Performance ESG

INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY

Francesca Messere | TG Poste

INTERVIEW

Francesco Russo | Purchasing Manager

Francesca Messere (FM)

Welcome, Francesco Russo. What are the guiding principles behind the purchasing processes of the Poste Italiane group?

Francesco Russo (FR)

Poste Italiane, as we know, is one of the largest contracting authorities in the country. And if we wanted to summarise our guiding principles, I would say that we are based on five pillars: The first is openness. We do everything to ensure the widest possible participation of the widest possible number of companies, of suppliers, of new suppliers, guaranteeing transparency, equal treatment, equal access to our tendering procedures.

This is a key guiding principle for us because it allows us to ensure maximum supplier rotation, enabling all small, medium and large companies to participate in the big world of Poste Italiane procurement. The second guiding principle, perhaps we will go into it in more detail later, is purchasing sustainability. We make a significant contribution to achieving the objectives and targets that the Poste Group has set for itself in the area of sustainability, which, as we know, are very challenging - our goal is to be carbon neutral by 2030.

The third key to our activities is innovation. We are always looking for the most innovative products, for new solutions, for what the market in Italy and Europe and the rest of the world has to offer, because we are a leading company in everything we do, in all the markets in which we are active, and so it is natural that to be a leader you need the most innovative purchasing solutions.

So we have a constant scouting and research activity, we study the markets, which allows us in each business segment and for each product area to be always up-to-date on what is best in the world.

The fourth is legality and this is really a pillar of Poste Italiane’s action in all our spheres of activity.

We pay special attention to purchasing. We ask all our suppliers, our partners, even our subcontractors, to formally adhere to our code of ethics, our rules, our procedures, which guarantee the highest standards of legality. And the last pillar, but by no means less important, especially given the world we live in, is digitisation. We have a purchasing process that is today entirely dematerialised. As the whole company knows, the process goes through our computers and not through our desks.

Even in this area we are pioneers, we are a best practice in the country because we are experimenting with highly innovative solutions also in terms of digitisation and particularly advanced procurement tools.

We are studying, we are testing what generative AI can offer the world, the world of procurement. There is a big debate going on. Poste Italiane is also at the leading edge on this because we want to be among the first to experiment with these new solutions. We are indeed, as I said at the beginning, a large contracting authority. We need all that. In order to manage our thousands of suppliers in the most effective, efficient, transparent and open manner.

FM: You were talking about sustainability earlier, so you’re talking about sustainability in the Poste Group’s procurement process.

FR: And this is an issue that’s close to our hearts, it’s not a frill, it’s not an add-on. Sustainability is at the heart of our purchasing activities. We come from years in which the weight of ESG criteria within our competitions has grown to be extremely important. Basically, we developed together with our suppliers. Because it’s clear that it is a constant dialogue with suppliers in which we push them to do better and better. We accompany them in this process, in this path of growth that they must take if they want to continue to be our suppliers. We have developed a set of ESG criteria for each of the three areas: environmental sustainability, social sustainability and sustainability of governance. In order for our tenders to be our supplies, and therefore particularly sustainable, we have achieved important goals. I’ll mention just two points: the first is that within our technical bids, when our suppliers respond to our tenders, the ESG component carries a certain weight. Sustainability criteria carry a weight of about 30% of our total criteria. This is a very high number that to our knowledge is unmatched by other large contracting authorities. We are very committed to maintaining and constantly monitoring this number so that may increase. The other data point is that our suppliers are following us on this path of growth and development of the purchasing sustainability. The interesting point is that all types of suppliers are doing so, not only the larger ones. It’s therefore easier to imagine that they are able to respond to our requests, but also the small and medium-sized companies, since Poste has a very important role in the development of the entrepreneurial fabric of small and medium-sized Italian companies.

This is very significant and encouraging because it means that we are the driving force for the industrial sector of small and medium-sized Italian companies; this gives us great enthusiasm for the future because it means that everyone can follow our lead.

FM: Mr Russo, how is the governance of the Poste Italiane group companies ensured with regard to procurement?

FR: Poste Italiane is a very large and very articulated group, there are many companies in the group, and we have for years started a process of strengthening and consolidating the functions of governance and control through centralisation that essentially oversees the purchasing function of Poste Italiane, the parent company, which in some way coordinates and ensures homogeneity in the purchasing activities of all the companies in the group. This is a major point because, by guaranteeing this coordination, we can obtain some key results, better planning of purchases and therefore better negotiating conditions, increasing our negotiating power with suppliers, increasing economies of scale and scope. We do this essentially through two main mechanisms: one is to ask all the group companies to formally adhere to our purchasing regulations and our purchasing procedures. All the organisations in the Poste Italiane ecosystem buy in the same way, following the same rules, in some cases we carry out the purchasing activities directly for the group companies. This guarantees a consistency and harmony in the world of purchasing which, given the very significant numbers and quantities that Poste Italiane buys, is a major aspect of our operation.

FM: Thank you.

FR: Thank you.

