For the ninth consecutive year, the Hera Group has confirmed its position as a leader in Human Resources management. This acknowledgement comes from the Holland-based Top Employers Institute which has, since 1991, been researching workplace quality standards in the world's leading companies.
According to the Dutch institute, the Hera Group proved to be deserving of "Top Employer" certification on account of "the excellent working conditions enjoyed by employees, a training and development policy that reaches every level of the company and advanced HR management strategies", all of which make Hera “committed to continuous improvement of policies and best practices".
Today, Top Employers is a highly sought-after international acknowledgement. The certification process, which has, over the years, become ever-stricter, is based on analysis of objective data and in-depth checks. Key analysis parameters include investment in training and development, welfare and on-boarding policies for new hires, careful planning of selection processes and career paths, targeted talent-growing strategies, a positive corporate culture and an exciting, constructive workplace. Only those companies that achieve the required standards can be listed as Top Employers.
In Italy, some 90 companies have been certified this year. These include the Hera Group (the first multiutility to take part in the project, from 2010 onwards), one of just 11 companies to attain uninterrupted recognition. More specifically, the company stood out on account of the "Hextra" integrated corporate welfare plan; set up in July 2016 and covering almost all the Group's 9,000 employees, it is also characterized by a quota of resources that can be "customised" by individual workers to suit their needs. Moreover, as of 2018 employees can convert their results bonuses into further welfare benefits: measures for striking a better work-life balance (smart working, leave/absence management policies and support when returning to the company), development policies and programmes aimed at raising every employee’s level of health and safety awareness.
What's more, the Group is one of the top Italian companies when it comes to investing in employee training and personal/professional development (it provides about 29 training hours per capita per year). Training experiences have been made more engaging and effective thanks to HerAcademy, the Corporate University that ensures close collaboration between companies and key academic institutions; moreover, 2017 saw the introduction of new, more personalised ways of getting the best out of training as part of the HER@futura programme.
The company's heavy investment in training and its ties with the local communities where it operates are also evident in the Hera Educational programme. The latter focuses on providing students with work experience that aims to merge corporate skills with skills acquired in the secondary schools of Emilia-Romagna. Over 200 work experience programmes have been completed since 2015 and the project will soon be extended to schools in Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
The full Hera Group profile, with the reasons and criteria behind the certification, can be consulted at www.topemployers.it.