In 2023, Madrileña Red de Gas strengthened the supervision of its Equality Plan 2022-2026, and the actions it envisaged have been implemented.

For yet another year, excellent results were achieved when measuring the Madrileña Red de Gas work climate, in terms of both participation and employee satisfaction. The company also promoted measures to enhance staff’s time off and digital disconnection.

The company has also devised various initiatives and workspaces to guarantee good talent management and ensure the growth of its professionals as a whole.

With regard to health and safety, Madrileña Red de Gas implemented a large number of actions relating to industrial safety management and the prevention of occupational hazards, all of which forms part of the management system’s framework.

4.1 Evolution of our workforce

The 2023 financial year closed with a workforce of 123 employees, of whom 45 are women and 78 men, which means that Madrileña Red de Gas has doubled the proportion of women, from 18% at the beginning of 2023 to the current figure of 37%.

In 2023 the average length of service of employees fell from 22 to 16 years since 2011, with the age of employees in the period 2011-2023 remaining at 46 years.

Madrileña Red de Gas promotes the hiring of its professionals through stable contracts. As a result, 97.6% of its workforce has a permanent contract (75 men and 45 women).

In terms of working hours, 96.7% of employees have a full-time contract; only 0.8% have a part-time contract, and 2.4% have requested a reduced working day. The latter two groups are both made up of all women.

The recruitment rate for 2023 was 4.9% (four women and two men). As shown below, three of these six new recruits came from grants.

4.2 Selection and incorporation

Aware of the importance of incorporating new talent into Madrileña Red de Gas, the company has been promoting internships for young people with different profiles for years, through agreements with different universities in the Madrid region.

The selection and incorporation processes for new profiles needed for the company’s activity, which is constantly adapting to market changes, has been a challenge for Madrileña Red de Gas, and the company has been sure to opt for versatile, agile and flexible profiles that take the circumstances of the sector into account.

This change is evident in the company’s employee profile, which has become efficient and versatile, with learning abilities and interest in facing new challenges and responsibilities. In recent years, between 60% and 80% of new recruits have been university graduates.

Aware of the importance of incorporating new talent into Madrileña Red de Gas, the company has been promoting internships for young people with different profiles for years, through agreements with different universities in the Madrid region.

Since the start of its operations, 22% of interns have ended up being hired by MRG. In 2023, six young people started their internships at the company, and three of them were hired.

4.3 Talent management

In order to face the constant challenge of adapting to market changes, Madrileña Red de Gas uses its Annual Training Plan as a key factor in how it manages its talent. The plan is able to respond to all the training needs that arise as the company evolves and its professionals grow.

In these changing and complex times, it is increasingly important to strengthen and develop the skills and competences needed to tackle the challenges and issues that we will face on a regular basis as effectively as possible.

For Madrileña Red de Gas, it is of vital importance to develop initiatives and create work spaces that will guarantee the growth of all its professionals.

In 2023 we broke the record for the number of hours of training offered to staff members. A total of 6,997 training hours were allocated, bringing the ratio of training hours to 54.7 per employee, compared with 35.25 in the previous year.

For this reason, a new development project was launched in 2023, called “I want to get to know you better”, an initiative that involved taking part in a process of self-knowledge that was able to highlight the strengths and opportunities for improvement of the participants’ professional profile so they could formulate initiatives and courses of action with which to continue growing as professionals within their individual development plan.

The initiatives and reflections presented at last year’s round table discussion, “Road to the future”, were also consolidated. Consequently, Madrileña Red de Gas is firmly committed to providing training in hydrogen and fuel cells, with a total of 2,400 hours having been dedicated to this training initiative.

Another of the company’s initiatives, EVOLUCIONA, which strengthens the relationship between departments, was carried out on two occasions in 2023, presented by the Expansion and Network Operations Directorate.

In other specialities, training was also provided in the following areas:

• Training on the Protocol for the prevention of sexual and gender-based harassment.
• Training actions in cybersecurity (the attractive capsule format has been maintained).
• Training in occupational risk prevention and languages (part of the company’s ongoing initiatives).

In 2023 we broke the record for the number of hours of training offered to staff members. A total of 6,997 training hours were allocated, bringing the ratio of training hours to 58.89 per employee, compared with 35.25 in the previous year.

Finally, a milestone in the intellectual capital database, known as the “Knowledge Stock”. Madrileña Red de Gas has published the tool MOOGLE, developed in Power BI, which assesses employee knowledge and identifies individuals with specific knowledge. By using the Knowledge Stock database, which relates the knowledge identified in each activity and job, we have been able to link each job description with its particular training needs.

Professional development of the Madrileña Red de Gas team

The turnover ratio is an optimal measure of good selection and promotion policies. The fact that Madrileña Red de Gas had a voluntary turnover ratio and an undesired turnover ratio of 0% in 2023 shows the high level of employee satisfaction, as reflected in the work climate survey, which scored 83%.

In addition, the internal promotion ratio helps us to measure the quality of the development processes, with 60% of senior positions having been filled through internal promotions in the last few years.

Annual team days

This was a year in which Madrileña Red de Gas more than ever wanted to strengthen relations between departments, offering all staff members two different team days throughout the year.