VALUING PEOPLE

Francesca Messere | TG Poste

INTERVIEW

Tiziana Morandi | Head of Human Resources and Organisation

Francesca Messere (FM):

Welcome, Tiziana Morandi. Poste Italiane is the largest employer in Italy. How do you value people in a company as big as ours?

Tiziana Morandi (TM)

So valuing people in such a large company is a colossal task because we have so many people with very different characteristics coming from very different sectors. As a professional family, we have tools in place for valuing people, such as performance reviews that we go through each year with all our employees, as well as training sessions aimed at creating environments that are more inclusive and more responsive to people’s needs.

I believe, however, that the task of valuing people starts with each of us individually. I believe that the professional family and the Human Resources team are not enough. Every team manager must look after the people entrusted to them and must try to get the best out of them. The annual performance appraisal system is a very good tool, especially for my professional family, because it gives an overall view of the health of our company.

It’s great to see that our people have scored highly, that they are motivated, that they want to do many things. This year we have actually included a self-assessment process to obtain a more responsive view of the needs of individuals. Combining the manager’s evaluation with self-assessment provides us with a more integrated view of what is going on.

However, I believe that the evaluation system does not help people if managers don’t take it upon themselves to give people feedback. I believe that feedback is the most important part in the evaluation process, because each of us receives an indication of what we can improve on, what strengths we can develop. I believe that, to do our job well, it is important for each of us to be willing to listen to the feedback, and the manager must also be willing to listen to the employee and provide them with all the resources they need to improve.

FM: So also listening to the needs of the business.

TM: First of all we must listen to the needs of the business, we are a complex organisation, we’ve decided to put the customer at the centre of our strategy. This means giving the customer the possibility to choose how to contact us, how to receive a service from Poste Italiane. If we do not listen to the needs of the business, it is virtually impossible to provide the tools that the company needs. Our Corporate University, which is organised as an Academy, works precisely to understand the needs of the business. So for our first activity every year, we request from the business what is needed and what we need to work on in a more integrated way. Once we have acquired the business needs, we deliver the relevant training. In the past, purely technical training was sufficient. It was a bit easier, right? Nowadays technical training alone is not enough. Last year, the European Economic Community established the Year of Skills, and we launched our transversal skills plans.

It is increasingly important to ensure our people have both the technical skills as well as role expertise. The hyper-specialised technician no longer exists, or rather they still exist, but to do their job well they must also have other skills. The family has human resources, it’s probably the furthest away from ICT, but if I didn’t have data analysts in my team, I probably wouldn’t be able to offer an adequate service to the company.

Each of us needs to possess the basic skills of our industry, even the specialised skills, and we also need to know how to use them, because otherwise we cannot find the best people to do the work we must do every day in the interests of our customers.

FM: There’s a lot of talk about talent, it’s become a buzzword. What does Poste Italiane mean by talent?

It makes me smile because the word, which has become fashionable, actually has very old roots. Talent comes from the Greek, and means weight. In fact, in ancient Greece it was a unit of measurement, the weight that was used to exchange goods then became a currency, and so talent itself was actually money. What does this mean? Talent has its roots in the past, but it has always meant value, something precious, something with a profound meaning. Now talent is being utilised even more extensively, I think.

In our professional family, in our company. In our company talent is something that can really make a difference. How do we detect it? We identify talent through action, as I said before. It’s important for each manager to provide us with the information. We reach our 120,000 employees from a single point in the company, and then the performance reviews help us identify the people who are most willing to apply themselves, with the most potential, the best performance.

By virtue of this we go and build pathways: we’ve been working for several years now on the Blooming Programme, which wants to develop talent and is often not a pathway that is born and grows within a specific division; to create something of great value, it must be transversal.

These are professional families that are put in one specific group and which we work on with experiential training. Rather than technical training, we do technical problem-solving. We use the shadowing technique, i.e. shadowing a colleague doing another job, or the manager observing behaviour. We use coaching and tutoring, because that’s the way to identify the person. More and more. People with talent are not just technicians: they are people with transversal skills and who are also generous towards others. The best people aren’t afraid to share what they know, they’re not afraid to make their knowledge available to others. That’s how Poste Italiane understands talent, a trained, diligent employee who will certainly do well in the job, and to which we would leave all the most important positions in the company, but who is also generous and willing to make themselves available to what the company has to offer them over the years.

FM: Thank you, Ms Morandi.

TM: Thanks for having me.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Francesca Messere | TG Poste

INTERVIEW

Tania Giallatini | Head of Human Resources and Organisation – Executive Management and Recruitment

Francesca Messere (FM):

Welcome, Tania Giallatini – diversity inclusion is a path of change that impacts people and corporate culture. Where did you start from, and where are you now?

Tania Giallatini (TG)

Poste Italiane has made, and continues to make, sustainability a strategic success factor.

Let me back up a bit: in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was born, in 1862 the Regie Poste [Royal Post Office] was born at a time when, in fact, Italy did not yet exist. There were the Palermitans, the Romans, the Neapolitans, the Turinese. All strangers to each other and foreigners with different languages. In this context, Francesca, we like to think that Poste Italiane, with its people, with its postal officers, with its offices, has helped Italy to communicate, to become a true national community, according to an ante litteram approach of inclusion.

