TAURON Group’s Human Capital Management Policy

Due to numerous changes in the environment, both internal as well as external, in 2020 TAURON Group’s Human Capital Management Policy was updated. The document focuses on acquiring, developing and maintaining competencies that are key to organizational efficiency and achieving the Group’s strategic goals in a specific reality.

The goal of the regulations contained in this policy is the broadly understood support of employees and managers in creating an environment conducive to dialogue, introducing changes and striving for the development of the organization. Among the priorities set by the Policy, there are also issues such as creating an organizational culture based on cooperation and partnership, supporting bottom-up initiatives, independence and development of the personnel.

The policy defines the mission and vision of TAURON Group’s human capital management.

The document also sets out strategic areas of activities related to employee issues. They include:

• organization development,
• efficiency management,
• competences and development management.

In each area, specific goals were set and activities aimed at achieving them were identified. Their comprehensive description is presented below.

Human capital management structure

The key data with respect to the area of human resource management, including the number of employees by gender, age and type of labor contract, as well as the percentage of employees covered by the collective bargaining agreements are presented in the tables below.

DUE DILIGENCE PROCEDURES AND INTERNAL REGULATIONS

The documents supporting the implementation of the goals of TAURON Capital Group’s Human Capital Management Policy include:

• TAURON Group’s compensation principles;
• Policy of Recruitment, Selection and Adaptation of Employees of TAURON Group’s Subsidiaries
• Regulations for improving the qualifications of the employees, in place at TAURON Group’s individual subsidiaries;
• TAURON Group’s competency model;
• TAURON Group’s regulations of the Internal Trainers Academy;
• Regulations of the Investment Project Management Academy Program – TAURON Group’s PM Academy;
• TAURON Group’s Principles of Cooperation with Schools and Universities as well as Internships and Apprenticeships Program;
• Regulations of the “Join” Program – TAURON’s internship PROgram;
• Regulations of TAURON Group’s Ambassador Program.

ACTIONS TAKEN AND RESULTS ACHIEVED

Initiatives undertaken with respect to the human resources management at TAURON Group focus on the continuous improvement of the processes in order to adapt them to the changing business environment. A permanent element of the above changes is developing and strengthening such attitudes among employees that are in line with the values of TAURON Group. This basic premise allows for building an organizational culture that enables the employees to take on and implement new challenges, search for innovation, increase efficiency as part of their daily tasks and increase the level of job satisfaction.

In 2020, TAURON Group faced the challenge of quickly identifying potential problems, to which it had to respond equally quickly. Remote work using online tools, virtual meetings and teleconferences has become a necessity today, and not, as before, a choice that was given to employees. All this entailed not only the need to redefine the ways of functioning in the new reality, but above all to define the crisis management system, which is aimed at taking appropriate steps to limit or minimize the negative effects of the epidemic.

One of the due diligence procedures implemented as part of the Human Capital Management Policy is the ongoing monitoring of the metrics related to the human resources management area at all of TAURON Group’s subsidiaries.

Particular emphasis was placed on constructive and open dialogue with the workforce. TAURON Group’s subsidiaries held 334 meetings of the employers with the trade union organizations in 2020. In total, the trade union organizations had about 18.1 thousand members among TAURON Group’s employees (i.e. 71% of the total number of employees) at the end of 2020.

During regular meetings and consultations, the representatives of the workforce are informed about issues related to:

• TAURON Group’s economic and financial situation,
• implementation of the strategic initiatives,
• Voluntary Redundancy Programs implemented at TAURON Group’s Subsidiaries,
• issues related to employee matters at the Group.

In addition, steps are taken to raise business awareness and promote pro-efficiency and engaging attitudes.

Employee satisfaction surveys

The due diligence procedures also include employee satisfaction surveys conducted every two years. In the second edition of the survey, conducted at the Group’s key subsidiaries in April 2019, each of more than 26 000 employees had an opportunity to express his/her opinion on how they assess the individual aspects of work at the subsidiary and at TAURON Group, answering 39 questions in an anonymous survey.

In 2020, the activities of the Capital Group focused on the implementation of initiatives stemming from the analysis of the research results. They include:

• periodic meetings summarizing the implementation of current tasks and future tasks carried out by the Team/Area;
• training in the development of soft skills, with particular emphasis on the area of efficient communication and coping with stress;
• verification of the procedures functioning in the Area in terms of supporting efficient implementation of tasks;
• communication of the Group/Company strategy along with its translation into individual areas of the Company.

