantee fairness and transparency. The standard selection process involves a number of pre-defined steps: identifying the most suitable profiles from the submitted CVs; initial interview to find out the candidate’s reasons for applying and discuss the experience indicated on the CV in more detail; second interview with representatives from the HR Department and organisational departments where the candidate is to be placed. At the end of the selection process, the applicants always receive feedback on the outcome of the interviews, even in the event of a negative outcome. In the event of a positive outcome, the new employee is integrated into the Company according to a process defined on the basis of the position to be covered.
The Group has joined the national Garanzia Giovani (Youth Guarantee) programme, activating the planned internships as the preferred search and contact tool with the world of work, and the Valore D (D Value) programme, committing itself, along with over 160 nationally important companies, to creating more equal conditions to promote diversity and employment for women.
In 2020, 397 selection processes were completed, with 315 people already placed during the year and 82 to be placed in early 2021. 52% of candidates were identified through recruiting agencies, while the remaining 48% came from paths managed directly by the Group (LinkedIn, Infojobs, Universities and Schools).
Personnel development
The professional growth of human resources is essential for Iren Group to anticipate and successfully address the complexities and changes of the market, regulations and technologies. Iren invests to increase its in-house skills portfolio and enhance its human resources using specific policies, methods and tools. Its commitment to discovering, developing and promoting personnel skills is a fundamental part of the agreement between the Company and the individual.
In order to govern all the processes connected to personnel management and development in a unified and systematic way, faced with the dual necessity of addressing the new challenges of the future and preparing consistent policies, the Group has put in place its own performance management model, the Group Job System, which is subject to constant update and refinement. The Job System is a model to analyse and understand the professional skills present within the Group, transversally across the companies, businesses and departments in which they are found. Their main elements consist of professional areas, professional groups, the sub-groups, standard jobs and organisational roles. Essentially, this constitutes the logical infrastructure on which the main human resources management processes stand, including skills training and development. Specifically, each standard job within the Job System is weighed, in relation to the contribution that each role within the organisation provides in the creation of value, with a shared platform for internal comparison, as well as with the market. Management “bands” (groupings) are identified on the basis of the weight of the positions, which were then divided into sections, into which each of the roles present are characterised by the same complexities and responsibilities, managerial skills and management policies. The managerial skills that must be put into effect in order to achieve results in accordance with the means and values that characterise the Group, and which constitute supportive elements in evaluating individual performance, are defined alongside the band system adopted. The expected professional knowledge and skills are also defined for each standard job, being those which are fundamental not only for the performance management system, but also for other personnel management processes (first and foremost, training and internal mobility).
In 2020, skill-monitoring activities continued, through the use of dedicated tools differentiated both by band and professional group. In particular, an extensive mapping project of the Group’s specialist skills was carried out in collaboration with the various departments and business areas, which led to the identification and description of the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required for various roles and organisational levels.
Based on the defined skills model, a new skills evaluation system was then launched to improve the effectiveness of training and professional development actions. This work has resulted in the creation of a catalogue of the Group’s specialist skills, which forms the basis of the skills assessment process, which was launched at the end of the year and will take place every two years.
In addition, the new performance management system was further consolidated – aimed at all Group resources – integrated with the individual incentive system (MbO), aimed at orienting performance and behaviour towards shared values and results.
The employability of personnel is pursued through ongoing education and training and change management programmes to support current and planned changes (also in the medium-long term), on which specific actions have been launched to support the implementation of the Business Plan, particularly on matters related to digital transformation, energy transition, multicircle economy and sustainability.
As part of the overall plan for the demographic rebalancing of the workforce, projects continued for the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and, more generally, for the management of the Group’s different demographic populations.
Personnel training
Training is an instrument of primary importance for the Group. It plays a fundamental role in the professional growth and development of individuals, in disseminating corporate strategies, values, and principles and, therefore, in the overall growth of the Company’s value. It focuses on the maintenance and development of competencies, with particular reference to the “core” competencies of the various professional figures, promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Training supports development and professional growth, and meets the needs of innovation and change.
The training process is launched through a guided approach by identifying training needs, with a top-down approach through consultation with senior management regarding the strategic and organisational objectives to be achieved, and through meetings with the managers of the various departments with regard to the needs for the consolidation and development of skills, in line with the specific targets and the outcome of the skills assessment phase.
