Our employees

The Policy for remunerating the employees of the Bank and the PKO BP Group ensures a consistent salary system (implemented by resolution no. 42/2017 of the Supervisory Board dated 14 June 2017) by:

• applying a salary system which is in line with market trends, acquiring optimal job candidates;
• adjusting mechanisms, tools and salary levels to the Bank’s and Bank Group’s strategy and goals;
• taking into account the Bank Group’s ability to shape the desired mechanisms and salary levels;
• setting permanent salaries on the basis of job valuations;
• developing the remuneration structure on the basis of the results of work achieved and appraisal of the skills of the employees;
• building employee responsibility for the tasks being assessed on the basis of objectivized criteria;
• ensuring that the variable components of the salaries are parameterized so that they take into account the Bank’s and Bank Group’s long-term cost of risk, the capital cost and liquidity risk;
• establishing a system in which monetary or non-monetary forms of remuneration do not encourage the people involved to favour their own interests or the interests of the Bank and other entities from the Bank’s Group to the detriment of Customers.

A Collective Bargaining Agreement concluded with the company’s trade union organizations is in force at the Bank, regulating, among other things, salary issues. According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement the Bank’s employees are entitled to the following salary components: (i) a basic salary, (ii) allowances for working overtime and in conditions which are particularly onerous and harmful to their health, (iii) bonuses and rewards for special achievements at work.

Basic salaries and additional benefits granted to employees are set on the basis of job valuations (grades assigned to individual organizational positions) and an analysis of market salaries in the banking sector

The Bank has the bonus system under which the amount of a bonus depends on the achievement of set targets. The targets set for the employees are related to the Bank’s key management indicators.

Apart from the bonus system, there is a system for awarding the Bank’s employees. Employees may receive awards:

• individually – for those employees who achieve outstanding professional results or attainments bringing important effects for the Bank;
• for recommending candidates as the Bank’s employees;
• for actions related to employee retention.

The key actions related to the Bank’s employee remuneration system in 2018 included:

• launching the application “Twój Całkowity Pakiety Wynagrodzeń” [You Aggregate Salary Package] enabling the employees to view their salary components and additional benefits;
• prizes for the Bank’s 100^thanniversary to employees meeting specified criteria;
• competitions for employees of selected organizational units – in particular for employees of the retail network units. The competition winners were awarded financial prizes and additional trainings raising their professional qualifications.

In the Bank’s Group entities, depending on the level of employment, the principles of paying employees are defined in the salary regulations and in the employment contracts or just in the employment contracts. In the individual entities belonging to the Bank’s Group there are separate bonus systems for the employees.

The average basic salary in the Bank’s Group in 2018 was PLN 5,894 (excluding the salaries of the Management Boards of the Bank’s Group entities), and in the Bank it was: PLN 6,075.

The employment policy does not discriminate employees based on their gender. Due to the fact that the number of women in the Bank’s Group is three times higher than the number of men, there are positions on which only women are employed, and there are considerably more women among the regular employees. This makes the aggregate ratio of women’s salaries to men’s quite low as it amounts to only 64% in the Bank’s Group. An analysis of salaries by type of entity and position shows that:

• on the same level of employment the differences between women’s and men’s salaries are considerably lower than the average for the entire Bank’s Group;
• going up, the differences in women’s and men’s salaries decline from 79% for regular employees to 95% for senior management.

Additional benefits offered in the Bank and in the Bank’s Group manifest the care for a widely defined well-being of the employees. The range of additional benefits offered is wide. Moreover, the Bank finds it important to adapt the benefits offered to its employees to the trends on the labour market because activities in this respect are strictly correlated with creating the Bank’s image as an employer.

The offer of benefits other than salaries available to the Bank’s employees is very highly assessed by them. The results of the employee satisfaction survey carried out in 2017 show that 90% of the respondents know what social and additional benefits are available to them and 70% considers them attractive.

The main additional benefits offered to the employees include:

Medical care

The Bank provides its employees with additional medical care, to which the employees are entitled according to differentiated packages of benefits dedicated to specific groups of jobs.All employees have the opportunity to benefit from medical consultations with doctors of all specializations and a wide range of diagnostic examinations free of charge.The employees are also able to benefit from the prophylaxis programme called “Zdrowie jak w Banku” [Guaranteed health], which has the objective of the early detection of diseases and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle.As part of the prophylaxis programme, the Bank’s employees may have an annual examination of their health. The employer regularly monitors the level of execution of the medical services by the supplier. 100% of the employees in the Bank avail themselves of the additional (non-statutory) medical care.

