Stakeholder engagement
Stakeholder engagement is a key element of our sustainability framework and is vital to understanding stakeholder perspectives on key issues and building long-lasting relationships.
| Stakeholder | Main Listening Tools | Objectives |
|---|---|---|
| Employees | People survey | Measure employees' professional engagement in and feelings toward work |
| Reputation Assessment | Assess UniCredit's reputation and its key drivers among employees | |
| Retail internal client satisfaction | Monitor colleagues' satisfaction and expectations for internal service provided by divisions/departments/product factories | |
| Listening to internal clients | Measure internal clients' perceptions of the services they receive from headquarters | |
| Internet perception audits | Assess EWC members' perceptions of online sustainability communications | |
| Customers | Customer satisfaction | Assess customers' perceptions and expectations of products and services |
| Brand equity | Monitor UniCredit brand awareness vs. that of our competitors | |
| Reputation Assessment | Assess our reputation and its key drivers among customers | |
| Seminars, workshops, round tables, focus groups | Create opportunities for mutual understanding and dialogue | |
| Shareholders | Shareholders' meetings | Open dialogue on strategic decisions, significant market developments and UniCredit's performance |
| Quarterly conference calls to present results | ||
| Dedicated web site | ||
| Dedicated communication channels (phone and email) | ||
| Communities | Reputation Assessment | Assess UniCredit's reputation and its key drivers among communities |
| Stakeholder perceptions (Italy only) | Improve our knowledge of territories | |
| Internet perception audit | Assess perceptions of the Territorial Boards regarding online sustainability communications | |
| Advocacy groups / NGOs | Regular meetings and calls involving a variety of civil society organizations | Seek social validation for our business activities, compare perspectives and identify future priorities and potential risks associated with our activities |
| Internet perception audit | Assess perceptions among NGOs and media representatives of our online sustainability communications |
Appropriate listening tools enable us to better understand our stakeholders. This understanding allows us to improve the management of our commitments and initiatives, respond to their concerns effectively, and meet their expectations, thus ensuring the viability of our Group in the long term.
Listening activities enable us to identify the most important (material) topics for our stakeholders.
We developed a pilot program for carrying out a materiality analysis8 based on feedback collected from ad hoc focus groups and interviews9 regarding the 2009 Sustainability Report's capacity to properly address vital topics.
We used this feedback to create a qualitative framework that enabled us to define the range of topics we must address.
We then used the quantitative information generated by our People Survey and Reputation Assessment to weight and rank these topics.
The result is the multi-stakeholder materiality chart that represents the varying levels of importance that our stakeholders (customers, employees and communities) place on different topics.
Multi-Stakeholder Materiality Topics Definition
| Topics | Definitions |
|---|---|
| Fair business behavior | Maintaining a high standard of ethical business behavior and expecting senior management and employees to treat all stakeholders with fairness, respect and reciprocity, according to the Integrity Charter |
| Innovation | Being an innovative company that is able to adapt quickly to change and communicate innovation clearly, thus securing a first-mover advantage |
| Stakeholder engagement | Deploying a full set of listening tools to evaluate stakeholder perceptions of UniCredit's performance and to better understand their needs; managing stakeholder expectations through well-publicized initiatives |
| Employees training and development | Providing relationship building and banking skills to employees with a view to generating value, offering customer-oriented services and supporting the development of employees |
| Employee proximity | Committing to listening to our employees and investing in social dialogue to better respond to their needs and identify opportunities to increase employee engagement |
| Well-being & work-life balance | Demonstrating concern for employees' well-being and balance between their professional and personal lives; creating a working environment in which everyone feels at ease and is motivated to invest in building positive relationships with customers |
| Diversity & inclusion | Fostering a culture of inclusion by promoting equal opportunities in the workplace |
| Outstanding customer service | Offering high quality products and services with good value for the money, providing quick and easy support when necessary (e.g., complaint management, credit response time, etc.) |
| Transparency & simplicity | Having an open way of doing business by proposing simple and easy to understand products and services, as well as proactive, effective and clear communications and transparent decision-making processes thus building relationships based on trust and credibility |
| Financial inclusion | Providing accessible and suitable products and services to underprivileged and less financially secure community members (including financial education initiatives) |
| Customer proximity | Being close to customers, understanding their specific/industry needs and responding promptly to local families and firms with a wide range of specialized products/services |
| Responsible Finance | Being socially and environmentally responsible when financing sensitive industries by adopting ad hoc credit policies or applying global standards (e.g., the Equator Principles) according to benchmarks |
| Security | Providing concrete protection through the development of advanced solutions and optimal processes that assure the best possible security systems |
| Community Proximity | Understanding territorial issues and responding to local needs, thus supporting social development and generating a positive impact on communities |
| Environmental impact | Taking responsibility for the potential environmental impact of our business decisions |
Lastly, effective stakeholder engagement requires initiatives that create a climate of collaboration and result in projects that meet their needs and expectations.
| Stakeholder | Main Engagement Initiatives | Reference in the Report |
|---|---|---|
| Employees | CEO Roadshow to engage our colleagues on One4C program | Listening to our people (p.26) |
| Itaca Inside and meetings between employees and members of the Executive Management Committee | Listening to our people (p.26) | |
| European Work Council activities | Fostering Social Dialogue (p.27) | |
| Customers | Initiative to record customer feedback (Instant customer feedback) | Listening to our Customer (p.36) |
| Initiatives to support the internationalization of SMEs (East Gate Export, Export Business School, 100 Imprese, etc.) | Supporting the internationalization of companies (p.45) | |
| Initiatives to support financial inclusion and financial education | Finance inclusion and responsible finance (p.48) | |
| UniCredit Consumer Day Italy Desk Consumatori Italy | Relationships with Consumer Associations in Italy (p.44) | |
| Communities | Sponsorships and donations initiatives | Contributions to communities (p.62) |
| Il Talento delle Idee, East Gate Export, Cambiare per Crescere | One for Clients, close to the territories (p.66) | |
| Social inclusion projects and support to social entrepreneurship | Unidea – UniCredit Foundation (p.67) | |
| Awards to talented students and researchers | UniCredit & Universities Foundation (p.70) |
- Materiality is defined as the threshold at which an issue or indicator becomes sufficiently important to be reported. This measure enables us to allocate appropriate coverage in our report to those issues, resulting in a more focused, well-balanced report.
- Involving a panel of Italian media representatives, national and international NGOs, Territorial Boards and European Work Council representatives.