The training initiatives are managed through the use of a dedicated management application (Training Portal), which is updated continuously with employees’ personal data and is connected to an open-source platform for the creation and distribution of e-learning courses. Participation is tracked and helps to enhance employees’ training qualifications, which can be consulted by employees, their managers, the Personnel Department and the Prevention and Protection Service Manager. The Portal was enhanced during the year with new features, such as providing a multi-thematic catalogue of courses that can be freely used by all employees and the ability to sign for participation in courses using IT equipment (PCs, tablets and smartphones).
All the training provided is subject to an efficiency evaluation, through participants satisfaction and learning analysis and the monitoring of a set of indicators that provide useful details on improving the training provided; the evaluations will also be enriched by the results deriving from the project of skills surveys activated at the end of the year and which will be carried out every two years.
The training paradigm shift: from traditional classroom modes to virtual classrooms.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, also in order to support the continuity of ongoing projects, training in Iren Group has changed the paradigm, moving from traditional classroom training to the use of new methods that have allowed to reach and engage people, also in smart working, such as virtual classrooms and webinars that have integrated the already used asynchronous e-learning. Virtual classrooms have become the standard for training in support of strategic digital transformation projects (such as Iren Way, Market Transformation, Just Iren, WFM).
Simultaneously, the emergency highlighted the need to accompany training linked to specific professional aspects with opportunities for growth, including personal ones, as signs of attention and closeness to employees: values, emotions and trust were considered fundamental enablers to master this phase of uncertainty. Alongside the mandatory training, free consultation training was made available, accessible to all employees through their IT equipment (PCs, tablets and smartphones). The selected contents were clustered in 9 areas (Iren Group, Iren4Digital, smart working, managerial development, a demanding challenge, a challenge in safety, personal care, transversal skills, diversity & inclusion), within a library called “Online Training”, published on the Intranet. Among the training supports, the series of digital literacy courses, the clips on communication, teamwork, project management, English language, and a selection of webinars on management development topics and the dimensions of the crisis, offered live to middle management, were made available. The Group also continued to invest in training plans through specific programmes to increase awareness of diversity topics and create an inclusive work environment.
Employees were made aware of the importance of training using the various channels available and were thus able to enrich their curricula, an opportunity that was also mentioned in the trade union agreements signed in connection with the health crisis.
There was particular interest in the training initiatives on the subject of smart working – aimed at those who were already using it and those newly enabled as a result of the pandemic emergency – delivered via live webinars and asynchronous e-learning in order to reinforce the culture of agile working and work for results, and to provide tools for the correct approach to remote working, with modulated content for smart workers and their managers, which involved over 3,000 employees. The live sessions dedicated to the Business Plan, helpful to reassure employees about the “health” of the Company, were also highly appreciated.
Simultaneously, online courses continued to be held for specific groups of users (e.g., apprentices) on safety and regulatory requirements (e.g., for workers, Executives and Senior Managers, Italian Legislative Decree 231, GDPR).
The e-learning programmes were a significant step in the Group’s strategic and digital transformation, representing an investment to foster professional development. It is worth mentioning the continuation of the path oriented towards the strengthening of digital skills within the “Iren4Digital” project, to which the “Digital Workplace” project was added in October 2020, which was accompanied by training and self-training moments on the use of Microsoft 365 and Teams applications, involving a pilot group of about 300 people, and which will be extended in subsequent stages to all Group employees during 2021. The process was supported by the constant involvement and training of the “TrasformAttori” figures, facilitators of change and digital transformation (about 200 employees).
In a year strongly influenced by the health emergency, at Group level, the total training hours provided to employees (including apprentices and workers with supply contracts) amounted to over 202,000, an apparent increase (+39% compared to 2019), with 7,287 employees participating in at least one training initiative (88.2% of the average number of employees) and a per capita average of 24.5 hours (+34.6% compared to 2019).
The growth in the number of training hours per capita, reflected in the actions taken by the Group to transform the health emergency into an opportunity for professional enrichment, has even exceeded the targets set in the Business Plan to 2025.
| Employees involved in training activities (%) (1) | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
| Executives | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| Junior managers | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| White collars | 100.0 | 95.9 | 100.0 |
| Blue collars | 73.0 | 75.0 | 79.7 |
| TOTAL | 88.2 | 85.4 | 94.8 |
(1) Ratio between number of people involved in at least one training event and the average annual number of employees.
