Diversity: committed to people

Endesa’s and the Enel Group’s commitment to diversity is a question of strategy. We have been working for years to become a more diverse and inclusive company, because for us, diversity is not just a trend, it is a commitment that directly affects our business strategy. It is clear that the more plurality the team has, the more productive and creative it is and a company that is diverse is both competitive and sustainable over time. Major companies like ours have a great responsibility and commitment to a society that is itself diverse and both our clients and the people working for Endesa are a mirror image of this.

This social pact is an essential feature of our Diversity and Inclusion Policy and of the Policy on Human Rights to which we are committed at an international level with the United Nations to guarantee and promote diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities. In this regard, we have a long history because Endesa was one of the first Spanish companies to join the United Nations Global Compact in 2002.

This commitment can be clearly seen in the increasingly challenging objectives set for diversity in all its dimensions. In this regard, we are actively involved with the Ministry of Equality, the strategic Sustainability Plan, the Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) and with indexes such as Dow Jones and Bloomberg in which we hold a prominent position.

In recent years we have been focussing on the dimensions of disability, age and gender because these were the areas presenting the greatest difficulty and the most challenging objectives. In all these areas we have developed action plans involving really innovative initiatives. With regard to disability, for example, we were the first Spanish company in the energy sector to join the Valuable 500 programme (where 500 companies made a joint commitment to promoting the inclusion of disabled people). Within the framework of this programme, one of the actions we proposed was to increase recruitment of disabled people by an amount that we exceeded within the first 5 months. This challenge clearly shows our commitment to actually taking action, whilst increasing awareness at all levels by means of innovative training actions such as “The house of inclusion”.

With regard to age, we have a workforce with an average age of 47 but we are always committed to recruiting more young talent every year. The coexistence of different generations enhances the company and makes it stronger. We also have initiatives for employees with a senior profile like “Our Senior Values” and the BeTalent community where our younger employees can contribute, express themselves and share knowledge.

With regard to gender, we have the same difficulty as most other companies looking for technical profiles: A shortage of women on the market who have completed technical studies. This is why our efforts focus on recruiting more women into the company, increasing the number of women in responsible positions and reducing the salary gap.

With this in mind we have implemented a gender action plan with short-, medium- and long-term initiatives to attract talented women, by promoting STEM vocations from a young age with projects such as “She will tell you” and “Back to School”, which involve our women technicians get schools involved and attract over 1,500 girls every year. We have even taken the challenge of further promoting technological vocation through projects such as “Dismantling stereotypes”, which involves experts in gender psychology organising workshops in schools for teachers, students and parents with a view to counteracting prejudice.

We are committed to strengthening and improving the positioning of women as a point of reference in our company, by means of programmes such as “Women mentoring” y “Cross mentoring”. We promoted a women’s network with a view to improving their networking. In other words, we are committed to initiatives that improve both the visibility and the personal framework of the women we employ and which increase the potential for female talent.

Our efforts to improve the data with regard to gender diversity involve focussing on the support of those responsible for teams during the decision-making process through the “Conscious Decisions” project, which uses digital tools based on data analysis as a thermometer for diversity and to calculate the salary gap.

This year we have added the LGTBI dimension to the wealth of diversity through what we call “REDI” (Corporate Network for Diversity and LGBTI Inclusion, with the aim of continuing to support our commitment to human rights and to continue working towards a climate of respect within the working environment.

We still have a long way to go, but we are proud of the improvement we have made each year with regard to our objectives and of the support we get from the highest level. It is significant that our Chief Executive Officer, José Bogas, is a signatory of the CEOS Alliance for Diversity, which helps us to play a leading role in promoting these initiatives for diversity and inclusion.