It has been commonly acknowledged that the echoes of different voices and opinions in diverse ecosystems that appreciate multiple approaches to problem solving contribute to us constantly advancing ourselves and the environment in which we work and, consequently, pushes our market towards sustainable growth and prosperity
Being a proud member of Intesa Sanpaolo, one of the soundest and most profitable banks in Europe, serving approximately 20 million customers in 12 countries, we have experienced and proved that this kind of forward thinking can truly be ignited if people are heard and empowered to express their opinions that would lead to impactful solutions.
Furthermore, generally speaking, this type of culture brings an increased level of resilience to organisations, sparks innovation and builds the kind of transformational capacity that is essential in the context of the ever-changing environment we all face today. Why do we find the Diversity & Inclusion approach so important? Our industry has been playing an important role in supporting the economy by enabling the financial inclusion of a growing number of clients and diversifying products and services along the way. In order to keep pace as an organisation, we need to be able to bring people together and respond to different views and perspectives, while always challenging our decisions effectively in the process.
That exact approach has been stimulating the constant evolution of the diversity agenda of Banca Intesa. When we think of our company, which numbers over 3,000 employees working in branches and offices across the country, we take into account their different backgrounds, ages, genders, heritages, individual peculiarities, orientations, strong personalities, but that they are tightly connected by the same values and common goals: to provide our customers with the best solutions.
The unique expertise of our people, derived from their rich individualities, is what makes our brand so solid, with unprecedented success on the local market
The unique expertise of our people, derived from their rich individualities, is what makes our brand so solid, with unprecedented success on the local market. As an illustration, the average age of employees at Banca Intesa is 41, while the work experience of our employees ranges from those with 30 years in business to university graduates. When it comes to gender equality, for example, 75% of our employees are female, with 50% of women holding managerial positions.
Starting from the aforementioned demographics, we have been maintaining and fortifying our D&I based competitiveness broadly throughout our organisation by constantly improving our policies, internal processes, initiatives and the programmes we promote, to agile concepts of working. Our recently adopted D&I Policy explicitly highlights respect, meritocracy and equal opportunities as its basic values. It defines our commitment to gender equality, aimed at ensuring fair opportunities in the processes of hiring, elevating talents and promoting personnel. Furthermore, the dissemination of the culture of inclusion is translated into training courses, communication and numerous initiatives, such as international talent programmes for our employees, workplace flexibility supported with initiatives like quiet hour, wellbeing programmes and support programmes for parenting.
All of these efforts have yielded astonishingly fair results, as reflected in the employee satisfaction score, which is why we will persist in building relationships based on appreciation for human rights and diversity, cultural and other differences, and constantly improving them. In a nutshell, for Banca Intesa, diversity is about a never-ending quest for excellence