PEOPLE
REINVENTING PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
In a year marked by COVID-19, Ferrovial employees have made a huge effort to adapt and be resilient to the circumstances. Ferrovial’s human resources area has reacted quickly to tweak its processes, channels and tools to a new reality, accompanying the professionals in this change process.
After the start of the pandemic, Ferrovial’s human resources teams have played a key role in implementing solutions aimed at firstly, preserving the health of all workers and, secondly, ensuring continuity of operations. Examples include the adoption of protocols to ensure the safety of the facilities, the implementation of remote working formulas, the adjustment of our structures to declining activity, or the development of secure de-scaling protocols.
In addition, Ferrovial’s human resources teams have made an additional effort to ensure the continuity of their key processes, adatping their working methods to the conditions imposed by the new situation. The main focus of the work was based on three axes: the continuity of learning; talent management, with a focus on female and local talent; and adapting the selection processes.
CONTINUOUS LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Faced with the challenge posed by this new scenario, Ferrovial has leveraged digitalization to increase, make more flexible and broaden the scope of learning opportunities. Through a global solution, the Learning Center has been created, which is a digital learning ecosystem made up of different platforms that complement each other, both in terms of content and formats. This virtual space, which functions as Learning as a Service, is designed with a simple and attractive user experience and can be used 24/7, from any device. This enables each employee to be able to personalize their learning experience according to their concerns, needs, style and preferences.
Topics such as leadership, management, innovation, technology and also others of a more technical nature such as construction, engineering or energy are available through the six platforms that make up this space. Moreover, this content is available in a wide range of formats: online courses, podcasts, audio books, book summaries, videos, etc. This scenario promotes lifelong learning, where employees become primarily responsible for their own development, choosing what, how, how much and when they want to learn.
It is worth noting that during 2020 Ferrovial employees received a total of 721,186 hours of training, and the company invested a total of 9.6 million euros in these programs.
In addition, 25,590 employees participated in assessment and development processes, 31.94% of the workforce, and succession planning has identified 162 potential candidates for the 85 critical positions detected.
Workforce
Training Hours
E-WORK, NEW TELEWORKING PORTAL
After the State of Emergency and lockdown were declared in Spain, a communication and learning channel called e-work was set up. Talent, health and safety, communication and IT worked closely together on this project. This portal brings together everything you need to work remotely in an efficient way. Employees can find recommendations from the company’s experts in technology, legal, health and safety, learning and human resources in this portal.
LOCAL AND FEMALE TALENT
In Ferrovial each person brings different ideas, perspectives and knowledge. For this reason, it promotes a flexible, diverse, collaborative and inclusive culture that offers unique and challenging experiences for the entire workforce. Professional development is promoted on the basis of meritocracy, while encouraging equal opportunities in a fair and transparent manner.
In this regard, in 2020 we have focused on further attracting female talent and local talent in the main countries where the company operates, as well as encouraging their development toward management positions. For junior positions (0 to 3 years of experience), an objective has been set that at least 35% of new recruits should be women and that 100% of new hires should be local people.
It is worth noting that Ferrovial has again been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index in recognition of its commitment to gender equality through developing policies in this area, as well as female representation and information transparency.
In addition, since 2010 the company has held the “Corporate Equality” distinction from the Ministry of Equality. This certificate of excellence is awarded in Spain to companies that promote equal opportunities by giving priority to merit and talent.
Ferrovial is continuously working to analyze any salary gap cases and their causes in orders to establish corrective actions where necessary. As detailed in the Annex to this report, the salary gap in the company is mainly explained by two variables: firstly, by the current percentage of women in the company as a whole and, secondly, by the type of positions they hold in line with the sectors in which the company operates and the current gender distribution in the various professional categories.
ZURITANKEN 2020: DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Zuritanken is the two-year program for generating ideas that Ferrovial makes available to its employees to channel all their creative potential toward the most strategic challenges defined by the company. The program’s name is a compound of the Swahili word “nzurin” meaning “big” and the Norwegian word “tanken” meaning “idea”. In 2020, the ideation phase of the fourth edition of the program took place, in which around 600 employees proposed more than 350 ideas around the three major challenges chosen, which are health and safety, sustainability and the day after. The latter is aimed at generating solutions to improve the world resulting from the global crisis generated by COVID-19.
ENSURING WE HIRE THE BEST TALENT
The context generated by COVID-19 has not prevented Ferrovial from continuing to search for and hire the people who can best contribute to boosting the business. To this end, candidate identification, onboarding and recruitment have been adapted globally. Consequently, the entire recruitment process has become entirely virtual, using tools that allow visual contact with the candidate, while at the same time assessing their knowledge through online technical tests. It is worth noting that the 11,603 job vacancies registered by Ferrovial in the various portals received a total of 306,352 applications, of which 22% were filled by internal candidates.
