Diversity & Inclusion

The enhancement of people, their diversity and inclusion policies are a fundamental element of the people strategy and an essential ingredient in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy. Companies that are able to express a high rate of diversity – for example gender, age, cultural and professional background – can have a wider spectrum of views, opinions and experiences, thus bringing greater value to policy decisions. 

For years Intesa Sanpaolo has been committed to enhancing the diversity and promoting inclusion as essential components for the Group's growth. The Structure Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) presides over the implementation of all D&I initiatives, in line with a vision of shared inclusion at the Group level.

Intesa Sanpaolo's Inclusion policy is made explicit within a policy, which has respect, meritocracy and equal opportunities as its basic values.

The Policy also identifies concrete commitments that Intesa Sanpaolo assumes in promoting an inclusive environment and defines the behavior expected by everyone. A specific section is dedicated to commitments on gender equity, aimed at ensuring fair opportunities in the processes of hiring, promotion to roles of responsibility, appointments to management and in the succession plan for top management.

There are numerous projects and initiatives launched by the Group over time, in terms of diversity and inclusion.

The dissemination of the culture of inclusion is a fundamental element of the Group's D&I strategy and translates into training, communication and awareness-raising initiatives towards all people, at all organizational levels.

The culture of inclusion starts from the top, with the involvement of all top management in a managerial discussion on Inclusive Leadership, which has been gradually extended to all managerial levels and has involved, during the years, over 6,500 managers. The program is now being extended now being extended to the Group's international perimeter, where it will gradually reach the management of the Intesa Sanpaolo companies.

There are also many listening initiatives that involve the entire company population, with the aim of understanding their perceptions and needs and providing valuable insights for defining the Group's inclusion initiatives.

Additional digital initiatives to raise awareness on inclusion are periodically conveyed to specific targets, such as management, key figures in HR Management or people included in particular growth paths, through specific formats and platforms.

Intesa Sanpaolo has always been committed to the full enhancement of female talent, facilitating the presence of women in every professional context and at every hierarchical level.

In Intesa Sanpaolo, women represent 54% of total company employees and in particular:

• 40% of management (middle management and executive management)
• 28% of executive management.

Women also make up 21% of direct reports to Top Management and, overall, the percentage of women in the First and Second Line reporting to the Chief Executive Officer is 19%.

In order to continue and accelerate the process of enhancing female talent, gender equity commitments have been defined within the Principles on Diversity & Inclusion in hiring, in the basins for promotions to the first managerial roles and for management, as well as in accessing top management roles.

In order to enhance female talent and encourage the creation of inclusive work contexts, multiple development initiatives have been launched for professional women and managers (job rotation, shadowing courses, training for female empowerment ...). It is also continued the "Female Leadership Acceleration" program, a development path aimed at female managers, with the aim of consolidating their leadership potential and facilitating access to roles for further growth.

The commitment to inclusion is increasingly important and this is why the bank has adopted a specific policy: the Principles on Diversity & Inclusion. In this document, Intesa Sanpaolo expresses its policy of inclusion towards all forms of diversity and based on respect for all people, on meritocracy and equal opportunities, also assuming concrete commitments in promoting an inclusive environment and defining the expected behaviors by everyone. A specific section is dedicated to commitments on gender equity, aimed at ensuring fair opportunities in the processes of hiring, promotion to roles of responsibility, promotions to the first managerial roles and in the succession plan for top management. 

A further objective, introduced in the new 2022-2025 Group Plan, focuses attention on senior leadership roles: Intesa Sanpaolo is committed to ensuring that the new appointments for senior positions - first and second reported by the CEO - are balanced by gender.

In 2022, 15 appointments to senior positions (first and second level reporting below the CEO) were recorded: 9 of these (60%) were referred to women.

Read our paper dedicated to the Principles!

Intesa Sanpaolo's corporate welfare offers various services and types of permits that integrate what is already provided for at the regulatory level. For example, as support for parenting, we note: paid leave for attending childbirth preparation courses, for the placement of children in the nursery or kindergarten, to take them to the emergency room, and extra days of unpaid leave to care for underage children for separated or divorced parents, the exclusive guardians of children, as well as in the cases of widowhood and single-parent families.additional permissions / welfare initiatives to support parenting and caregiving.

