People

EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AND EXPERIENCE

Attracting and hiring the best talent to become a reference employer in the markets in which the company is present is one of the strategic priorities in terms of people management that allows Ferrovial to be prepared for the future.

In 2017, an Employee Experience Survey was sent to 8,652 employees from Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, the United States and Canada, to find out their preferences and analyze which elements are most important for employees. Traditional elements such as remuneration (salary and benefits) and other elements related to work experience were evaluated (corporate culture, flexibility, working conditions and training). The three most valued aspects were the brand and reputation (86%); soundness and solvency (74%); and Corporate Responsibility, together with safety at work (69%).

In relation to the remuneration policies, an essential part of employee commitment, established according to criteria based on competitiveness in the reference markets, the following programs are included:

• The Variable Remuneration System, which covers 18% of the staff, 17,184 employees, based on targets.
• The company’s Flexible Remuneration Plan allows employees to amend their remuneration packages on a voluntary basis and according to their personal needs, replacing part of their remuneration for specific products in order to optimize available cash flows.
• The Share-Based Remuneration Plans, through which 1,954 employees opted for payment of part of the remuneration in company shares.
• The Long-Term Variable Remuneration System, based on signing over shares to 339 executives and managers in the company.

TALENT

The talent management at Ferrovial aims to help each employee to reach their maximum potential while promoting the best professional opportunities.

Training development is undergoing a huge change due to, among other factors, the digital transformation in all areas of the business. The joint action between talent, innovation and technology are an opportunity to search for competitive advantages and positioning as a company recognized for its innovation and constant improvement. For this reason, different initiatives have been launched with the aim of providing tools for professionals to be able to work in a streamlined and efficient manner in a digital world:

• Play the Future Project: includes six training itineraries linked to new technologies (Big Data, IoT and drones) available to all employees with the aim of increasing their current capabilities, as well as their future employability.
• Awareness Sessions Cycle: these are conferences focused on emerging technologies and innovation methodologies to learn about the existing business models and the opportunities they can offer to Ferrovial’s different business units.
• Executive Forums: similar to the Awareness Session, they are completed with teamwork to describe the critical capabilities that must be reinforced or created to position the company as a key player in that activity.

In this sense, the Corporate University, which in 2017 has celebrated its tenth anniversary, has evolved adopting a more international approach with the organization of itinerant programs in the United Kingdom, North America and Latin America, although its mission remains unchanged as a place to learn and reflect, share and create, gathering the knowledge, values and common culture of Ferrovial.

The professional development model is based on the following programs:

• Evaluation and Development Process, through which 29,973 people have passed, 100% target group. In 2017, under the slogan “Conversations for development” we worked on making
•  conversations more flexible, focused on the future, with better user experience and with new tools such as a chatbot (Qo). This is a robot trained to advise on the best way to develop
  skills following the 70/20/10 model that has been recommended to 713 users by more than 1,000 learning resources. In 2017, 84% of the employees indicated that they had a quality conversation with their manager and their general level of satisfaction was 3.54 out of 5.
• Reviewing critical talent programs, improving the process to ensure that vacancies are covered by the best candidate available within the organization and promoting the targeted mobility of key professionals. This process also identifies professionals who may have a faster development, in order to make it compatible with the business growth needs. The revision of the Succession Plans has identified 363 possible candidates (short, medium and long-term) for the 144 most critical positions identified in Ferrovial.

INCLUSIVE CULTURE

Ferrovial, with more than 110 nationalities in its workforce, shows a firm commitment to effective equality of opportunities. This is reflected in its Strategic Diversity Plan, which focuses on three areas: gender, generational and multicultural.

In terms of gender equality, mechanisms have been established to bring out female talent inside and outside the organization. The specific training programs for women managers

promoted in the United Kingdom and Australia are noteworthy. In Spain, since 2014, the adoption of measures to increase the presence of women in management positions and steering committees has been actively promoted through the Voluntary Collaboration Agreement with the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and Equality. Also in Spain, the Business Equality Badge was renewed in 2017.

It should be noted that 15 Ferrovial engineers were finalists in the 2017 European Women in Construction and Engineering Awards, with two of them winning.