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«In the past, banks were among the most rigid companies in their organization of shifts, timetables and clocking in. Today there is nothing of that rigidity anymore thanks to the innovation that Intesa Sanpaolo has brought forward in recent years on flexibility and contractual forms”. Roberto Cascella has been the group’s chief people & culture officer for two years and has recently signed a second-level agreement with the unions which increases the group’s attractiveness and improves welfare, introducing the very short week. The bank, after having hired 5,250 young people from 2021 to today, is preparing to bring in another 3,500 by June 2028. All with permanent contracts. «It is not easy to find the people we are looking for, especially in the Stem area (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) where there is very strong competition», he explains in the office where he receives us, on the fourth floor of a building close to the Teatro alla Scala – of which the bank is a founding member and main sponsor again this season – nestled between the buildings of that ancient Milan which does not lose its charm even on gloomy days.
The guidelines of the human resources strategy
In recent years, to make itself more attractive to young people and those profiles that cannot be found on the market, from engineers, to computer scientists, to data analysts and cybersecurity experts, the bank has worked in different directions. One is undoubtedly the flexibility package, «so no more clocking in, flexible entry and exit hours, smart working up to 120 days a year, short week. All measures greatly appreciated by our people”, says Cascella. The latest union agreement provides, among other things, for the very short week, the latest organizational innovation of the group for parents of children up to 3 years old with 4 days of work of 7 hours and 30 minutes, for the same salary. Another direction is contractual innovation, with tools such as the mixed contract of Global advisors which allows Intesa bankers to be partly employed, partly self-employed, once again offering the flexibility that young people and technological profiles desire. And then welfare which provides many services and where complementary social security and supplementary healthcare have a growing importance, as shown by the latest union agreements reached. On social security, the second level agreement signed after Christmas provides for an increase in the employer contribution to 4.50% and to 6% for staff under 35, confirming the annual contribution of 120 euros paid to all children of employees up to the age of 24. On healthcare “the latest agreement has strengthened the sustainability of the Healthcare Fund which protects almost 240 thousand beneficiaries including employees, pensioners and family members: in 2025 it provided healthcare services for 250 million euros and managed 1.8 million cases”, recalls Cascella.
In view of the new plan
The narrow view of the buildings is almost synonymous with the confidentiality necessary for those who also govern the union relations of the first bank in the country where a total of 90 thousand people work, of which more than 70 thousand in Italy. After having closed the negotiation for the renewal of second level bargaining, with clearly improved conditions compared to a welfare system that is already among the most complex in the Italian panorama, with a lot of attention to young families with bonuses and further reductions in working hours, everyone’s energies will now have to focus on the new 2026-2029 industrial plan that CEO Carlo Messina has been working on for some time. It will arrive at the beginning of February and is eagerly awaited by all stakeholders, including the trade unions. As well as from competitors to understand how the country’s leading bank will move.
The retraining of people
With a certain satisfaction Cascella talks about the results of the plan that is being concluded. «We had planned to retrain 8 thousand people, we reached around 9 thousand, and we provided a total of 51 million hours of training». Carlo Messina, at the inauguration of the Luiss academic year, assured that «the people who work in Intesa Sanpaolo will not have any impact from technological innovation and artificial intelligence, no one will find themselves forced to leave the bank, because the bank develops in technology, we will continue to keep people in the company, to find alternative forms of valorisation». Culture and social issues, for example, have fully become chapters of that diversification of activities resulting in an organization that also includes two specific business units in which a thousand people work. «The whole world of technology has become increasingly central to banks. The technology departments today are as important as the credit ones, with the latest plan we have hired over 2 thousand experts in this area which have allowed us to strengthen ourselves in cybersecurity and data management – says Cascella -. It is an asset where it is necessary to have more and more intellectual property at home to become autonomous in a strategic chapter, given the advance of the digital bank. Investing in technology allows you to even reduce the costs of technological development itself.”
Training
It is also to align people’s skills on the technological front that Academy4Future was born. «The growth of our people is the main lever of the group’s competitiveness and on this we are first of all doing a great job on the leaders because their role will be central in promoting a culture of continuous learning and in transforming change into opportunities for growth – states Cascella -. The corporate academy will involve 20 thousand people a year in Italy and progressively also abroad, progressively involving the entire workforce. The courses, always carried out with the partner Digit’ed (with which Il Sole 24 Ore has signed a long-term strategic partnership, in the context of which Digit’Ed announced the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Sole 24 ORE Formazione SpA, while the 24 ORE Group entered the share capital of Digit’Ed, ed.), integrate technical skills and soft skills, with contents focused on strategic areas such as AI, data and analytics, but also risks, internationalisation, commercial networks, wealth management and private banking”. Precisely this last area will experience a strong employment expansion. «Professionals dedicated to consultancy in asset management will go from 17 thousand today to 20 thousand in 2027». In this context, as in that of the Banca dei Territori, the retail and SME network of the group, the bank has experimented with one of the most important credit contractual innovations of recent years, that of the mixed contract of global advisors which provides for the possibility of working 2 days a week as an employee and 3 days as a freelancer, therefore «to have the benefits of the self-employed worker, with maximum flexibility in time management, and the benefits of the employee, including company welfare. It’s a contract that younger people really like. The average age of the global advisor is 32 years and the gender balance sees a prevalence of women with 52%. Inclusion and gender equality are strong identity traits of the bank: women represent 54.6% of the company population and make up 41.6% of managers and executives”.
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