To promote the participation of fathers in the care of their children, 6 optional days of paid leave on the occasion of the birth have been provided, additional to the provisions of the law, a company integration of 10%, in addition to the salary provided by INPS for parental leave for new fathers; and finally the 10-day extension of their parental leave beyond the legal limit.

2022 saw the continuation of the process for the extension of the second-level bargaining agreement measures with the signing of two trade union agreements that strengthen inclusion and equal opportunities, extending parenting protection provisions to same-sex civil unions, de facto relationships. A specific paid extraordinary leave was introduced on the occasion of the child’s birth and an optional extraordinary leave for childcare needs in relation to the children of the spouse, civil partner or cohabitant. Similarly to parental leave for fathers, these leaves can be used by the child’s twelfth birthday with a remuneration equal to 40% of the salary paid by the Group.

A further initiative was launched on the subject of paternity and, more generally, parenting, consisting of an awareness-raising process aimed at more than 50 fathers, who shared their experiences, needs and expectations related to being parents in the company. The path is now being extended to further groups of fathers within Intesa Sanpaolo.

With the renewal of the Second-Level Collective Bargaining Agreement, as of 2023 a new welfare contribution was introduced for each dependent child up to the age of twenty-four by way of a payment to the supplementary pension scheme position in the name of the same child, also providing for the possibility of using the amount by way of reimbursement through the “Conto Sociale” account. The same contribution will also be paid to families with foster children. In terms of parenting support, the possibility of requesting financial aid was also extended to family members with serious disabilities, as well as to foster children, including for the children of the spouse/civil partner or de facto cohabitant. Among the company welfare programmes, the so-called “Youth package” was recently introduced, which includes an increase in the employer’s contribution to the supplementary pension scheme for the first 5 years after hiring, a “primary residence bonus” and a “child birth bonus” payable within the first 10 years after hiring.

The accuracy with which the practices of inclusion of people with disabilities are managed has been recognized by the main agencies and associations active in the national territory: in 2019 Intesa Sanpaolo was awarded the Diversity & Inclusion Award, a recognized award for companies that promote start-up policies for people with frailties, aiming to enhance talent and skills. In particular, the recruitment of persons with disabilities in accordance with the agreements with the provinces in which there are scopes on the basis of Law 68/99, ensuring an entry role suitable for their skills and needs, as well as a professional development plan for the future. 

The reference in the company for all initiatives related to the world of disability and chronic diseases is the interfunctional Working Group created following the Inclusion Agreement of August 2018. Coordinated by the Welfare function, it has the active participation of over 70 colleagues representing of multiple corporate structures. The goal is to combine different professional skills with a team game, to support and enhance the contribution of all collaborators and promote as much as possible a condition of well-being and support in the development of life in the company, also enriching the welfare tools in support .

The group periodically meets with the Trade Unions as part of the Welfare, Safety and Sustainable Development Committee to define the initiatives to be undertaken and works in synergy with the Diversity & Inclusion Function.

After the 2019 edition, the second edition of the Higher Education Training course “Disability Manager e mondo del lavoro” (Disability Manager and the working world), organised by Cattolica University of Milan, got underway in November 2022. Dedicated to the members of the working group who subsequently joined it and to a representation of all trade unions, this is an important work tool which lays the foundations for a common language. A ‘’Disability Management’’ section is available in #People, summarising the Group’s commitment on the subject, which has led to the birth of many projects within the company: from the analysis of processes to continuously improve the management of individual requests from Group’s people, to IT systems access monitoring, from training dedicated to all HR Managers, a fundamental listening and reference point, to the publication of a schedule aimed at drawing constant attention to the topic, to raising awareness and involving all the Group’s people, as was the case, for example, on the occasion of the #RealizzAbile contest, which made it possible to gather ideas and insights for improving the work environment for the Group’s people with disabilities. This successful initiative, which culminated in the presentation of as many as 44 projects, will be followed by the Bank’s involvement in the development of the winning one. Equally intense is the commitment to the outside world, with the participation in the round table “Abilitiamo la Disabilità” (Let’s Enable Disability), in which Intesa Sanpaolo is present with other companies, institutions, associations and non-profit organisations, to discuss the experiences gained, with the aim of investigating, consolidating and spreading a profound culture on Disability Management issues, in addition to several Conventions on the subject.

