Corporate welfare, equal opportunities and inclusion in Acea

The Group launches various initiatives to enhance the wellbeing of its staff with actions aimed at equal opportunities, talent valorisation, protection of diversity, work-life balance focus and inclusion.

A better quality of life and a high level of wellbeing in the company are our fundamental assets.

Beatrice Lanciotti - Head of Company Welfare

How does Corporate Welfare work?

Acea promotes and carries out initiatives aimed at organisational wellbeing, in compliance with our Sustainability Plan and the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.

It is a process evolving continuously, based on people’s feedback and needs. Our primary objective is to improve the quality of life with a positive return on individual and corporate performance.

All actions originate from active listening and, on these premises, we identified six pillars our Group’s welfare plan revolves around.

 

The importance of work-life balance

In order to facilitate work-life balance, the following have been adopted:

  • More extensive hourly flexibility for parenting support, compared with that provided for by law;
  • Smart working (already adopted by the Group before the pandemic);
  • Free-of-charge caregiver service for all people taking care of their families.

Moreover, the Group pays attention to the protection of its people’s health, as demonstrated through initiatives such as the “Previeni con Acea” prevention campaign or the activation of a service to facilitate physical wellbeing and the adoption of healthy lifestyles, offering the opportunity to attend gyms or streaming training platforms.

Diversity and inclusion at work

Specific targets concerning Diversity & Inclusion are also included in the 2020-2024 Sustainability Plan, which led to the implementation of activities related to the following topics:

  • Training on unconscious bias, to deepen the issues related to cognitive bias aimed at understanding the unconscious functioning logic laying behind prejudices in order to overcome them
  • Diversity & Inclusion Survey, designed to promote a cultural change towards a valorisation of diversity
  • Participation in the Inclusive Job Day, a career day dedicated to high-school leavers and university graduates belonging to protected categories in relation to disability, ethnic origin or gender identity
  • Creation of an intranet section dedicated to Diversity & Inclusion to share these values with everyone in the company.

The Acea Group has also implemented measures to protect diversity by adopting a Code of Ethics and a Whistleblowing system to tackle any form of discrimination.

The whistleblowing process consists in reporting potential violation of law, rules and the Code of Ethics, while ensuring the highest confidentiality in the treatment of communications received to protect both the individual reporting the non-compliance and the reported.

Our Code of Ethics, in its turn, brings together the principles and rules of conduct to be observed at Acea and which all corporate activities must refer to. Our goal is to pursue the highest standards of equity in all activities and relations within the company, ensuring transparency and fairness in all areas.

Furthermore, our Group set up an Ethics and Sustainability Committee whose tasks include fostering a culture of diversity and fighting against discrimination within the company. 

Europe’s Diversity Leaders 2023

The Acea Group has been included in the special “Europe’s Diversity Leaders 2023” report published by the Financial Times and Statista that selects 850 employers who demonstrate notable leadership in diversity and inclusion matters.

Acea tops the ranking as regards the Italian utility companies included in the list and is positioned fourteenth out of the 42 Italian firms mentioned.

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Women’s Empowerment

Women’s empowerment is a fundamental principle – as indicated by the United Nations – for the development of our society, which goes hand in hand with gender equality to ensure a better future for all.

'An inclusive culture, which also fosters gender equality in the workplace, encourages all Acea people to gain greater awareness and to be more confident of their abilities. It allows to concretely support the expression of everybody’s talent and potential, regardless organizational levels.

Pasquale Padula - Head of Development and Change Management

For this reason, Acea launched initiatives related to women’s empowerment:

  • Women as role models. Within the school-business system, Acea professionals act as Role Models, bringing to schools and universities their personal experience of professional success.
  • Together for gender equality. A project to raise awareness and to start a listening desk for providing support and direct assistance.
  • Awareness-raising webinars. Thematic meetings to spread and support an inclusive culture and the protection of diversity.

Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index

Acea confirmed its presence in the 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI). The GEI is an international index assessing companies’ performance on gender equality through five criteria: female leadership, equal pay, inclusive culture, policies against sexual harassment, brand positioning as company in support of women.

Our Group - included in the index for the third running year - obtained a score of 80.67 (on a scale of 0-100), ranking itself above the averages for the utility sector (71.21) and the sample analysed (71.11), with a significant improvement of 10.18 points compared to the 2021 results.

A total of 418 companies from 45 countries – belonging to different manufacturing sectors - were eligible for the 2022 assessment.

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Ensuring people’s wellbeing is therefore a priority objective at Acea, in the belief that a fair work-life balance is the basis of contemporary company welfare.

These objectives can be achieved through actions driven by the desire to protect diversity and enhance inclusion and equal opportunities. The entire process is always evolving to better adopt to the needs of our employees.

Highlights

Discover the latest news and initiatives of the Acea Group