Our mission is to grow responsibly through the decisive contribution of our people to the sustainable success, innovation, digitalisation and social cohesion of the country. Indeed, we are aware that the success of the Poste Italiane group is measured not only by the group’s economic and financial performance, but by how responsibly we act towards the country, how our people operate within the organisation, and the degree of trust our people have in the company.

This is why we are the bearers of a culture based on inclusion and the value of diversity. Poste Italiane, in fact, has always operated impartially and does not allow any form of direct or indirect discrimination. In line with these principles, in December 2020 our board of directors approved the policy on diversity inclusion, which defined the guidelines for action but also established that the objective within the Poste Italiane group is to create a working environment that is as collaborative, supportive and open to everyone’s contribution.

The strands that have been identified reflect the characteristics of our group and are gender, generation, interculturality and vulnerability, and over time we have implemented numerous projects and initiatives consistent with the four strands of diversity inclusion.

To mention just a few: on the subject of gender, in 2022 Poste Italiane achieved equal pay certification in the organisation between women and men.

In 2023, we were awarded the Uni Pdr 2022 certification, confirming that Poste Italiane adopts a working environment based on gender equality. I would also like to point out the numerous initiatives that Poste Italiane puts in place to support parenthood and the professional growth of women. On the subject of generations, mentoring and reverse mentoring projects are now part of our routine, aimed at introducing different generations, but also at fostering comparison and synergy. On the subject of vulnerability, we are very proud of some psychological support projects that are dedicated to colleagues with serious illnesses.

Just as we are proud of the tools we have put in place to make internal communication tools available to all our people, regardless of disability.

On the subject of interculturality, we all certainly remember the multilingual post offices, the post offices where we allow customers from different ethnic groups to talk to our counter operators, just as we are proud of a training programme that has covered the entire population of the company. When I say the entire population, I mean 120,000 employees.

Aimed at fostering understanding of cultural value and integration. All this to tell you that we have come a long way, we have put in place many projects, but only because Poste Italiane has been inclusive for over 160 years.

FM: Because these policies are not only important for the workers, but for the company as a whole. What do they favour? Competitiveness or group growth? In what way?

TG: Poste Italiane has worked hard in recent years to become a benchmark for diversity and inclusion. The reason is simple: Poste Italiane represents diversity, it’s our added value. Over the years we have put in place a number of projects and initiatives that have also been communicated to the market.

When I talk about the market, I am also talking about all stakeholders, not just investors who have recognised the value as commitments that the company has actually realised. The path that has been followed has seen the integration of diversity within the organisation. Today our primary objective is to remove barriers that prevent our people from being fully included at work, with the aim of creating a working environment where everyone is considered.

By respecting each person’s character and aspirations, we can find a way to individual professional fulfilment. In this process, I would like to point out that training and internal communication have played a significant role, as they have certainly bridged the knowledge and awareness gap towards these issues.

FM: What does gender equality mean at Poste Italiane, and what is the area you are focusing on?

TG: Thank you for your question. In this case gender equality has a history in Poste Italiane that goes back a long way as mentioned before: in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was born, in 1862 the Regie Poste was born. In 1863, women started working at Poste Italiane, first as telegraph operators and then over time they took on roles of increasing responsibility. One name among many: the famous writer Matilde Serao worked in Poste Italiane as a telegrapher in the central office in Naples.

Over the years, they have taken on roles of increasing responsibility, starting as early as the Great War period, when women began to head very important central offices. Today, the majority of the Poste Italiane group’s workforce is female, around 59% of our offices are managed by women, with figures over 70% in regions such as Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont.

Ensuring gender equality is an important element for us, but today we like to talk about gender equity, in line with the goal of creating a working environment in which all our people feel free to make their own contribution towards full professional fulfilment. With respect to the question of what we are focusing on: for us the answer is simple, we are focusing on talent. Talent is the common denominator of all the initiatives we put in place because the quality of work performance does not depend on gender, generation, age or sexual orientation. On this we do not want to make a difference. Poste wants to make a difference.

FM: Thank you.

TG: Thank you.

VALUE FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Francesca Messere | TG Poste

INTERVIEW

Paolo Gencarelli | Head of Real Estate

Francesca Messere (FM):

Welcome, Paolo Gencarelli. So let’s dive right in and talk about Polis and its impact on local communities.

Paolo Gencarelli (PG):

Yes, Polis is of crucial importance because it transforms our post offices into digital service centres and points of reference for local communities. We believe it can be a great enabler to help transform post offices into catalysts for economic and social development. In what way? In two different ways: firstly, the post office as a hub of public administration services, so through this project Poste strengthens its presence not only by not closing post offices, but also by adding value, content and new services. And secondly, coworking: with that, too, we use the post office network to help large and medium-sized centres, as well as the small ones, to provide flexible, digital and innovative workspaces.

FM: So what impact do you think this coworking initiative will have on local communities?

