Career structure and conditions of employment

The staff of the Bank are assigned to the managerial and operational career streams.

Employees in the managerial career stream - divided into the professional categories of Principal Director, Director, Advisor and Expert - perform managerial duties and coordinate units at various levels, and are responsible for guidance, coordination and control of activities and operational processes; they are consultants to the Governing Board; and they organize and manage the Bank's human, financial, logistic and technological resources.

The operational career stream is divided into two levels: 'Supervisory', which comprises Coadjutors, Principal Coadjutors, Section Chiefs and Workshop Managers and 'Operational', which comprises all remaining employees.

The tasks assigned to the Operational Area are differentiated according to the professional sector to which employees belong, for example:

• employees in the administrative and technical streams manage the administrative, accounting, IT, banking and technical tasks necessary for the smooth running of the Bank's operational units, according to the instructions of the unit Managers, and cooperate with their colleagues in the Managerial Area;
• employees in the technical-operational stream perform manual and production tasks in the production departments, according to their professional skillsets;
• employees in the administrative support stream perform monitoring and security-related tasks and those connected with the functioning of the Bank's units.

Regulations

The specific rules governing conditions of employment are set out in:

• Staff Regulations
• Regulations on Pension Entitlements.

These Regulations, adopted by the Board of Directors, implement the contents of agreements signed with the trade union organizations represented in the Bank.

The Staff Regulations set out the rules governing recruitment, obligations and prohibitions, working hours, leave of absence, personnel grading, appraisal and promotion, and salaries and benefits.

The Regulations on Pension Entitlements describe the supplementary pension scheme for employees hired since 1993 and the pension plan in which the remainder of personnel are enrolled. The former can join the supplementary staff pension scheme for Bank of Italy employees, run by the Bank itself, which pays out pensions based on each employee's total contributions.

Working hours, distance and part-time work

The management of working hours at the Bank of Italy aims to find the right balance between greater employee satisfaction and a higher level of organizational efficiency. More flexibility in working hours helps to create management and micro-organizational models that are better suited to attaining corporate objectives and makes it easier for people to manage their work-life balance.

Working hours are distributed over a 37½-hour standard working week.

Employees can distribute their hours flexibly over the week in various ways (flexible starting time and lunch hour) as long as this is compatible with their work commitments. However, the minimum daily hours are usually at least 6 ½ hours.

Flexibility is also achieved through specific schedules providing various options for distributing hours over a week or a particular time period, such as longer working days to create a four-day week, a schedule chosen by individual employees and spread over five days or a multi-period schedule in which the working week can vary from a minimum of 21 to a maximum of 48 hours.

Normal working hours are as follows:

• 7.30 - 18.45 at the Head Office, regional branches and those offering a full range of services
• 7.30 - 17.45 for branches specialized in cash handling.

All members of staff may use the Time Bank: hours in excess of the weekly total can be 'deposited' to be used as permits for hours and/or days off.

Staff may also work from outside the office (except for one day a week), using equipment and phone/internet connections supplied by the Bank (teleworking). In the absence of equipment and connections supplied by the Bank, employees can also work from outside the office for up to one day a week, which can be divided into two half days (remote working).

Employees can work a portion of the day on 5 working days each week (horizontal part-time) or for 3 or 4 days each week (vertical part-time). They can choose the duration of the part-time arrangement (from 1 to 36 months) and between the various options in terms of hours worked (from a minimum of 21 hours to a maximum of 32½ hours a week) as part of the horizontal or vertical part-time options.

After the age of 62, staff can choose to work part-time without it affecting their pension. The Time Bank is also useful as retirement approaches, since the hours worked above the weekly minimum and additional holiday entitlements are stored there and can be used for various purposes.

Career development

On 1 July 2016 a new system of grading personnel came into force along with the related personnel management mechanisms, which rewards merit and expertise and aims to increase the motivation and involvement of individual employees in their professional choices.

The reform takes account of the recent changes in the organization of work, now characterized by tasks with a higher level of professionalism, and on the basis of appraisals and merit-based criteria for professional skills in order to enhance the Bank's human capital.

The effects of the reform on the workforce differ: they are more radical and innovative for employees in the managerial career stream and more conservative than in the previous setup for employees in the operational career stream.

The incentive system adopted by the Bank is based on promotions and increases in pay grade within a professional area; the Operational Area has retained the system of making promotions from one grade to the next.

The incentive system for the Managerial Area is based on a decentralized model, in which managers are given greater responsibilities within predefined budgets. Financial incentives are based on individual performance, in terms of personal skillsets and the results achieved.

In order to guarantee objective managerial choices, at certain crucial career points (transfer to another Area or within the existing one), individual merit is not assessed by one person, but by a board made up of different people from those making the annual appraisals. These boards verify that individuals have the technical and professional requirements or assess candidates' professional profiles, and judge their suitability to move within their area or to progress to the next grade.