Other companies in the Bank’s Group (operating in Poland) provide medical care to their employees on the terms negotiated with the healthcare provider by the Bank, based on separately concluded agreements. 98% of the employees in the Bank’s Group have additional (non-statutory) medical care.

EPP – Employee Pension Programme

An Employee Pension Programme (EPP) has been operating at the Bank for more than 5 years now. Under this programme, employees are able to enter into a long-term savings programme to supplement their pension income received from the mandatory parts of the pension system.The Bank’s EPP is operated in the form of an agreement on the Bank contributing a Basic Contribution (previously 3% of the salary, from 10 December 2018 raised to 3.5% of an employee’s salary) and the Additional Employee Contribution to Investment Funds managed in 2018 by PKO Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych SA.Employee Pension Programmes are also provided to the employees of the larger companies of the Bank’s Group.

MyBenefit cafetaria system and related benefits

Employees are able to benefit from the MyBenefit cafeteria system from the funds from the Corporate Social Benefits Fund (CSBF), enabling the employees to select their preferred additional benefits.An employee may use the awarded funds for active recreation, in various shops, on cultural events and other dedicated activities according to her/his preferences. The level of funds received from the cafeteria depends on the gross income per person in a given family.Some of the other entities belonging to the Bank’s Group also offer the possibility of using the MyBenefit platform to their employees, and the remaining entities provide other benefits, such as Sodexo vouchers or Christmas bonuses. 

Sports cards

Good practice at the Bank and other Bank’s Group companies is to provide employees with the ability to use sports cards.In view of promoting healthy lifestyle among employees, the Bank provides them with an opportunity of buying several types of sports cards so as to ensure that they obtain a benefit that is best adapted to their needs, and thus really support their pro-health activity.

Other benefits

The catalogue of additional benefits offered at the Bank also includes offers and discounts for the Bank’s employees, the PKO Zawsze Nowe Auto [PKO Always New Car] programme or a possibility of accessing group insurance.

It is also worth mentioning that the Bank as part of the PKO after hours programme supports sports initiatives and activities (for example, there are running, mountain sports and football teams at the Bank) and the employees’ charity activities.

The objective of the recruitment policy at the Bank’s Group is to acquire the best candidates from various sources. On the one hand, internal recruitment is promoted (in the entire Bank’s Group) as part of the professional development in other business areas. On the other hand, candidates are recruited from the market who have diversified professional experience and competences.

The Bank cares about the candidates’ experience in the recruitment process, attempting to diversify the channels of reaching the appropriate candidates, shortening the recruitment time or applying modern selection methods. The candidates experience is surveyed and on this basis the recruitment processes are improved.

In 2018, the Bank carried out an opinion poll on the candidates’ experience of the recruitment processes twice. This was the Candidate Experiencesurvey. In a short online questionnaire, the candidates answered how they assessed the recruitment process on its individual stages. The results served the purpose of improving the actions affecting the recruitment process. The survey was conducted at the turn of February and March and the next one at the turn of November and December 2018. Together with the recruitment teams and HR business partners the results of the surveys are discussed and specific actions for implementation agreed in order to improve the candidates’ experience.

In 2019, the Bank plans cyclical surveys among the candidates to monitor the level of their satisfaction with the recruitment process and design the individual components of the process so that the experience with the Bank’s brand as the employer is the best possible.

The Bank also conducts cyclical satisfaction surveys of the managers who engage employees for their teams (the so-called Hiring Managers) participating in the recruitment process, so as to continually improve this process on the basis of the opinions received. 

In 2018, cooperation with new suppliers of recruitment services was established. They ensure constant inflow of applications. The purpose of this is friendly recruitment that enables reaching candidates using various communication channels, and at the same time enables better matching of offers and adapting the communication to various groups present on the labour market – younger persons, high school graduates and university graduates, experts (in various fields), as well as older persons with long professional experience.