PG: It’s important because, as I said before, today it’s a service that works and is provided in large cities, where it’s functional, it’s convenient. The challenge is to start with the large cities, the medium-sized ones, and the smaller cities. A hundred of these coworking spaces will be in small towns to offer medium, small, very small companies and, above all, professionals flexible spaces, which means a day, a month, a year, a desk, a room, or even an entire building to those who are currently having difficulty launching their own company, finding their own space. We believe this can really help to slow down or even reverse the process of depopulation; many local communities see many people moving to larger centres to work, precisely because of the difficulty of finding low cost spaces or workplaces.

FM: Both projects are said to be oriented towards sustainability. Can you explain what this means?

PG: Yes, absolutely. The project, like the entire footprint of Poste Italiane, is strongly focused on sustainability. The key pillar in our case is obviously real estate, and therefore the green footprint. A few key figures: 1,000 new solar panels, we’ll have produced 40 gigawatt-hours from the sun by the end of 2026. What does that mean? More than 10% of what we consume as Poste Italiane, so a very important project and contribution, all without consuming land because we place the panels on our roofs.

All post offices will be governed by intelligence. The lights, the air conditioner are switched off and on depending on the temperature. And perhaps the most innovative thing are the charging stations: 5,000 stations installed in small towns. If we want to accelerate the transition to electric mobility, objectively the infrastructure is lacking, and it’s a bit of a chicken and egg, do I buy an electric car first, or the infrastructure? We’re introducing the infrastructure, i.e. the charging station, and we believe that this can be a game changer in these small towns in the adoption of electric mobility.

FM: Thank you, thank you very much.

GREEN TRANSITION

Francesca Messere | TG Poste

INTERVIEW

Gennaro Celotto | Head of Mail, Communication and Logistics - Engineering and Development Processes

Francesca Messere (FM)

Welcome, Gennaro Celotto. How much is the green transition changing the organisation and evolution of Poste Italiane’s logistics activities?

Gennaro Celotto (GC)

Good morning, very much, I must say. For some years now all our activities have had at their core the search for solutions to reduce our logistical carbon footprint. On the green transition, we have ambitious targets for this. We found ourselves at a crossroads, we considered creating the classic task force that would scan the entire logistics network in a structured manner to identify useful actions for green conversion and then dig them out in a top-down manner.

Or the opportunity to embed green goals within our work teams and our day-to-day activities, be they management and organisation of operations or forward thinking in terms of evolution.

We chose the second option because sustainability, especially in logistics, should be sought in all the activities that accompany our work, but above all it should be sought in involvement and behaviour. And there are many examples: just think of the large real estate that we use to do our work every day. We need renewable energy sources to drive our equipment, we need less energy-intensive lighting systems, but it’s equally true that a more conscious, more environmentally friendly use of consumption helps a lot, think of all the equipment, there’s so much of it in logistics. We are overrun with wooden pallets and cardboard boxes. Rethinking those handling systems from a sustainability perspective is crucial to contribute to the green transition.

Not to mention of course the fleets, the transport fleets, we have about 40,000 vehicles. That’s on the last mile alone, which every day cross the country, not counting the 1,000 lorries that cross Italy to transport mail packages from one end of the country to the other, not to mention our air fleet.

So the system is really broad, it obviously requires specific skills. Only by incorporating the culture of sensitivity and sustainability targets into our daily activities were we able to make a significant leap forward

FM: What are the main actions you have put in place and what do you have in store for the future?

GC: There are so many of them, we work on all fronts. I would say that the most important issue is definitely the involvement of the behaviour of all personnel, and we leverage our Lean methodology and culture to bring to every area of our logistics network that green sensitivity that then contributes to the achievement of our goals every day through the behaviour of our colleagues. And then we work on more structural projects: I start perhaps with the lesser known one and then obviously touch on the big issues concerning transport fleets.

Thanks to suggestions from colleagues in the field who experience logistics every day, trying to rethink handling equipment. We are reinventing them, we are replacing wooden pallets rather than cardboard boxes with equipment that is first of all reusable, but also made of recyclable materials.

We reconsidered the clothing of our operating personnel and in particular the personal protective equipment, ensuring that it was produced from environmentally friendly recyclable material and in particular the plastics contained within our personal protective equipment.

We have established a circular economy that allows us to recover plastics, recycle them and then put them back into the system to make flooring for sports and recreational use, a wonderful experience.

Obviously we have declared war on paper, there is a lot of it in our logistics operations and also thanks to the incredible support of technology and colleagues working in the world of technology we have somewhat rethought our processes from a digital perspective, fighting paper and even eliminating it from our processes.

This allowed us in 2023 to save 50 million sheets in comparison to previous years, I would say in comparison to 2021. What does that mean? It means that we have saved enough paper to cover the area of more than 400 football pitches. Then of course there are the fleets, the vehicles used every day for delivery operations, the ones you see on the road.