The upward trend in the average number of hours per capita allocated to female personnel was exceptionally positive, rising to 22.3 hours (+62% compared with the previous year), thanks to the Group’s constant focus on strengthening the culture of diversity and inclusion.
Traininig hours per capita by position and gender
| Training hours by position | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
| Executives | 2,172 | 1,665 | 2,838 |
| Junior managers | 7,846 | 6,975 | 7,417 |
| White collars | 98,455 | 69,342 | 67,573 |
| Blue collars | 93,616 | 67,253 | 52,984 |
| TOTAL | 202,089 | 145,235 | 130,812 |
% Distribution of training hours by topic
In 2020, there was a significant increase in specialist training, including specialist IT, which, with a per capita average of 12 hours, represents, at over 49%, the highest incidence concerning the total number of hours provided. This includes on-the-job training and support for more than 600 apprentices, consolidated partnerships with specialised training institutions for the provision of technical refresher courses to maintain training credits for engineers, biologists, chemists and experts, with business schools and higher education institutions for participation in master’s degrees and specialised courses, as well as with organisations specialising in professional training (e.g., for qualification to operate steam generators and for mandatory transversal training for apprentices).
Internal training, characterised by the ad hoc design of content and carried out by both internal trainers and external consultants, continues to be a distinctive feature of the Group (around 73% of total hours), with 1,111 courses held in 3,226 sessions. The remaining 27% relates to external training and is purchased by catalogue with participation in inter-company initiatives.
Internal training, characterised by the ad hoc design of content and carried out by both internal trainers and external consultants, continues to be a distinctive feature of the Group (around 73% of total hours), with 1,111 courses held in 3,226 sessions. The remaining 27% relates to external training and is purchased by catalogue with participation in inter-company initiatives.
The employee satisfaction rating with regard to training provided (79%), measured according to the feedback given by participants at the end of the courses, was positive, although slightly down compared to 2019, while the apprenticeship training satisfaction increased (88.4% compared to 87.4% in 2019).
Investment in training in 2020, net of internal personnel expense and excluding the costs relating to the Companies that joined the Group during the year, amounted to approximately 705,000 Euro, a decrease of 36% compared to the previous year, despite an increase in training hours of 39%, due to the particular use of online training activities, free initiatives made available by training companies during the lockdown period or selected from the web and initiatives carried out in-house and through internal teaching/training.
The Group has also made its expertise available to schools and universities in the areas in which it operates to create work orientation initiatives for students, advanced training courses and Pathways for Transversal Competencies and Orientation (formerly Italian School-Work programmes). Agreements have been entered into with universities, mainly located in the areas of reference, to set up collaborations for advanced training and the recruitment of new graduates and undergraduates. Also, partnerships have been launched with the leading Italian business schools, providing scholarships for participants in master’s degrees and/or advanced training courses on topics of specific interest to the Group (e.g. energy management).
Although measures to deal with the Covid-19 emergency prevented many activities from being carried out for reasonably extended periods, during 2020, the Group has:
- held 15 webinars in collaboration with the affiliated Universities in which more than 1,200 students participated. Some were organised as part of career days, others were specific job orientation meetings, in which the students connected had the opportunity to learn more about the reality of Iren Group and its jobs, or in any case, improve their knowledge of the world of work and the skills sought by the Group;
- launched 25 curricular, 24 extracurricular and 19 internships in the framework of PCTO projects;
- alaunched scholarships for 2 postgraduate master’s courses and welcomed 3 new work experience participants.
Internal coomunication
Internal communication is an essential tool to accelerate the development of processes, assist and support organisational changes and business strategies, and develop a common corporate culture, directing efforts towards the achievement of corporate objectives, which become shared objectives, pursuable through each individual’s contribution.
The role of internal communication was more central than ever in 2020 in order to cope with the crisis caused by the pandemic: communicating in a timely and effective manner and maintaining a high level of engagement in a social and work context that had suddenly changed were the priorities of the year. Information had to be provided promptly, extensively and clearly, so that each employee was aware of the protective measures and behaviours to be adopted to work safely.