In the recruitment process, the Bank and the entities from the Bank’s Group care about human rights and ensure equal opportunities. The recruitment policy is based on high standards of counteracting discrimination and personal data protection with the support of modern technologies and information systems. In 2018, the recruitment system was changed (the so-called ATS – applicant tracking system), which enables efficient communication with candidates (by e-mail and text messages), increased automation of actions, and which is fully adapted to the requirements of GDPR.

In 2018, the Recommendation Programme was extended. Its purpose is to encourage the Bank’s employees to join in the process of looking for appropriate candidates to work in our organization.  There are about 100 job positions in the programme, for example, in areas such as the retail market, IT, corporate and investment banking and risk management for which the employees may recommend candidates with appropriate qualifications. Financial gratification is provided for an effective recommendation.

For years now, the Bank’s strength has been to offer internships dedicated to students and young graduates. As part of the Internship Academies organized at the Bank, the total of nearly 250 persons were invited to internship in various areas, such as IT and data analytics.

Cooperation with universities and high schools is of importance. In 2018, several “Good morning Career!” workshops were organized at selected universities in Poland, during which the students were able to become acquainted with selected areas of operations. These actions improve the Bank’s perception. In 2018, the Bank received several awards confirming yet again its attractiveness on the market as an employer.

In the prestigious ranking of employers – Universum Student Survey – the Bank was ranked 5^thin the business category and 7^thin the law category. Students rated the Bank highly for technological innovations, an ample package of employee benefits and ethical conduct. The Talent Survey conducted by an advisory firm Universum is one of the largest in the world. It encompasses professional preferences and goals, career and sectors in which the respondents would like to work. More than 17,500 students from 71 Polish universities participated in the last year’s edition.

In 2018, the Bank was among the winners of the Business Inspirers: Best Employer competition organized by the Newseria information agency. The jury appreciated the work conditions, the incentive system and the opportunities of development.

The Bank was also among the most desirable employers in the Employer of the Year 2017 ranking by the international student organization AIESEC, having been ranked 7^th. The Bank has a strong position of the best employer in the financial sector and is regularly listed among the Top 10 on AIESEC lists. The ranking is formed based on a survey conducted among 4^thand 5^thyear students in the fields of economy from the largest academic centres in Poland.

Employees are represented at the Bank by the trade unions and the Employee Council.

The Bank has two trade union organizations:

• The National Trade Union of PKO BP SA Employees – 2,598 members, including 2,505 employees;
• “Solidarity” Independent Self-Governing Trade Union of PKO BP SA Employees – with 1,010 members, including 1,003 employees;

whereby only the former is a representative union.

Approx. 16% of the total number of employees as at 31 December 2018, who were employees, were trade union members.

The Employee Affairs Department is responsible for relations with the trade unions. Cooperation with the trade union organizations is good; there were no collective disputes either in 2018 or in previous years.

The Bank’s Employee Council also operates at the Bank. The principles of cooperation with the Bank’s Employee Council have been set in a separate agreement.

Cooperation with these social partners takes place in accordance with the applicable regulations, including holding consultations in the case of planned organizational changes, resulting in significant changes in the organization of work, the level and basis of employment of employees. Meetings with trade unions and the Bank’s Employee Council are organized as necessary – at least several times a year.

The employees may report their complaints through trade unions. They can also provide information to the Bank directly. The Bank has a procedure for reporting complaints and irregularities. Under this procedure since June 2018 it is possible to report all types of complaints to one e-mail box.

A trade union organization also exists at KREDOBANK SA. Trade union organizations do not operate at other companies in the Bank’s Group. The dialogue with the employees takes place in accordance with the applicable regulations. Its form is adapted to the size of the company and its specificity: the larger entities have Workers’ Councils, while the dialogue with employees at other companies is held, among others through selected employee representatives and forms of communication with employees, either direct or via e-mail and through the intranet, which are accepted at the given company.

No collective disputes were recorded at the companies. The employees have the opportunity to report complaints about a breach of employee rights and other irregularities.

The Bank’s employees may obtain any information on employee matters from one place by asking a question at the Helpdesk – the service dedicated to HR support services. A team of consultants answers questions, among other things, on HR and payroll support, social issues, recruitment and training. The new solution accelerates and simplifies the communication process between employees and the HR services – the units responsible for personnel management.

The Bank attaches a great deal of importance to the opinions of employees on matters related to their work and the opportunities for individual development. The Bank and the entities belonging to the Bank’s Group cyclically hold employee satisfaction and commitment studies in the form of an online questionnaire. An additional module concerning organizational culture was introduced for the first time in the study for 2017. In recent years, the ratio of satisfaction with working at the Bank was increasing and it is currently above the Polish benchmark.