We have taken on a very important challenge: we have completely renewed our entire fleet of letter carriers, about 28,000 vehicles that are now all low-emission. In particular today we can boast a fully electric fleet of 6,000 vehicles that allows us to create real, true green clusters, so much so that some cities, Imperia, Viareggio, as well as many historical centres or many small municipalities, can enjoy a delivery service by letter carriers that is 100% emission-free. Of course, that’s not the end of the story. There are many other initiatives, perhaps shifted a little further down the road. Certainly this year we will start testing the use of vegetable fuels, which allow emissions to be reduced by at least eighty per cent compared to traditional fuels, and we plan to use them extensively throughout the network.

In 2025 we will continue our fleet electrification process. We are not stopping there, we have started the electrification process of all logistical nodes of our Corriere Network. This year we are already installing the first recharging points but soon we will reach 1,000, then in the somewhat nearer future, we’ll look closely at the evolution of electric trucks, those mammoth objects that we see on the highways. Especially in the late hours of the day. There are still many problems to overcome. There are problems with the high-power charging infrastructure. On motorways there are objective issues with the cost of the vehicle. There are problems with the performance of the vehicle, but it is a technology that is developing very fast and that we are watching closely. So much so that we plan for next year at least to do a test in this area.

And then, looking a little further afield, I have to mention drones and self-driving vehicles – they will definitely be a reality and they will definitely make an extraordinary contribution to our Green transition, it is a technology that we are looking at very carefully in research and development. We have already done several tests, I would say successfully, and we will soon be experimenting with, or rather deploying, cargo drones to connect the smaller islands of our peninsula, but certainly when the regulations are clearer, we will plan for their more extensive use. And we expect many benefits, especially in the world of short, small-distance transport.

FM: Earlier you talked about service model innovation as a lever for the green transition. Can you give us some practical examples?

GC: I would say first of all rethinking, innovating service models is even more important than all the above to accelerate the green transition, because it means natively rethinking the way of doing logistics. In order to accelerate the green transition, we need to review the entire value chain, but sometimes it is also appropriate, if not decisive, to be able to explore and integrate with the supply chains of our customers as well, whether they are issuers or recipients.

This is the only way to create what we call the green corridor, through a full integration of our value chain with the systems, let’s call them logistics systems, of the two main players, with whom we deal, the sender and the receiver customer.

On this issue I would say that we already have two very concrete examples, one quite mature our Punto Poste network; another somewhat more embryonic, I would say still in experimentation but extremely promising from

which we expect a lot of benefits.

The Punto Poste network is an extraordinary network of alternative delivery and collection points for mail and parcels. It is made up of 30,000 points, positioned in an extremely distributed manner throughout the country, which allow our last mile network to travel fewer kilometres than a traditional delivery made to the recipient’s home, thus consuming less fuel and being obviously more sustainable from an environmental point of view. From the other point of view, they are certainly an advanced counter to our recipient customers that allows us to develop green service offers, such as the possibility of accepting returns without the packaging box or labels. We call it package free label free.

So through this extremely widespread network, which is, among other things, extremely popular especially with e-commerce operators, not only are our operations greener, but also the services we are able to offer are greener.

And then we have the micro-fulfilment is new born, I mean it is still a baby, we are pampering it, but it is an extremely interesting initiative. Why? It combines and responds to two needs that may seem, indeed probably originally are, at odds with each other, the need to offer zero-emission logistics and speed, the need to deliver parcels in a very fast time to reduce what is called click to deliver, i.e. the time between purchase, when we press the little button on the site where we shop, and the moment when we get it in our hands. Objectively, these are two quite conflicting needs, but with micro-fulfilment we manage to satisfy both. It is a mini-warehouse for this micro-fulfilment that we place close to the target customers, where we can store goods of customers who sell no on e-commerce platforms.

This allows us to receive the order at the moment the e-shopper makes the purchase, proceed to pack it in a parcel, but at this point be able to use packaging solutions that are certainly lighter than a parcel that has to travel, perhaps not, the whole of Italy to arrive at its destination. Sometimes we even manage not to pack the parcel and therefore use its original packaging. Hence use of greener materials, less paper, less cardboard, even sometimes zero paper, zero additional cardboard. Why don’t you need to package it? Because clearly the risk of damage, given the few kilometres the package will have to travel, is small. But perhaps the even greater innovation concerns the organisation after the activities of the warehouse, the mini-warehouse I mentioned, of a network of postmen operating in the afternoon, equipped exclusively with electric vehicles, who very quickly pick up this parcel, let’s say with super-light packaging, and with an electric vehicle make the delivery to the recipient’s home that very afternoon. What have we achieved? Speed, extreme speed, I would say same-day. A parcel purchased in the morning is delivered in the afternoon. It is a zero-emission delivery through the use of electric vehicles. This is where we respond to two effectively conflicting needs. So yes, I confirm, innovation in service models is a key element in the green turn, and to have a natively green service it is clear that we need the ability to combine the possibilities also offered by the available technologies, with the need every day to ensure business continuity while respecting the promises and needs of our customers. It is the ability to remain competitive in a fairly aggressive market.

FM: Many thanks for these insights, until next time.

GC: Thank you.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Francesca Messere | TG Poste

INTERVIEW

Cristiana Brega | Head of Digital, Technology & Operations - Digital & Experience - Omni-channel transformation

Francesca Messere (FM):

Welcome, Cristiana Brega. What has already been done in terms of the omnichannel customer experience?

