COVID-19: Snam’s initiatives

Snam has been active since the beginning of the COVID-19 emergency to protect the health of its people, which is the top priority for the Company, as well as to ensure the continuity of the essential energy security service it provides to Italy. New initiatives have also been launched in favor of the communities most affected by the virus.

Please find below an outline of the activities.

Management of the emergency

• On February 21^st, 2020, after the news of the first infections in Italy, an inter-functional team was set-up, composed of around 20 people working 24 hours a day with the aim of tracking the emergency’s developments and guarantee safety and business continuity as well as to liaise with Snam stakeholders. The team is in constant contact with the Civil Protection Department, the authorities and other major companies in the Country.

Protection and safety of people and infrastructure

• As early as February 24^th, Snam had already enacted smart-working as a precautionary measure in the areas most exposed to the virus, limiting the risks of direct contact within its offices. The company had been successfully relying on the use of smart-working for over two years.
• In the first week of the disposition, around 1,700 people were operating through smart-working modalities in Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Friuli Venezia-Giulia and Liguria, out of a total of approximately 3,000 employees in Italy. Starting from March 9^th, the work from home modality was extended to all Italian regions, with the exception of activities essential to guarantee the continuation of operations. To date, about 2,300 colleagues are currently operating in smart-working.
• From the start of the emergency, Snam has ensured the security of the control rooms, plants and local offices through adequate precautionary measures and remote management systems, to guarantee normal operations and energy security to the Country. Physical presence has been reduced to minimum and where required, with adequate protections. As far as construction sites are concerned, the non-deferrable works have been identified and all appropriate precautionary measures have been taken.
• The dispatching center of San Donato Milanese, which represents the heart of Snam’s infrastructure, continues its normal activity thanks to the work of colleagues who operate under measures of maximum safety, and who can benefit of isolated and protected accommodation, built by the Company in just three days, providing workstations for their 14-day shifts.
• All business trips, national and international, have been suspended.
• In order to protect the health and safety of all its employees, Snam has distributed to all of the company’s people, more than 3,200 pulse oximeters, monitoring and prevention tools to measure the saturation or percentage of oxygen present in the blood and the heart-rate, and has provided the assistance of medical personnel in cases of need.
• Snam has also made available, free of charge to all employees and on a voluntary basis, the possibility of being undertaking preventive serological screening, with subsequent access to the swab test in case of the need to determine positivity to the virus. There is also the possibility of undertaking home tests for colleagues who are subject to conditions of fragility or hyper-susceptibility, as predisposed by the health protocol. The initiative, in compliance with the provisions of individual regions, has also been extended to employees’ relatives, making available to colleagues a discounted access to serological screening for their family members.

Welfare, engagement and training

• A health insurance policy has been activated for all employees, covering the risks of contagion.
• All employees were given an additional flexibility option through the use of holidays alternated with smart-working, to ensure a better work-life balance.
• Snam constantly communicates with all its people through daily emails and updates published on the intranet; a dedicated e-mail account was created to answer employees’ questions and doubts and to provide support for any type of request, and a “virtual wall” was launched on the Company’s intranet to collect the thoughts and reflections of all Snam’s people.
• Ad-hoc training activities were launched through online coaching sessions and the training catalogue was reviewed to offer distance-learning programs and courses. 

Technology

• The company was already prepared for the smart-working dispositions, also from the technological perspective. The IT equipment supplied to employees has been further enhanced. A tethering service has also been set up to guarantee the PC’s connection also through the company mobile phone. Skype is being used for meetings, with a peak of over 1,800 colleagues connected simultaneously. In the first week of smart-working alone, 260,000 Skypecall hours were carried out.

Community

• Snam, also through its Fondazione Snam, has decided to allocate €20 million in favour of initiatives advanced by the Italian Health System and the third sector to face the COVID-19 emergency.
• Snam’s employees were also given the opportunity to contribute through voluntary donations, of the value equivalent to one or more hours of their paycheck, to support fundraising in favor of the people who are at the frontlines in the fight against the emergency.

#Snamnonsiferma, let's improve together

Series of webinars and group coaching sessions that involved over 350 colleagues in the months of April-May 2020 with the aim of:

• Get the right mindset to embrace new smart ways of working,
• Provide practical tools for managing the dynamics of smartworking with a view to work-life balance, effective remote meeting management and remote team management,
• Become more resilient and productive,
• Raise individual and collective accountability and empowerment and maintain a strong alignment on team priorities.