Hera : foremost Italian company in Thomson Reuters’ “Diversity and Inclusion Index”

The Hera Group is the best company in Italy and the 14 in the world for investments aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion. This result was announced in the 2017 edition of Thomson Reuters' 'Diversity and Inclusion Index', which examined a sample of over 6,000 publicly listed companies globally.

The Italian multi-utility, with a score of 77.25, ranked second in the world in the utilities sector, improving its performance by almost six percent over 2016 (71.5) and thus rising by 46 positions in the global ranking.

The 'Diversity and Inclusion Index' is an ethical classification conceived and conducted by the international giant of financial information Thomson Reuters. It analyses companies' performances on the basis of a wide range of factors, falling into four categories: diversity, inclusion, people development and news controversy.

The Hera Group's commitment to policies promoting inclusion and diversity has a long history. It was first consolidated in 2009, when the Charter for equal opportunity and equality on the workplace was signed: with this document the company engaged, alongside other private and public bodies, to the struggle against discrimination on the workplace. The introduction in 2011 of the Diversity Manager, whose task involves giving even greater emphasis to developing policies aimed at inclusion and the valorisation of diversity, was also fundamental. Mention must also go to the proportion of female personnel, which rose and is above the national average in the energy, water and environment sector (24.2%, compared to 15.9%), and to the presence of women in roles of responsibility that in Hera, in 2016, reached 31%.

Many initiatives, lastly, make plurality management concrete, including agreements with daycare centres, summer camps and a range of programmes aimed at reconciling time for work and living. These are flanked by arrangements made for leave time not only for moms and dads but also for those who must provide assistance to relatives or elderly people. This is also the area that includes the project 'Policies for a positive re-entry', conceived and implemented by Hera to improve work-leave management, financed among others by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers on account of the innovative and socially significant nature of the proposals made.