Activities were carried out in groups made up of staff members from different areas. The activities were aimed at encouraging teamwork, demonstrating that combining the tasks of each team together works better than approaching tasks separately.

These events, together with the original event held at Christmas, was highly valued by staff members, as reflected in the open questions included in the work climate survey.

4.4 Work climate

The Work Climate Survey 2023 was designed to gather information on team wellbeing and engagement with the company. This time it was carried out with an expert technical and independent perspective, making it possible to review how things have evolved and what progress could be made during the year.

Participation in the work climate survey was at a record high in 2023, with 80% participation. The overall satisfaction level was 83%, the highest level next to 2022.

To ensure talent retention, Madrileña Red de Gas remains committed to a hybrid work model, where the greatest weight is given to remote working, something that is highly valued according to the climate survey. In this way, interdepartmental communication and relations remain high, which is essential to ensure great team spirit.

Participation in the work climate survey was at a record high in 2023, with 80% participation. The overall satisfaction level was 83%, the highest level next to 2022

On the question of how highly would you recommend your company as a place to work (eNPS ratio), Madrileña Red De Gas was given an “almost excellent” score (42.9).

By requesting more detailed information from employees, while ensuring anonymity and confidentiality, it was possible to detect the impact of people management processes, biased by demographic profile (area, gender, age group and seniority).

Generally speaking, “my job” (understanding my role), “identifying with MRG”, “customer” (customer service vocation), “remote working” and “manager” (attention and availability) scored the most highly.

This study has made it possible to detect strengths and areas for improvement, obtain information about the company’s reality and needs, and learn about the workforce’s own experiences.

Thanks to the high level of participation, the results of the survey will be used to prepare action plans to further improve the working environment. Among other courses of action, the training offer will be reviewed and adjusted to meet our organisational needs. The organisational model will also be more transversal, collaborative and digital in terms of data.

Digital disconnection

In compliance with the provisions of article 88 of the General Data Protection Regulation and article 18 of Law 10/2021, and following negotiation with its social partners, Madrileña Red de Gas has agreed on and implemented its policy on digital disconnection, which establishes the necessary measures so that all company staff can exercise their right to switch off, as a guarantee of respect for their time of rest and their personal and family privacy. The heads of department have received relevant information and taken part in a training session on this subject.

4.5 Equality and diversity

Diversity and equal opportunities are values that allow Madrileña Red de Gas to advance as an inclusive company and attract the best talent. The company is working towards continuous improvement in equality, diversity and work-life balance through the Equality Plan it signed in 2022.

Follow-up of equality plan goals and actions

In 2023, monitoring of the Equality Plan was strengthened by establishing the Equality Plan Monitoring Committee. The Protocol for the Prevention of Workplace, Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment was also approved, for which, as seen, training was provided to all staff.

A total of 35 action measures with the social partners in the Equality Plan were also implemented in 2023.

While we are aware of the need to continue working on equality, we must not forget the historically male composition of the sector in which Madrileña Red de Gas operates. The company’s efforts in this area are reflected in the evolution of its workforce, as well as in internal promotions and in the firm commitment to talent management as a key to success.

Diversity

As we have seen, at the close of 2023, the Madrileña Red de Gas workforce is made up of 37% women and 63% men. Of the six new hires made this year, four were women and two were men. By age, three were under 30, two were between 30 and 50 and one was over 50.

Within the issue of diversity, Madrileña Red de Gas continues its commitment to hiring people from under-represented groups. Thus, in recent years, without exception, Madrileña Red de Gas has included people over 50 years of age in its workforce, specifically one person out of the total number of new hires.

At the other extreme, aware of the importance of incorporating new talent into the company, in recent years we have hired at least one young intern. In this regard, as mentioned, in 2023 six young people completed their internships at Madrileña Red de Gas, and three have been hired.

Another figure that confirms the diversity within our workforce is that 3.25% come from another country. In management, 9.1% come from another country; in the rest of the categories, 2% of the people employed do not have Spanish nationality.

4.6 Occupational health and safety

Madrileña Red de Gas continues to align itself with the level of business excellence linked to upholding its Management System certification according to the ISO 45001:2018 standard. In this regard, the most noteworthy aspects are as follows:

• The objectives of the Health and Safety Management System have been aligned with the demands of the GRESB ESG platform.
• A strong commitment has been made to prevention training, in order to guarantee the necessary training for company staff. This training is aimed at the different groups in the company, and continues with the documentary archives created in 2022 being updated.
• A number of prevention criteria have been created to help monitor compliance with regulations, such as the internal protocol for maternity protection and the protocol for outdoor work with an orange or red weather warning for high temperatures.
• Work has continued on preparing the Emergency Plans for the municipal distribution network, and most of them have been completed.
• The commitment to prevention remains as strong as ever, with all staff members provided information on the mutual insurance company, including information relating to occupational risk during pregnancy.
• The use of the IT tool to ensure the control of documentation relating to contractors and subcontractors remains in place and is encouraged.

With regard to the accident rate, in 2023 there were two accidents that resulted in sick leave and one accident without sick leave that occurred while en route for work. Seventy-five percent of accidents involved a vehicle.