Moreover, in 2019, as a result of updating the strategic directions of TAURON Capital Group and introducing the Green Turn of TAURON program, the challenges and objectives of the human resource management area were verified. At that time, priority areas were designated for the development of the Capital Group’s organization and human capital:

• recruitment and onboarding,
• training, age and knowledge management,
• development conversation,
• potential management,
• cooperation with the education sector,
• outplacement and employer branding.

As the next step the tasks were assigned to these priorities, aimed at improving the most important processes and strengthen the organization’s ability to create and respond quickly to the business changes by ensuring the optimal number and quality of the competences. The direction to the activities planned for 2020-2023 was also given.

Highest Quality HR Certificate for TAURON Polska Energia

In 2020, TAURON Polska Energia participated in the study organized by the Polish Association of Human Resources Management entitled Top Quality HR. As part of the study, the Association verified and gave the highest marks to the individual areas of human capital management, among others: motivation and compensation systems, employee development, recruitment and competence management, employee communication and building the employer’s brand. The Group’s new initiative – Development Squared (Rozwój do Kwadratu), under which more than 960 employees took part in various types of webinars, was particularly appreciated. The positive result of the study led to obtaining the Highest Quality HR Certificate.

Development and training

Current market trends and technological development, changes taking place both globally as well as locally, a competitive market and increasing requirements force much faster pace and flexibility in terms of development activities. Employee development and improvement is permanently inscribed in TAURON Group’s strategy, and the implementation of the development activities takes place on the basis of the Regulations for improving the qualifications of the employees, in place at the Group’s individual subsidiaries.

All the development activities at TAURON Capital Group are implemented according to the 70-20-10 principle (effective learning principle), according to which:

70% of the development activities should be related to gaining experience in the position, among others by delegating new or additional tasks and empowerments to the employee, broadening the scope of his/her responsibility, participation in the task or project teams,

20% of the development activities are based on learning from others, including the ongoing support and regular feedback from your direct superior and colleagues,

10% of the development activities involve participation in various forms of educational and training activities (internal and external).

TAURON Capital Group’s employees can choose from a wide range of internal training and external development opportunities, among others, in the form of participation in industry conferences, seminars, workshops, specialist training, e-learning training or language courses.

GRI 404-1 – The number of training hours per employee at TAURON Capital Group in 2020

Development Conversation

One of the more important projects carried out as part of TAURON Group’s human capital management is the Development Conversation process. Based on the Group’s Competence Model in place, the initiative assumes the need for the continuous development of the employees’ competences in line with the changing business challenges. Development Conversations carried out in 2020 at the Group’s selected subsidiaries demonstrated a number of benefits that open communication and individual approach to the employees’ needs, in combination with the directions of the organization’s development, bring.

Purchasing Studies

In 2020, the successive, third edition of the postgraduate studies, organized in cooperation with the Jagiellonian University, entitled Purchasing management in business, was continued. The main assumption of the program is to improve the purchasing, negotiating and commercial (trading) qualifications of the Purchasing Area staff. Participation in the dedicated studies is an offering addressed to the outstanding employees of TAURON Group. 32 participants took part in the completed edition.

TAURON Group Open University

TAURON Group’s employees have continuously had the opportunity to participate in lectures conducted as part of the TAURON Group Open University since 2014. The initiative constitutes a platform enabling an exchange of views and experiences, it also gives the opportunity to gain knowledge and additional competences.

Due to the epidemic situation the initiative was moved online in 2020. 5 lectures were carried out online, attended by almost 7 thousand employees.

Internal Trainers (Coaches) Academy

The goal of the initiative is to provide support for the development of employees using the internal resources. An Internal Trainer is an employee of TAURON Capital Group who willingly shares expert knowledge with others, and at the same time develops his/her coaching potential. TAURON supports activities aimed at facilitating appropriate selection and didactic (pedagogical) preparation of the internal trainers to conduct training courses. The trainer is personally involved in the study of the training needs, designs the training and supports the process of implementing the new competences in the organization. 86 internal trainers completed a total of 84 training sessions for more than 1 100 of TAURON Group’s employees in 2020.

ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN IN RESPONSE TO THE EPIDEMIC SITUATION
 

Development Squared

A new initiative, launched in June 2020, is Development Squared – a series of weekly webinars conducted in four thematic areas: development, knowledge sharing, cooperation, health. The project was developed as a response to the difficult situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic that made it impossible to conduct training in a classic form. Thanks to Skype and Office 365 technology, fully interactive meetings are possible, that make participants more active. The project’s participants include all of TAURON Group’s employees with access to the intranet (approximately 17 000 persons).

24 webinars were held in 2020, on 14 different topics, conducted by 10 trainers. More than 950 of TAURON Group’s employees took part in the initiative.

E-learning

In addition to the training courses carried out using the traditional method, TAURON Capital Group provides its employees with continuous access to training on the e-learning platform, which is particularly important during the pandemic and the restrictions related thereto, The undisputed advantages of this form of education include the flexibility of its implementation and the ability to adjust it to the individual pace of knowledge absorption of the given employee. The e-learning training formula also significantly reduces the costs of the training courses, while at the same allowing them to be attended by a larger number of employees. On a daily basis, TAURON Group’s employees have constant, unlimited access to training available on the special e-learning platform. It includes both training courses on the group-wide regulations, specialist training courses on IT systems, as well as training courses developing leadership and interpersonal competences.

In 2020, TAURON Group’s employees, thanks to the e-learning training courses, got to know, inter alia, the latest rules related to cybersecurity, details of the anti-money laundering and terrorist financing prevention procedures. In total, nearly 16 000 employees participated in 41 000 e-learning training courses in 2020.

Manager’s zone and “#wzMOCnij się” (power up yourself)

A space dedicated to managers was created on the TAURON Group intranet in 2020. The managerial staff can constantly read specialist articles on the subject of broadly understood management. Tools to support team management, interesting on-line events (Mediateka) and recommended books are available.

As part of the zone, a special initiative “#wzMOCnij się” (power up yourself) was launched and webinars on change management, an on-line training platform and tools to support the development conversation process were made available.

Articles were published on issues particularly important for team management while working remotely or in a hybrid mode, for example:

• Remote reality – how to overcome the distance – how to break the barrier of distance in a team that works online,
• How to keep employees engaged in a remote work situation,
• VUCA – how to cope in the changing reality,
• Manager=Mentor,
• Return to the office – practical advice related to the gradual return of employees to the office after a period of long-term remote work,
• Appreciation as a tool for motivating employees.

Support for the employees

TAURON Group’s employees were able to use a dedicated telephone support line and talk to an external advisor in 2020. What’s more, the Group’s selected subsidiaries held training sessions with respect to mental resistance, among others, entitled “Effective action in a stressful time of a pandemic”, “Stress, how to deal with it”, which were developed to identify the psychological mechanisms responsible for the emergence and persistence of negative consequences of stress and the techniques to deal with them.

Quick Tips

Communication and constant contact with the employee became extremely important during the pandemic. The entire Capital Group undertook preventive and informational activities aimed at raising awareness and understanding of the current regulations and the applicable rules of counteracting COVID – 19. Quick tips are a series of weekly short cards on the homepage of TAURON Group’s intranet – Tauronet for employees of the entire Capital Group. In 2020, 32 cards were posted in 2020. The advice pieces included those concerning: micro breaks during work or building relationships when working remotely. Information campaigns were also carried out at individual companies, such as “Safe at work – remember about the new habits”, “Quarantine or isolation”, “Take care of yourself and others”, “Support children during the pandemic”.

Two hours for the Family

Also, this year, TAURON Group organized the Family Week for its workforce. Due to the pandemic, it was run under the slogan “Rodzinna MegaMoc. Trzymajmy się razem!” (“Family MegaPower. Let us stick together!” All events were held virtually and were primarily aimed at providing support for TAURON employees during the difficult lockdown period.

Almost 15,000 employees with access to the intranet, were able to actively participate in all the events.

This way company was reducing the feeling of isolation and alienation, and emphasizing the importance of staying at home so that others would be safe and healthy. As part of the campaign, among others, competitions, on-line workshops on recording, directing and editing videos, and an on-line lecture on strengthening immunity were held.

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