At least once a month, Neoenergia employees , one of the largest companies in the Brazilian electricity sector, meet with the company's main executives, among them the CEO, Mario Ruiz-Tagle. This is an action carried out by the Organizational Development and Culture area to reduce the distances between the leaderships and the approximately 12 thousand employees who work in 18 states of the country. The initiative of bringing together came about since March by video call, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in an 89% level of engagement, as measured by the annual climate survey, which means that most professionals feel motivated by the projects and values in which they work.

"Due to the pandemic, people needed to distance themselves physically and connect in other ways to maintain their sense of belonging and engagement with the organization. This remote management of work will not disappear, it is part of our reality from now on, and requires different skills and sensitivity. When leaders dedicate this time to talk, they create an increasingly strong connection and the results of the climate survey we conducted demonstrate this. From the management point of view, transparency contributes to make the work environment more positive, especially in this external context that is not calm", states Régia Barbosa, Neoenergia's Superintendent of Organizational Development and Culture.​

 

 

 

One of the initiatives is the Direct with the President (Direto com Presidente, in Portuguese), a monthly meeting with Mario Ruiz-Tagle, in which the CEO shares information and business status and answers employees' questions on any topic. There is also the Express Chat (Papo Expresso, in Portuguese), an event with the group's executive officers. Last Thursday (24), Neoenergia employees were also able to participate in a live with Ignacio Galán, president of Iberdrola group, controlling shareholder of the company.

Several other actions are held regularly. One example was the initiative promoted by the People's Committee to recognize the work of the field employees since the beginning of the pandemic. Some employees received, in a surprising way, calls from the CEO´s of Celpe, Saulo Cabral, and from Cosern, Luiz Antônio Ciarlini, thanking the effort and dedication to bring energy safely to the population in recent months.

 

 

 

Neoenergia has in people its main value and seeks to offer a good working environment, with the best practices in human resources. The company constantly invests in training and development of its employees. In a global action, it offers international job opportunities in all localities of the Iberdrola Group. As a way to stimulate professionals, internal recruitment for open positions in the country is a priority and had a 77% utilization rate in 2019. Last year there were 1,195 promotions within the company.

Since March, when the pandemic began, 4,000 employees have started to work in home office. The others remained on the streets, following all the safety protocols, to guarantee the energy supply, an essential service for the population. The plan to gradually resume activities in the offices was initiated in September, in phases established according to the numbers of the new coronavirus in each location and according to the recommendations of health agencies.

This initiative is part of the Iberdrola group answer to Coronav​irus​.