Cristiana Brega (CB):

What has been done? The main feather in our cap at the moment is the release, the ongoing evolution, of what is known as the super-app, it’s the Poste Italiane app, and it’s recently changed its name and logo. We started this journey last year, on 8 June 2023, and it’s a path of continuous evolution. What is Poste Italiane’s app and why is it linked to omnichannel? For us it’s one of the most immediate and perhaps easiest access points we give our customers to Poste’s omnichannel platform - the bridge between the physical channel and the digital channel, two worlds that tend to be far apart from each other.

The Poste Italiane app creates this bridge through functionalities that connect the two worlds. Let me give just two examples to illustrate the potential and the simplicity: from your sofa you can comfortably book an appointment at the post office and select the service you need, you visit the branch at the chosen day and time, you are served, you enjoy the service and you leave, simple. Or you can begin pre-filling some documentation or information through the app, the app generates a QR code to be shown at the counter which reduces the file-handling time at the counter while also facilitating communication and data completion. We think of it as an access point but also as a bridge between two worlds that are usually quite separate.

Just a few figures to show how much our customers are rewarding us and how close we are to their expectations. The app has a rating of 4.8 , for us it’s a starting point, so it’s a good sign that we have hit the ground running. It will be completed in the first quarter of 2025. We are working at full speed together with the entire company: I don’t think there is a single department that has not been involved in this project.

It’s a project that carries its own reward, too. Why? Because it features both accessibility and profiling. The app is highly customisable, every customer will be able to have their own app. We like to say that it’s not an app for 45 million customers: it’s 45 million apps, because every customer can customise it to their liking. Since its launch, more than four million customers have used the services of the Poste Italiane app.

FM: You’ve almost created an ad hoc product - what are the levers used to evolve customer satisfaction?

CB: I return to the concept of omnichannel - it’s what allows us to make the customer feel the transition between physical and digital, between one product and another and between one channel and another. So the app, the website, the post office with simple steps, without experience jumps. So starting an experience on one channel, completing it on another, purchasing or managing a product not in the same way but through the same experience, doing that with other products, streamlining the complexity of Poste Italiane’s wide range of products and services.

Complexity is its strength, but the customer must perceive it as simple. The levers for omnichannel are quite simple. I often use the word simplicity because for us it is a mantra, evolution and simplicity.

How do we do it? We give ourselves rules. Every customer journey must follow our golden rules. A golden rule is not to ask the customer for information that we already have. This is because showing customers we already have their information conveys a feeling of comfort to them coming to the post office or using our app or accessing our website. We get to know the customer and they feel recognised, which is something we all enjoy, even when we go to shops that already know our tastes. Profiling utilises the immense wealth of data that we have on our customers, which are on our systems, and the evaluation and structuring of this data, and then returning it in the form of a customer journey.

The customer is profiled - we know we can’t go all the way, but we want our customer to feel unique, to feel that we have made them a tailor-made suit. What else do we do? We also listen a lot to our customers, we use data, a quantitative approach, combined with a qualitative approach. We listen to our customers through our Surveys, through the feedback they give us on the various channels. We have read all their feedback on the Poste Italiane app, and we continue to do so, because it serves as a resource for us to better direct the way we arrive at the final goal. Which is the satisfaction of our customer, the satisfaction of those who use the mail services. So we listen to it, we process it and, if necessary, make changes.

FM: Here, then, are the challenges of the future.

CB: The main challenge is the completion of our Poste Italiane app, so a slightly more operational challenge, then porting, or moving the functions that today are on the three apps Bancoposta, Postepay and Post Office to a single app, and finally over time enriching the app with new features, as requested by the business. So it will really be a new app based on the solidity of the apps that have been available to our customers for years and work very well. It will be an app complete with the new services that the business has designed for our customers over time.

On the other hand, the slightly tougher challenge is to increasingly improve the customer experience through Poste Italiane products, services and channels. Always with simplicity in mind. So our challenge is to keep increasing customer satisfaction.

But the customer is not only what is in the market. The external customers, our main customers, are also our colleagues, especially those on the front lines, because they are the first users of our products and services and by using them they become brand ambassadors. They are sensitive to our customers’ needs on the ground as they have physical contact with them and can become excellent ambassadors of the world of Poste, they give us both positive feedback and constructive feedback around the things we can improve to reduce the gap, if any, between the customer’s needs on the ground and what we put out in the world.

So the challenge is to provide our customers, first and foremost our colleagues and then our end customers, a range of products and experiences that are simple, evolved and innovative, in line with the high brand value of Poste Italiane, as recognised by our citizens today, so it’s a great responsibility, a great challenge.

FM: Thank you.

CD: Thanks for having me.

INNOVATION

Francesca Messere | TG Poste

INTERVIEW

Giulia Di Giovanni | Head of Digital, Technology & Operations - Digital & Experience - Innovation

Francesca Messere (FM):

Welcome, Dr di Giovanni. So what is the relationship between innovation and sustainability and what is Poste’s vision?