As part of the initiatives to promote the inclusion and enhancement of the Group's people at different stages of their lives has been developed a path dedicated to colleagues who are absent from work for periods of more than three months (e.g. for maternity, expectation, illness...). The project was born with the aim of maintain a relationship of closeness and listening during absence, strengthening the sense of inclusion and belonging even in moments when you are away from the company. The programme aimed at the Group’s long-term absentees also continued its activity, involving more than 300 long-term absentees in an orientation programme with optional participation, with the aim of establishing a close relationship during the employees’ absence and promoting their successful return to work.

Joining Parks – Free and Equal

Intesa Sanpaolo is partner of Parks – Liberi e Uguali (Parks – Free and Equals), an association that, working closely with its network of companies, aims to help companies to promote their policy on inclusion, with a particular focus on affective orientation and gender identity in the workplace.

With this collaboration, Intesa Sanpaolo aims to set itself as an agent of a positive cultural change for the entire population of the Group, as well as as a reference to society, promoting the inclusion and respect of all LGBTQ+ people.

Strong attention is also given to people who undertake a path of gender transition and who may require adequate accompaniment to live with serenity in the work context such an important moment of individual affirmation.
It is precisely with this in mind that the Group has created a corporate process to support the social transition of people who request it and provides for moments of awareness for the work groups of people in transition.

To confirm the Group's strong commitment to preventing and combating any form of discrimination and harassment, the Rules for the Fight against Sexual Harassment have been drawn up.
The document presents the conducts that sexual harassment, the commitments of the Group and of all colleagues for their contrast are formalized. It also describes the process of managing the reports in all its phases, with clear timelines for the management of the same.
As part of the Group's commitment to this issue, a psychological support and legal information service was also set up, available to all victims of sexual harassment. The service, which makes use of the support of highly experienced psychologists and psychotherapists, is also for sexual harassment that occurs outside the workplace. In 2021, following the publication of the Rules for Combating Sexual Harassment and the provision of a mandatory training course for all company employees, a new edition of this mandatory training course was designed and released in 2022, again aimed at all the Group’s people: to enrich the contents of the 2022 edition, the course addressed the issue of sexual harassment also in relation to the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity.

One of Intesa Sanpaolo's objectives is to spread the value of inclusion not only within the Group but also externally, in the socio-economic context and in the territories in which it operates. In this context, a fundamental role is played by suppliers.
For this reason, Intesa Sanpaolo has produced a disclosure document on the Principles on Diversity & Inclusion dedicated to these partners, through which suppliers become aware of the commitments and values ​​expressed in this document. The Principles on Diversity & Inclusion are thus shared with all the Group's suppliers, describing the expected behaviours, so that these are always based on the principles of inclusion, respect and meritocracy, which represent the founding values ​​of the Group.
Intesa Sanpaolo also sends its suppliers a questionnaire dedicated to ESG issues which evaluates, among the many merit criteria examined, also their commitment to inclusion and the fight against all forms of discrimination and harassment. The positioning of suppliers in the main international indexes and the acquisition of certifications dedicated to inclusion issues are also highly valued.
More than a thousand of the Group's suppliers confirmed that they have implemented policies to protect diversity and inclusion and mechanisms, tools and processes to combat discrimination and harassment. In addition, thirty large suppliers are included in the international Diversity & Inclusion and Gender Equality Indexes and more than twenty have acquired at least one certification in the field of inclusion.

The Group, through the Principles on Human Rights, the Code of Ethics and the Principles on Diversity & Inclusion, is committed to combating all forms of discrimination - whether based on gender, gender identity and/or expression, affective-sexual orientation, civil status and family situation, age, ethnicity, religious belief, political and trade union affiliation, socio-economic condition, nationality, language, cultural background, physical and mental conditions or any other characteristic of the person also linked to the expression of one's own thought - guaranteeing equal opportunities in the processes of selection, management, development and professional growth.

In the following table the main nationalities in the Group's people.