A variety of tools were used: e-mails and text messages, to communicate the measures adopted and regulatory updates, and the company Intranet, where a section dedicated to the Covid-19 emergency was created, in which all internal communications, the manual for in-person activities and the consolidated text of Group provisions for working in safety were collected. It was necessary not only to make known but also to explain the Company’s choices, reassure employees, highlighting the commitment and the actions taken to deal with the emergency and at the same time keep up the involvement. These were challenging objectives, pursued through video messages from top management, by publishing regular news bulletins, and by giving external visibility to the commitment of all the Group’s resources to the continuity of essential services, thanks to the responsibility with which employees responded and the ability they demonstrated in reinventing their work to deal with the emergency.
The main tool for internal communication, information and sharing was confirmed as being the corporate Intranet “Noi Iren”. More than 6 million pages were consulted, and 250 news articles were published on the Intranet alone, to stay connected and update. It is now possible to view and interact with the Intranet via the company smartphone provided to all employees.
Noi Iren is the “common home”, a familiar place where being part of the Group, provides a gateway to information, documentation and company services. Strategic (Business Plan, economic-financial results and sustainability data), organisational (notifications, staff structure, documentation of certified systems), regulatory (service orders, Model 231) and corporate (acquisitions, non-recurrent transactions) information is published on the Intranet. The Intranet also disseminates news from the Iren Informa magazine, ads on the internal notice board for the sale and exchange of items between personnel and cultural information, in sports, artistic, theatre and musical initiatives supported by the Group held in the various areas. In 2020, the web magazine Iren Informa was the main tool to share the Group’s resilience, with about 300 articles visible internally and externally. Never has teamwork, communication in support and synergy with the various corporate structures has been so fundamental as this year.
Strategic (Business Plan, economic-financial results and sustainability data), organisational (notifications, staff structure, documentation of certified systems), regulatory (service orders, Model 231) and corporate (acquisitions, non-recurrent transactions) information is published on the Intranet. The Intranet also disseminates news from the Iren Informa magazine, ads on the internal notice board for the sale and exchange of items between personnel and cultural information, in sports, artistic, theatre and musical initiatives supported by the Group held in the various areas.
In 2020, the web magazine Iren Informa was the main tool to share the Group’s resilience, with about 300 articles visible internally and externally. Never has teamwork, communication in support and synergy with the various corporate structures has been so fundamental as this year.
The forced and prolonged isolation required a cultural leap in terms of digital and smart working. The digitalisation of processes was accompanied by the construction of dedicated areas on the Intranet, where personnel could find helpful material and documentation. The evolution of training, from the prevailing classroom mode to the use of new ways of reaching people and making them feel involved, has made it necessary to create the Online Training area on the Intranet, populated with content accessible outside the Company through multiple devices. As for safety communication, 14 self-produced videos were produced with the dual objective of informing and involving employees, with actors illustrating the correct behaviour to adopt to protect themselves and their colleagues. The videos have been published on the Intranet and made available on company TVs located at the entrance and in the time-clock rooms of the various company premises.
Significant in the year was also the internal campaign on the occasion of Iren’s tenth birthday, which introduced the transition to the new logo, announced on 1 July 2020; through videos and interviews published on the Intranet and the web, some stages of the Group’s history were retraced
The regular appointments to meet with people, both to share strategies and objectives during the presentation of the Business Plan and to consolidate corporate belonging in the case of year-end and family events, have been converted into streaming events.
The quality of interaction was undoubtedly affected, but the creation of digital events, recorded and available in the following days, made it possible to broaden participation to the entire company audience. More than 3,000 colleagues were able to connect for the Digital Christmas event, whose common thread was precisely the relationship, the aspect that more than any other seems to have suffered in the daily work. This challenging year, yet one full of achievements, was recounted through the voices of many employees who followed the activities, and significant moments were remembered through the stories of the many people who experienced significant ties within the Group. The film made with the contribution of photos and videos sent by colleagues, whose children told about their parents’ work, an exciting and unique snapshot of smart working, an alternative way to celebrate the importance of families was particularly appreciated.
N.B. The personnel data contained in the Sustainability Report do not contain the data of the former Unieco Environment Division.