Giulia Di Giovanni (GDG):

There’s a very strong relationship between innovation and sustainability, and this is also demonstrated by the data, both macroeconomic and related to the success of companies that have managed to act on the combination of these two concepts. In fact, if we look at the innovation indicators of the countries in the regions, we see that the countries with high innovation rates also have higher employment, welfare and inclusion rates. And at the company level, if we look at the companies with higher ESG ratings, we see that they are also the ones with higher, more sophisticated internal innovation capacity measured in the number of patents from R&D spending and also in the use of data.

Poste deeply believes, and has believed for a long time, in the combination of these two elements, and believes in it with a dual vision: on the one hand, sustainable innovation creates and increases value within the company, because it supports and facilitates the daily work of our employees. On the other hand, of course, it helps us to improve the experience, the kind of service we offer our customers. The second objective is related to Poste’s role in the country system, so how Poste supports and continues to support the evolution in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship and development in our country, even in the local communities that are perhaps a little behind.

FM: What were the main achievements in innovation?

GDG: Poste, since 2017, has gone from being a traditional logistics operator to being an omnichannel platform capable of responding to our customers’ needs in a holistic way. We achieved this with a technology-intensive approach, and today we serve 35 million retail customers by connecting them to companies and public administration. This journey of omnichannel transformation, which is centred on the post offices that remain our most important point also because of our national distribution, has been accompanied by the introduction of digital and remote channels to support it.

This transformation has had remarkable results: we have actually increased our digital customers by 50%, from 11.6 million to 17.2 million between 2020 and 2023, and today we count around 3.3 billion digital interactions each year, exceeding the target in the sustainability report by more than 50% and one year ahead of schedule.

So a successful transformation that is continuing and that has also been supported by a technological transformation. More than €5 billion have been invested in the last 5 years in the technological transformation, and it’s definitely been driven by a pervasive adoption of the cloud. Today we are big spenders: €100 million was our 2023 investment in the cloud, and today 90% of our projects are cloud-native, so it’s an extensive and successful adoption.

Secondly, we have invested heavily in data and artificial intelligence. We have also made significant acquisitions both in the area of technological innovation with specialised companies such as Agile Lab and Sourcesense, and

in business innovation such as Nets in the area of payments, and we have invested significantly, we are investing significantly in the evolution of the skills of all of us, of the strength of Poste.

Because working on innovation requires staying constantly up-to-date. We also have an open approach to experimentation: in fact, we also leverage national and international partnerships to scout for innovative solutions. Over the past three years, we have analysed more than 2,000 start-ups and worked with 40 of them. We have a prototyping lab focused on frontier technologies, where we work on AI, quantum computing, AR, in short, all emerging technologies, and we also participate actively in subsidised finance projects that are focused on relevant innovation topics such as, for example, the evolution of the European digital identity model.

We therefore have a platform that in recent years has prepared itself for the challenges to come.

FM: So we’ve talked about the brilliant results achieved. Shall we talk about the challenges to come, in light of the new plan?

GDG: Sure, the challenges to come. I think we can focus them on a vision of governing a new wave of innovation, that of AI, and increasingly developing an active and supportive role in the development of the ecosystem. Innovation in our country.

Three ambitions? Let’s say the completion of the path we started in the creation of the omnichannel platform with the launch of the super app, a hyper-personalised app for each customer, supported by AI. Our second ambition is becoming a national Champion at the level of AI: in terms of size, scale and diversification of Poste, we can certainly adopt this technology with a relevant impact both for the company and for our country while also doing it in the right way, i.e. firstly to support the work of all of us, of our employees, as well as continuing to evolve our customer experience in a personalised way.

Ethical and inclusive adoption is definitely key for us. In this sense we are already working on a specialised ethical charter on the subject of AI that we plan to publish by 2026 and we are already thinking about using this technology to increase the accessibility of our services.

Therefore, the third ambition is about creating an active role for sustainable, system-wide innovation. An even stronger partnership between innovation and sustainability for Poste is the creation of a hub-and-spoke model aimed at creating a bridge between the less advanced local communities and Italian innovation centres with a focus on sustainability, diversity and inclusion. We’ll have local centres starting from the regions with the highest disparities aimed at developing entrepreneurship, then creating new business initiatives by providing support through training, access to services and venture building, i.e. the construction of new initiatives.

And with a special focus on female entrepreneurship. There is also a need for analysis data of the start-up world. Secondly, we will have a centre, a hub, focused on acceleration and experimentation with more mature start-ups, always in the ESG sphere, so transition, green, sustainable finance, in short, all the pillars of our ESG plan.

FM: Thank you very much.

GDG: Thank you.

SUSTAINABLE FINANCE

Francesca Messere | TG Poste

INTERVIEW

Alberto Luchini | Head of Investment Management - Poste Vita

Francesca Messere (FM):

Welcome, Alberto Luchini. What are the main aspects of the Poste Vita Group’s sustainability path?

Alberto Luchini (AL):

The insurance group Poste Vita has been on the ESG path for many years, and has done so in alignment with the Poste Italiane group. It really is a journey insofar as it started a few years ago and we think it will continue in the coming years.

