Working at A2A

Values and working environment

Innovation, sustainability, participation, responsibility, excellence: our values give us energy and motivation, guiding our behaviour and making us aware of what we can be in the future.

In our offices and in our facilities, these values and the development of innovative and smart environments are fundamental to providing our people with the best conditions in which to express themselves in the best possible way. Over 13,000 A2A employees work in 11 Italian regions, from Lombardy to Sicily. 
Health and safety at work is a priority for the A2A Group: Every employee is entitled to a workspace and to carry out activities that do not pose a risk to their health, but also the duty to actively participate in training, to comply with the instructions given to them for carrying out their activities, including the use of protective devices, and to comply with all applicable laws.
The A2A Group considers the balance between private life and professional life of its employees to be of the utmost importance, so in 2016 the A2A smartWorking pilot project was launched: about 250 people are experimenting with working one day a week from home or from a place other than their office.

 

Personnel by workplace

Welfare and diversity

 

The Group has promoted the development of a great many initiatives, in order to create value and make the most of opportunities for growth and development, optimising diversity through the identification and overcoming of all stereotypes connected with gender, age, disability, ethnic origin, religious belief and sexual orientation.
To help employees reconcile work and private life, the Group has granted  303 part-time jobs (3% of total employees), of which 82% have gone to women. A total of 993 parental leaves have been agreed to 252  Group employees (50% more than 2015). 82% of the people granted parental leave in 2016 returned to work in the same year.
A2A ensures working rights for people with disabilities, as required by current legislation. 476 persons with  disabilities were employed by the Group in 2016, of whom 22% women.
The offer in terms of company welfare comprises numerous services offered to employees

 

A2A social policies
Work-life balance services Mobility services:
again in 2016, beneficial tariffs were applied for the purchase by employees of subscriptions with local transport services; more specifically, in 2016, 936 subscriptions were taken out at beneficial rates in Milan and Brescia.
Company daycare at the Lamarmora office in Brescia: in 2016, 24 children of employees were registered.
Personal services Pension funds:
employees join or may elect to join supplementary pension schemes in compliance with their specific employment contracts. The main funds are Pegaso, Fonte, Fopen, Fondichim, Previambiente and Previndai and Mario Negri for managers.
Insurance for non-professional injuries and supplementary medical insurance to the NHS (medical conventions, dental treatment, specialist visits, hospitalisations, glasses, nursing assistance, etc.)
Health and well-being services Social-psychological assistance service:
offered in 14 A2A Group offices. In 2016, the service involved 779 employees for a total of 4,358 consultancy sessions.

 

As part of the Melograno project, the experimental project was started, MAAM U - Maternity As A Master - to optimise the training potential of the experience of maternity, transforming it into a gymnasium of  skills also useful to the return to work.
Moreover, at end June, the pilot was run of the project  SmartWorking, an innovative working method that involves, for one day a week, working from home or from a place other than the office, using the company’s equipment to perform work activities. The results of the experiment, verified by means of an intermediate and final survey, will enable assessment of the future scope of the project.
Moreover, for the SmartWorking project, a dedicated blog has been started in which the people involved in the pilot can interact and exchange experiences and suggestions

 

Our numbers

Education and training

The Integrated Development Path for Human Resources defines the ideal path of the professional life of the employee.
With the support of tools, processes and methodologies the employees are able to develop skills, express potentialities and grow based on their merit.
The training strategy and the implied actions come from a global perspective which integrates training with the other development tools creating in this way a connection between values, the distinctive organizational skills of A2A, the performance management tools and the career paths. 

 

Employees development

Remuneration

A2A provides new graduates with the minimum remuneration established by  the level of classification of the Collective Contract of reference; for qualified  figures with experience, remuneration is disbursed that is in line with the  market standards and internal remuneration practices, which guarantees  both an adequate level of external competitiveness and internal fairness.
In defining the type of contract and salary, A2A complies scrupulously with  Italian legislation, which excludes any distinction of gender in remuneration.
As in previous years, the differences in average remuneration within the different qualifications are minor.

The Group’s remuneration policy is mainly conceived to acknowledge and  optimise the commitment, competences and behaviour of employees and to  guarantee the correct remuneration positioning of people in connection with  their duties.

For all employees, remuneration is structured into fixed and variable  monetary components and provides for a package of benefits in support  of income or similar such additions (medical and social security insurance,  projects and initiatives for employees and their families, promotions and  benefits of various types). The variable monetary component is based on  systems of a direct connection between company performance and individual  performance (“MbO”) or on discretionary mechanisms for the recognition of working performance and conduct in terms of “one-off” bonuses. In 2016, in  line with the objectives of the A2A Group Business Plan, specific extraordinary  incentive plans were also introduced for the sale of energy efficiency services,  which are progressively being extended.

The variable remuneration system is also supplemented by a collective incentive tool (a “results bonus”), which is based on Group productivity and profitability goals, aimed at guaranteeing the involvement of all staff, including those not assigned MbOs, in company performance. Study and  further investigation is currently underway as to the possibility of introducing  the choice for employees to convert part of the “results bonus” into provisions and services in addition to the contractual and corporate welfare package already in place, for themselves or their families.

To involve employees more closely in the Group’s objectives and increase  their participation in the achievement of company results, the  MbO system has been gradually extended over the years to include more and more people, in 2016 reaching around  100% of managers, 20% of middle managers and 1% of employees.

Moreover, to facilitate the implementation of the 2016-2020 Sustainability  Plan, the A2A Group has defined a model for the structured, integrated insertion of sustainability objectives in the management incentive systems as from 2017