Our people

What makes us different from others? Our people

We consider our employees as the heart and mind of our company. Considering people first and working to promote their wellbeing and professional growth is one of the cornerstones of Equita's philosophy.

 

Selection process

We pay attention to attracting and selecting talented resources, who stand out not only for their professional expertise, but also for personal qualities which are consistent with the Group’s values and ability to adapt to an extremely dynamic environment.

We place great emphasis on young people as we are convinced that their motivation, enthusiasm, curiosity and digital know-how, favor the ability to find new challenges and opportunities.

80% of the resources we hired in the recent past were below the age of 30.

We select young people from the best Italian universities and invest in their growth during every step of their careers.

We are committed to promoting Diversity starting from the selection phase, planning within the Strategic CSR plan the evaluation of a Fair Recruiting Process able to take this topic into account. Toward this end, the CSR Committee promoted the “Women in Finance” project in order to bring women closer to the world of finance.

Guaranteeing stable employment continues to be a Group priority: 99% of the employees had a permanent contract.

The average age of Group employees is around 40 and 80% of the staff are university graduates. The average seniority at Equita is 9 years and is considerably higher amongst our top managers.

The interest in and the appeal of the Group are confirmed by the growing number of applications we receive every day both through our website and through LinkedIn.

The key factors that make our employees keen to work at Equita are:

• reputation,
• ongoing training,
• career advancement opportunities,
• quality and workplace environment

 

Training

We believe that training is one of our pillars, that ensures the professional advancement of each employee. We offer specific training programmes, both in Italy and abroad (e.g. in the United Kingdom, USA and India) in order to strengthen our employees' managerial, specialized and transversal skills.

More specifically, as part of our "Progetto Giovani" (Youth Project), we offer:

• a training programme for our most junior staff members that uses job rotation between our various departments to enable them to gain a better understanding of how the entire "corporate machine" operates by working "on the ground";
• a series of talks and in-house conferences held by our most senior managers or external consultants on financial topics of specific interest and addressed to all employees ("EQUITA Cineforum");
• a special, intensive executive training programme organised once again by MISB Bocconi ("Mumbai International School of Business - Bocconi") for some of our professionals in Mumbai, India.

We also organize courses in Management, Trading, Mentoring, Public Speaking, Foreign Languages, Corporate Finance Transactions, Modelling, Bond Documentation, Privacy, as well as Health and Safety.

In the recent past we provided, on average, a total of 6,600+ training hours annually.

Thanks to some of these initiatives, we guarantee our entire staff a greater number of training hours than is required by law.

 

Diversity

Diversity and gender equality are a key part of our CSR strategy.

We believe, in fact, that including people with different training, experiences, and socio-cultural backgrounds makes it possible for the Group to better meet the challenges of an increasingly global market.

In addition to the above-mentioned initiatives, like the “Women in Finance” project and the inclusion in our Strategic CSR Plan of a recruiting system based also on diversity, we adhered to Valore D, an Italian association of large companies committed to supporting and promoting female leadership, as well as diversity in general.

The promotion of diversity is also amply applied throughout the whole organization: 27% of employees who report directly to the CEO or the Board of Directors are women, who in turn manage 50% of all staff members.

 

Dialogue and involvement of professionals

We are convinced that involving employees in company life is the best way to establish a relationship with our people.

Dialogue and involvement, have always been at the heart of our employees’ motivation which contributes considerably to:

• creating a more peaceful work environment;
• reducing turnover and absenteeism;
• recruiting the best market talents;
• effective project management;
• spreading a greater sense of responsibility.

Toward this end, we organize plenary meetings, open to all, in which we illustrate:

• the periodic financial results achieved by the Group;
• the budget targets and the Strategic Plan which also include sustainability targets ;
• the planning of new projects and the progress made in current ones.

Furthermore, annual meetings are scheduled with each employee and their respective managers during which the resource receives feedback about the work done, expresses his/her observations, any recommendations and expectations, and discusses goals for the next year with the manager.

Each year there are also special social events like, for example, the “Cena di Natale” (Christmas Party), the "Ape Young", an aperitif for employees under 30, the chief executive officer and the chairman, and the “Panzerottata”, a lunch based on panzerotti organized in order to celebrate our most successful transactions.

 

Remuneration

We firmly believe that a remuneration system based on internal equity, competitiveness, consistency and meritocracy allows us to create long-term value at every level of our company.

Our remuneration policy therefore includes benefits and incentives aimed at both improving the quality of life of our employees and rewarding performance and achievement of specific objectives based on merit.

In keeping with our other social impact initiatives, this policy provides that the qualitative indicators for human resource assessments also include those attributable to ESG principles:

• People engagement, in order to assess the quality of the environment in terms of workplace relationships and employee motivation
• Talent management and Human Capital, relating to the professional growth and level of advancement of our employees;
• Tone from the top on compliance culture, related to maintaining integrity of conduct and encouraging compliance and risk culture;
• Sustainability strategy, to evaluate the contribution of employees to the development of an ESG strategy;
• Customer satisfaction, related to their satisfaction and to be measured using specific criteria.

Employee compensation is based on a fixed salary and performance-related bonuses in order to reinforce staff motivation and loyalty whilst also considering the need to maintain the Group's financial sustainability over time.

 

Sport initiatives

In order to promote team spirit, each year we organize inter-company tournaments of indoor soccer, ping-pong, beach-volley and football. We are also sponsors of the Milano Marathon.

 

We invest also outside the "Equita universe"

The development of "people" is also addressed towards the community in general. Equita promotes the development of young artists in innovative contexts and formats.

Equita hosts works of painters, photographers and other artists in the halls and corridors of its offices, transforming them into real art galleries and allowing its clients and employees to admire the works and, if they wish, to buy them. Learn more about EquitArte.

in 2018 Equita also signed a partnership with the Brera Academy of Fine Arts to reward young students and promote the research on artistic disciplines. Learn more about the Brera initiatives.