In a spirit of evolution and continuous improvement. The founding principle of sustainability within the Poste Vita insurance group is to integrate ESG factors into decision-making processes. So the key thing that has been done in recent years is to integrate ESG factors into the main classical, economic and financial drivers.

This has been done in alignment with the group. Poste Vita is aware of the role it plays within the Poste Italiane group and is aware of the group’s sustainability ambitions and goals, and has therefore been moving in this direction for many years. The goal is to incorporate ESG factors, i.e. sustainability factors, into the decision-making process.

And all this stems from a conviction that the integration of these factors both within the business decision-making process, hence the insurance process, and within the investment decision-making process, improves long-term performance and makes it more sustainable, allows better risk-taking to occur, and also facilitates adherence to principles of greater integrity and transparency towards stakeholders.

The fundamental credo of the group’s sustainability policy is to integrate ESG factors. We believe that this allows performance to be improved and made more sustainable over time, allows risks to be mitigated, and gives rise to greater transparency when communicating to stakeholders.

FM: How does the Poste Vita Group integrate the PRI PSI principles into its business decisions?

AL: The group has adhered for several years to the PRI, the Principles for Responsible Investment and the PSI, the Principles for Sustainable Insurance, and it has formally committed to these principles. In this way, it claims to incorporate ESG sustainability factors within the decision-making process, both in relation to investments, so PRI.

Both in relation to business and therefore PSI, the company has over the years developed a set of policies and guidelines that are aligned to the core principles, PRI and PSI. These include the responsible investment policy, which defines how the company assesses and monitors environmental risks within the investment portfolio.

This happens both in the initial phase of selecting an investment in a financial instrument, and ex-post with monitoring; the company then created a responsible insurance policy. This means that ESG factors are also incorporated when offering products to their customers with an ESG connotation. Thus, once again incorporating an ESG factor into its decision-making process, in relation to products that are marketed to its customers with an ESG connotation; guidelines have been created including those on sensitive sectors; these guidelines define how the company assesses and monitors exposure to sectors defined as critical from an ESG perspective. These include fossil fuels, coal, animal testing and social and environmental violations.

In fact, we believe that having exposure to these sectors is critical from a performance, sustainability point of view and therefore these sectors are monitored very closely. Among others, mention should also be made of the guidelines on voting engagement, which defines what relationship the company has with issuers, both in relation to voting and potential engagement, directly or collectively.

And lastly, the guidelines on PAIs, which defines how the company assesses and monitors the main downsides in relation to sustainability factors on both corporate and government bonds, thus on the entire portfolio. Within the investment process, the company also uses exclusion criteria. There are lists of securities that cannot be bought insofar as they are issuers directly involved in the production of weapons that are banned by international conventions. These exclusion lists are updated frequently and are monitored continuously.

Where necessary, they are also monitored and updated by specialised information providers. The ESG assessment of the portfolio is another key element within the responsible investment policy because, again, where necessary by means of third-party info providers.

Portfolios are analysed from an ESG rating point of view. This happens on the individual issuers, but it also happens on the overall portfolio figure - this allows the company to check if there are any issuers in the portfolio that are not aligned with the company’s sustainability logic and whether the average portfolio rating is aligned with the company’s objective.

Sensitive areas are then monitored. Then we verify that the exposure to these sectors is within the limits set in the guidelines. And most recently, we have seen the introduction of a watch list. The objective is to monitor the exposure the company has to sectors that are defined as critical according to sustainability logic. These include tobacco, alcohol and gambling.

Another key activity that characterises a responsible investment policy is monitoring over time. The company monitors the evolution of the ESG rating of portfolios over time, it does so on individual issuers, but also on overall portfolios. It verifies that the average portfolio rating is in line with its expectations. This happens both in an ESG rating logic.

But it also happens in a logic of climate risk. Therefore, various sustainability metrics are considered in the portfolio.

FM: What are the main objectives in terms of sustainability? As far as the Poste Vita Group is concerned, in 2024?

AL: We talked about an ESG path. The aim this year is to continue along this path.

A path that is in alignment with the Poste Italiane group, with national and international sustainability principles within the Poste Vita insurance group.

We are talking about a plan that has a very transversal design, covering several business functions whose main areas are products.

Therefore, the objective is to continue to evolve the classification of investments that are underlying ESG products, to continue to evolve the responsible investment policy, and to improve, where possible, the company’s ability to assess and monitor ESG risks within the investment portfolio.

Reporting is a central theme within the adherence to international standards, so we expect to evolve. In relation to reporting and in relation has the ability to communicate to both internal and external stakeholders. An evolution that will concern the monitoring and mapping of risks, both business and therefore insurance risks and investment risks.

And finally, an update to the framework is benchmarking. We know that there is an evolution from a regulatory point of view and therefore we expect the company to monitor the regulation and to benchmark itself against it, so the rationale is to check what the competitive environment of the Italian insurance market is doing and then, in best practice logic, to align with best practices.

FM: Thank you Mr Luchini.

AL: You’re welcome.