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 implements initiatives aimed at organizational well-being, in line with the Sustainability Plan, the new Industrial Plan and with 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

To encourage work-life balance, i.e. the balance between private life and work, Acea introduced hourly flexibility to support broader parenting than that required by law and remote working (already undertaken by the Group before the pandemic phase).

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 a DE&I community dedicated to promoting DE&I culture in the company: the Equality Platform.

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, the established an Ethics, Sustainability and Inclusion Committee which has among its tasks that of promoting the culture of diversity and the fight against discrimination in the company. 

Europe’s Diversity Leaders 2023

The Acea Group has been included in the special “Europe’s Diversity Leaders 2024” report published by the Financial Times and Statista that selects 850 employers who demonstrate notable leadership in diversity and inclusion matters.

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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.
  • Self-defense course, aimed at employees, to learn personal self-defense techniques;
  • Women's Support, the assistance channel for workers in difficult situations.

UNI/PDR 125:2022 gender equality certification
In 2022 Acea obtained UNI/PdR 125:2022 certification, the national standard on gender equality, which defines the guidelines to support female empowerment within company growth paths. In line with our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy, Acea is committed to adopting concrete measures to reduce the gender gap with respect to growth opportunities, equal pay, the protection of parenthood and work-life balance.

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.

The Group, included in the index for the fourth consecutive time, obtained a score of 81.58 (on a 0-100 scale), and was placed above the averages of the utility sector (73,75) and the sample analyzed (72.94), with an improvement compared to the 2021 result (80.67).

A total of 485 companies from 45 countries – belonging to different manufacturing sectors - were eligible for the 2023 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