Intesa Sanpaolo, plan to hire 3,500 young people (with permanent jobs) and stronger welfare

"In the past, banks were among the most rigid companies in their organisation of shifts, timetables, timetabling. Of that rigidity, today there is nothing left thanks to the innovation that we as Intesa Sanpaolo have brought forward in recent years on flexibility and contractual forms'. Roberto Cascella has been the group's chief people & culture officer for two years and has recently signed a second-level agreement with the trade unions that increases the group's attractiveness and improves welfare, introducing the very short week. The bank, having hired 5,250 young people since 2021, is preparing to bring in another 3,500 by June 2028. All with permanent contracts. "It's not easy to find the people we are looking for, especially in the Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) area where there is very strong competition," he explains in the office where he receives us, on the fourth floor of a building close to the Teatro alla Scala - of which the bank is a founding partner and main sponsor also this season - squeezed between the buildings of that ancient Milan that does not lose its charm even on dreary days.

In recent years, to make itself more attractive to young people and those profiles that cannot be found on the market, from engineers to computer scientists, data analysts and cybersecurity experts, the bank has worked in several directions. One is undoubtedly the flexibility package, 'so no more clocking in and out, hourly flexibility on entry and exit, smart working for up to 120 days a year, short weeks. All measures very much appreciated by our people,' says Cascella. Among other things, the latest union agreement provides for the very short week, the group's latest organisational innovation for parents of children up to 3 years old with 4 working days of 7 hours and 30 minutes, with equal pay. Another direction is contractual innovation, with instruments such as the mixed contract for global advisors that allows Intesa's bankers to be part employee, part self-employed, again offering the flexibility that young people and technological profiles desire. And then there is welfare, which provides many services and where complementary pensions and supplementary healthcare have an increasing weight, as shown by the latest union agreements reached. On welfare, the second-level agreement signed after Christmas provides for an increase to 4.50 per cent in the employer's contribution and to 6 per cent for employees under 35, confirming the annual contribution of 120 euro paid for all children of employees up to 24 years of age. On health, 'the latest agreement has strengthened the sustainability of the Health Fund, which protects almost 240 thousand beneficiaries among employees, pensioners and family members: in 2025 it provided health benefits worth EUR 250 million and managed 1.8 million practices,' Cascella recalls.

The narrow view of the buildings is almost synonymous with the confidentiality required for those who also govern labour relations at the country's leading bank, where a total of 90,000 people work, more than 70,000 of them in Italy. After having closed the negotiations for the renewal of second-level bargaining, with clearly improved conditions with respect to a welfare system that is already among the most articulated in the Italian panorama, with much attention paid to young families with bonuses and further reductions in working hours, now everyone's energies must focus on the new industrial plan 2026-2029 on which CEO Carlo Messina has been working for some time. It will arrive in early February and is much awaited by all stakeholders, including trade unions. As well as by competitors to understand how the country's leading bank will move.

With some satisfaction Cascella recounts the results of the plan that is drawing to a close. "We had planned to retrain 8 thousand people, we have now reached about 9 thousand, and we have provided a total of 51 million hours of training". Carlo Messina, at the inauguration of the academic year at Luiss, assured that 'the people who work in Intesa Sanpaolo will not be impacted by technological innovation and artificial intelligence, no one will be forced to leave the bank, because the bank develops in technology, we will continue to keep people in the company, to find alternative forms of enhancement'. Culture and social work, for example, have become fully-fledged chapters of that diversification of activities that has resulted in an organisation that also includes two specific business units in which a thousand people work. "The whole world of technology has become increasingly central to the banks. The technology departments today are as important as the credit departments, and with the last plan we hired over 2,000 experts in this area, which allowed us to strengthen ourselves on cybersecurity and data management,' says Cascella. 'It is an asset where it is necessary to have more and more intellectual property in house to make ourselves autonomous on a strategic chapter, given the advance of digital banking. By investing in technology, we can even cut the costs of technological development itself'.

It is also to align people's skills on the technology front that Academy4Future was born. "The growth of our people is the main lever of the group's competitiveness, and on this we are first of all doing a great job on the bosses because their role will be central in promoting a culture of continuous learning and in transforming change into an opportunity for growth," says Cascella. "The corporate academy will involve 20 thousand people a year in Italy and progressively also abroad, progressively involving the entire workforce. The courses, also realised with the partner Digit'ed (with whom Il Sole 24 Ore has signed a long-term strategic partnership, in the context of which Digit'Ed has announced the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Sole 24 ORE Formazione S.p.A., while the 24 ORE Group has entered the share capital of Digit'Ed, editor's note), integrate technical and soft skills, with content focused on strategic areas such as Ai, data and analytics, but also risks, internationalisation, commercial networks, wealth management and private banking". It is precisely this last area that will experience a strong expansion in employment. "Professionals dedicated to consultancy in asset management will increase from 17,000 today to 20,000 in 2027". In this area, as in that of the Banca dei Territori, the group's retail and SME network, the bank has experimented with one of the most important contractual innovations in credit in recent years, that of the mixed contract for global advisors, which provides for the possibility of working 2 days a week as an employee and 3 days as a freelancer, thus 'having the benefits of the self-employed, with maximum flexibility in time management, and the benefits of the employee, including company welfare. It is a contract that younger people really like. The average age of the global advisor is 32 and the gender balance sees a prevalence of women with 52%. Inclusion and gender equality are strong identity traits of the bank: women represent 54.6% of the corporate population and are 41.6% among executives and managers'.