Case study: How Enagás promotes work-life balance among employees
Enagás is Spain’s main natural gas operator and a global leader in the development, maintenance, operation and management of gas infrastructures and gas networks. Reconciling employees’ needs and interests with those of the company by meeting employees’ social and health-care needs, as well as those of their immediate family, is, for Enagás, a top priority.
This case study is based on the 2017 Annual Report by Enagás published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Enagás has been a certified Family Responsible Company since 2007 Tweet This!, and has 94 reconciliation measures that promote the professional and personal development of every employee. In order to promote work-life balance among employees Enagás took action to:
- support employees’ families
- promote work flexibility
- boost employee health and well-being
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Enagás has identified;
- How Enagás proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Enagás to promote work-life balance among employees
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2017 Annual Report Enagás identified a range of material issues, such as ethics and integrity, infrastructure security, environmental accidents and incidents, transparency and compliance. Among these, promoting work-life balance among employees stands out as a key material issue for Enagás.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Enagás engages with:
To identify and prioritise material topics Enagás engages with its stakeholders through the following channels:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Regulatory bodies (state, local and international) | · Regular meetings (face-to-face, telephone, email) · Corporate website |
| Investors (fund managers, rating agencies, analysts)
| · Regular meetings (face-to-face, telephone, email) · Corporate website · Shareholder Office · Free shareholder helpline · Electronic mailbox · Meetings with minority shareholders and analysts |
| Employees (professionals, social organisations) | · Regular meetings (face-to-face, email) · Corporate Intranet · AzulyVerde in-house magazine · Ráfagas e-bulletin · In-house communication campaigns · Ethics Channel · Workplace climate surveys and associated improvement plans · Interactive coffee for employees with the CEO |
| Customers (distributors, shippers, transmission companies, direct consumers in the market)
| · Account managers · Regular meetings (face-to-face, telephone, email) · Main Control Centre · SL-ATR · Spanish Gas System Follow-up Committee · Corporate website: SL-ATR 2.0 portal and SITGAS portal · Customer newsletter · Meetings with customers (Shippers’ day) · Customer satisfaction surveys and associated improvement plans |
| Partners (business, strategic business and management of companies) | · Coordinators of affiliates · Regular meetings (face-to-face, telephone, email) · Audit Committees |
| Media and social media
| · Regular meetings (face-to-face, telephone, email) · Corporate website · Permanent telephone service to the media · Media attention email inbox · Social media |
| Suppliers (critical and non-critical) | · Regular meetings (telephone, email) · Corporate website: supplier portal · Supplier attention email inbox |
| Financial institutions | · Regular meetings (face-to-face, telephone, email) |
| Associations and foundations (from the energy / gas sector, from social, environmental, ethical (sustainability) areas, in education and culture, health and development cooperation) | · Regular meetings resulting from participation in groups and forums (face-to-face, telephone, email) |
What actions were taken by Enagás to promote work-life balance among employees?
In its 2017 Annual Report Enagás reports that it took the following actions for promoting work-life balance among employees:
- Supporting employees’ families
- Enagás supports its employees by creating a family-friendly workplace through a number of measures, that include the following:
- Study support for employees’ children.
- 80% subsidy on special schooling expenses for employees who have children with disabilities.
- “Día sin Cole” (No School Day) programme and subsidised urban summer camps for employees’ children on workdays throughout the school year.
- Alares Family Support Programme:
- “miAsistente” (myAssistant) personal manager, which takes care of all necessary day-to-day procedures and information.
- Free handling of diverse procedures in connection to vehicles, maternity and paternity, licences, certificates and reports.
- Free service for selecting domestic helpers and healthcare personnel.
- Services for making online wills and living wills, expert legal advice, signings before a notary public and registrations.
- Specialised treatment and home help service in the event of convalescence, illness or accident.
- Promoting work flexibility
- To promote workplace flexibility, Enagás provides employees with:
- Flexibility in start times and lunch break.
- Shorter workday during the summer and every Friday, throughout the year.
- Division of annual leave into a maximum of 3 periods.
- Boosting employee health and well-being
- Enagás seeks to promote employee health and well-being through the following initiatives:
- Annual medical check-up and flu vaccine campaigns.
- 90% subsidy on the cost of private medical healthcare insurance for employees and 100% for their children. Medical cover on international trips.
- Meal subsidies (canteens, financial aid, restaurant vouchers).
- Access to a programme of discounts and exclusive prices on a wide range of online products, services and leisure.
- Pension plans for employees with two years’ effective or recognised service.
- Healthy eating corner at head office.
- Help towards sports activities.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:
1) Disclosure 201-3 Defined benefit plan obligations and other retirement plans
Disclosure 201-3 Defined benefit plan obligations and other retirement plans does not correspond to any SDG.
Disclosure 401-2 Benefits provided to full-time employees that are not provided to temporary or part-time employees corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Business theme: Earnings, wages and benefits
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by Enagás, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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