Employee Experience in Italy

The Global Employee Experience Report allows you to access workplace culture, employee engagement, employee happiness, and employee wellness in Italy. These four main indexes compose the overall Employee Experience Score that sets the ground rules for the future of work.

Bases of Employee Engagement

Work-life balance is important in Italy. Spending time with family and friends is valuable. There are also many national holidays, and if certain holidays fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, these holidays can be combined with the weekend. It is a priority for employees to take time for themselves and invest in their personal growth alongside their careers. Employers care about corporate wellbeing. They carry out various activities in this direction to increase employee engagement and retention.

Actions were taken to make employees feel safe during the remote working period. Employees who continue to work during the remote working period were thanked for their sacrifices and appreciated in many ways openly in public.

Internal Communication and Employee Feedback Structure

Italians try to maintain a work-life balance. However, working hours may be extended from time to time in private companies. Despite this, internal communication is strong among colleagues. Employees are also interested in each other's private lives and enjoy chatting about these issues, which naturally increases engagement.

Italian companies tend to have a pyramidal hierarchy; important decisions are taken by top management. Employees have great respect for their managers. The exchange of ideas among employees is quite common and employee suggestions are discussed together.

Meetings are held to discuss an idea and issue, not to reach a decision; meetings are analysis-oriented. Italian companies focused on three main topics during the remote working period: informing, caring, and training their talent with strong internal communication tools. During this process, employees were regularly informed about what was going on, they were made to feel safe, and the training necessary for their personal development continued to be provided remotely with employee engagement tools.

Pillars of Workplace Culture

Appointments

Appointments can be made on short notice. Italians are relatively flexible with their time. In case you have made an appointment a long time in advance, it is advisable to verify it before the meeting. Generally, the best time to make business appointments is in the morning between 10:00 and 11:00 or after 3:00 p.m. Also, lunch appointments at a nice restaurant can be effective.

Dress Code

In Italy, the way you dress is a reflection of your personality. Italians like to make a good impression with their style. Therefore, you need to dress to impress! The business dress code is neat and formal. Even though you are not expected to dress according to the latest fashion, this could really work in your favor. Men wear suits and women wear dresses or pants suits. Do note; first impressions make lasting impressions on Italians.

Time Perception

Italians like to multitask! Therefore, meetings might start 10-30 minutes late due to other meetings taking longer than expected or potential ad-hoc tasks during the day. Especially on social occasions, Italians are generally 15-45 minutes later than the agreed time. However, when it’s time for important business meetings, everyone is always on time.

Learning & Development of Future Talents

In 2019, 28% of 25-34 year-olds had a tertiary degree in Italy. In Italy, the percentage of first-time bachelor's graduates younger than 30 years old is 92.4% (2018). In Italy, the percentage of first-time master's graduates younger than 35  years old is 94.2% (2018). In Italy, the percentage of first-time doctorate graduates younger than 35 years old is 83.3% (2018). The percentage of today's young people expected to obtain a master's or an equivalent degree before the age of 35 is 21.1% (2018)

Performance & Productivity GDP per Hour Worked: 102.7 (2020)

Part-time Employment Rate: 18%

Average Wages : 3650 EUR

Minimum Wages:  874 EUR

Unemployment Rate: Total 10,3% -  Male 9,17% - Female 11,12%