UniCredit S p A : Creating a workplace where people can flourish

Becoming the best place to work

Not too long ago, companies considered buildings, brands or equipment to be their most valuable assets. Not anymore. In today's knowledge economy, talented and engaged employees are what make the difference for long term growth, and UniCredit puts people at the center of our strategy.

In the past ten years, company benefits have evolved from standard offerings such as health care, pensions and paid vacation to new welfare programs focusing on an employee's overall wellbeing, through flexible work hours, career planning, life and financial counselling and staying healthy.

What is employee wellbeing? The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) defines it as 'creating an environment to promote a state of contentment which allows an employee to flourish and achieve their full potential for the benefit of themselves and their organisation.'

A 2018 survey by Glassdoor recruiting portal found that 63% of job seekers said benefits were the most important thing when responding to a job ad, nearly as many as those who put the salary at the top of the list (67%).

A good salary is no longer enough on its own to make an employer 'a great place to work.' Benefits like flexible work hours to reconciling work and personal and family commitments, healthy lifestyle, or employee assistance programmes for stress or substance abuse, depression, and anxiety are becoming increasingly common.

At UniCredit, we make it a strategic priority to offer new answers to our people's changing needs, and continually update our employee welfare initiatives benefits to keep pace with evolutions in the workplace and new lifestyles. Whether your goal is to pursue healthy eating habits, a new workout, sharpen your inter-personal skills or take time off for an important life event, our company Welfare package will support you in making it happen.

A company Welfare programme designed to help our people reach their goals

What role does welfare play in the present world of work?

At UniCredit, we give our Welfare offering a central and strategic role as a way to develop our business. Our staff is the key to our success, and we want to attract and keep the best people. We are continually updating our welfare initiatives with new ways to show our people that they matter, keeping up with changes in the workplace and people's lifestyles.

Emanuele Recchia Head of Labour Policies Industrial Relations & Welfare - UniCredit

Three ways UniCredit welfare helps you do what really matters

At UniCredit, we believe that work is a natural part of life, and that the quality of our working lives is a necessary condition for reaching our full potential - professionally and personally.

Ethics and Respect guide our actions towards colleagues in the workplace, where finding the right work-life balance is important to us. In all of the countries where we operate, we have established tailor-made programmes to meet fundamental health and family needs.

We provide our employees with a wide and rich Welfare offer that also focuses on personal requirements which may change during the life cycle. Our Welfare offering is created to meet our people's needs in three areas: Flexibility, Well-being and People Caring.

Flexibility means flexible work hours, which are always a big advantage.

Remote working, part time work and time away from the office can make all the difference when it comes to meeting your needs and those of your family and loved ones. We offer paid parental leave for all family models, and permissions to take time off for important life events such as a marriage or civil union, buying a house, caring for a relative or an educational opportunity.

Millennials and Gen Zs appear to greatly appreciate the option to work from home. According to the Deloitte Millennials Survey 2020, more than 60% said that when the Covid-19 crisis is over, they'd like the option to work remotely more frequently.

Well-being is another guiding principle for us.

This goes beyond our health benefits to include a full choice of healthy lifestyle programs that can help you change your eating habits, start an exercise program, build new relationship skills, or work on cognitive-emotional strengths such as resilience and personal awareness.

People-caring is key to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can speak up and is listened to and heard. In concrete terms, we want to make sure that our people feel supported in everything they do - both your passions and family life and also in those difficult moments when you most need help. To support all of our staff during their every-day lives, our Employee Assistance Programs offer high-quality consultation services for work or personal matters, from legal guidance, health counselling and life coaching to solving problems at work and financial advice.

We aim to put our people at the center of our value creation, creating a positive workplace where they can feel part of One Team, One UniCredit

Learn more about UniCredit's Company Welfare

How people caring improves employees' work lives

What are the objectives of our Welfare?

UniCredit is proud to be a Top Employer Europe in 2020 and our Welfare initiatives helped us reach this goal. Wherever we operate, UniCredit has developed a specially-tailored Welfare offering adapted to local needs. We help our people reach their personal and professional goals by achieving a better work-life balance, finding time to care for a loved one, learn a new skill, start a fitness program or obtain counselling support during a life transition or unexpected challenges such as COVID-19

Emanuele Recchia Head of Labour Policies Industrial Relations & Welfare - UniCredit

What are the most important needs among UniCredit colleagues?

At UniCredit, we have built our Welfare initiatives around what our people say is important to them, listening through dedicated surveys. We know that our people are the key to our success. They tell us that the 'time factor' is more important than ever, not just for Millennials but also for new parents or staff who have to care for an elderly parent. There is never enough time. We are working hard to increase flexibilities and work life balance with programs such as paid leaves for key life events, time banks, paid leaves for voluntary activities and flexible working.

Emanuele Recchia Head of Labour Policies Industrial Relations & Welfare - UniCredit

What is the importance of social dialogue for a good company welfare plan?

We believe that social dialogue contributes to creating sustainable value over time. Trade unions have been a vital partner for us in developing a our Welfare plan. We were the first Italian bank to set up a European Works Council in 2007 and have worked closely with our EWC since then, on a series of agreements, to build our Welfare offering. In 2015, social dialogue with the EWC led to our signature of a joint declaration of work-life balance across the Group, based on five main macro-areas: digitalisation, space and time flexibility, time management at work, employee wellbeing and support with cultural change.

Emanuele Recchia Head of Labour Policies Industrial Relations & Welfare - UniCredit