Unipol's Carlo Cimbri criticises remote working: it is not the new normality

"I know I'm saying unpopular things in relation to the new wave of thinking on smart working, but I don't think it's the new normal". The chairman of the Unipol group, Carlo Cimbri, has never been one of the supporters of remote working, which was introduced in the company to coincide with the pandemic. However, he explains that 'an experiment is underway that will last until the end of the year. Then we will see'.

Certainly in Cimbri's plans this does not seem to be a priority as the end of the year and some important deadlines approach. One is that of his presidency, on which he says that 'if the shareholders ask me to, I am available for a new mandate. I have worked at Unipol for 33 years and I make myself available to continue to do the company's good'. The other is that of the industrial plan. The beginning of 2025 will therefore represent a very intense period, which seems to go even less well with the theme of remote working, far from the approach that, first as CEO and then as chairman, Cimbri had to the organisation of work and, perhaps, also from the DNA of the company where 12,400 people work today.

As part of the generational change, the company has a youth recruitment plan underway that will be much more oriented towards scientific and technological disciplines. That is to say, those where the shortage of candidates leads to stronger competition in recruiting, which is also played out on smart working, so much so that there is no recruiter who does not say that among the first questions from candidates one is always about working remotely. "Compared to the history of insurance today there is a greater incidence of scientific and technological skills. Service companies like ours make more and better use of technology, but this option must not translate into a work organisation in which everyone works remotely,' Cimbri argues. 'This prospect is dramatic, especially for the younger generations. If I think of a young person who has just graduated and is working from home, I imagine that he may be happier because he can manage his time better, but I also think that I am not doing him any good. Work is not just about technology but about human relationships. You also learn from the behaviour, the experience, the skills of your colleagues. I don't think that companies where people work a lot from home are better than the one we have created'.

No fears on the attractiveness to young people because 'the attractiveness of a company cannot be given by the presence or absence of smart working. If that were the case, the prerequisite would be missing. What do people look for in a company? The opportunity to learn, to improve the economic component, the social position, the satisfaction of making a career. If what they are looking for is smart working and having more free time for themselves, then perhaps it is the company that has to say that it is the candidate who is not the right person'.

In the Unipol chairman's vision, however, there is no lack of sensitivity and openness. We quote one of them. "In our country we talk a lot about equal opportunities and the wage gap between men and women, which is determined not because for the same job there are different levels of pay depending on whether the worker is a man or a woman,' reasons Cimbri. 'The gap exists on average wages because women make fewer careers than men. Many women's careers are interrupted, not because of work as such, but because of family loads, because of children that lead mothers to stay away or leave the company for long periods. A positive use of technology and smartworking can be precisely that aimed at keeping women engaged with the company and their careers'.