In the most recent survey, the questionnaire was filled in by 13,335 employees. Each employee employed based on an employment contract and working for more than 3 months was invited to participate. Employees during the notice period were not surveyed. The most recent employee satisfaction and commitment survey was also conducted in the four remaining entities of the Bank’s Group.

The results of the survey for 2017 were communicated to the employees in 2018. At that point quality studies were also performed with the participation of the Bank’s managers to deepen the results of the questionnaire survey. The results of the main survey and the quality study were presented to the Bank’s Management Board. The next edition is planned for 2019. The results constitute an additional tool in analysing and shaping appropriate relations with the employees and in forming the programmes for development or changes in the Bank’s Competence Model.

Policy on mobbing and discrimination

An inappropriate approach to diversity may be manifested in the form of discrimination, as well as mobbing. The Bank’s policy regarding mobbing and discrimination is regulated in the internal regulations:

• the Bank’s Employment Regulations;
• the Principles of counteracting mobbing and discrimination and the procedure for handling complaints concerning violation of employee rights.

The Bank’s Code of Ethics also presents significant provisions concerning the attitudes and values promoted among the employees.

The Bank is strongly opposing any forms of discrimination, intolerance and other behaviours that are in contrast with the organization’s values, and promotes attitudes based on mutual trust among the employees. Any conduct that can suggest the presence of mobbing is unacceptable.

The Bank has principles in place for counteracting mobbing and discrimination. These principles guarantee counteracting undesirable phenomena in the employee relations and specify how to react to situations of interpersonal conflicts. Based on these principles, the Bank’s employee may without worrying about the consequences report a complaint about any breach of employee rights defined in the commonly binding provisions of the law and the Bank’s internal regulations. The employee may choose the best (in his or her assessment) way of reporting the complaint. He/she can do it electronically, by sending a message to the designated e-mail address or submit a written complaint.

An employee is entitled to additional support in the process of clarifying the complaint through a possibility of indicating a representative of a trade union organization or an employee representative appointed by separate internal regulations of the Bank – to participate in meetings with the employee or to submit opinions on the validity of the claim.

All information related to the issue of counteracting of mobbing, discrimination and other breaches of employee rights are available to the employees via the Internet. Additionally, the Bank communicates any changes in the procedure of reporting breaches of employee rights, and implements initiatives promoting the values that are treasured at the Bank. Ongoing support to the employees is offered by the HR Contact Center through which the employees may obtain up to date information about the way to report complaints and anonymous notifications of breaches of employee rights.

In 2018, 15 complaints of mobbing were reported at the Bank, of which one was considered justified. Three other complaints were recorded, including an allegation of discrimination, which are still being reviewed. No complaints of sexual harassment were recorded.

Complaints concerning widely defined breaches of employee rights are reviewed individually, therefore, optimal review deadlines are set for them separately, which enables formulating appropriate conclusions and recommendations or taking appropriate additional actions or HR-related decisions. In the course of verifying the complaints various methods are applied (for example, anonymous surveys, detailed interviews with employees, verification of fluctuation ratios and other HR data). Each time, when deciding what measures should be taken, the Bank takes into account care for ensuring the highest possible impartiality of the review, therefore, many times representatives of different entities participate in the process of clarifying the matter, in line with the Bank’s organizational structure.

As part of the process of handling employee affairs with reference to all displays of employee discrimination, various measures are undertaken in order to mitigate operational risk related to displays of discrimination, including the Bank’s internal regulations on reviewing complaints concerning breaches of employee rights or recruitment standards.

Other entities belonging to the Bank’s Group also have the necessary solutions in their internal regulations guaranteeing compliance with the applicable law regarding the prevention of mobbing, discrimination and sexual harassment – in separate regulations or through appropriate provisions in the employment regulations, ethics codes and other regulations applicable to a given entity.

In 2018, one complaint was recorded in other companies from the Bank’s Group regarding breaches of employee rights in the form of mobbing, discrimination or sexual harassment; the investigations did not confirm the allegations.

The Bank’s aim is for every employee to have equal opportunities, be respected and accepted. The Bank offers training to the managerial staff to encourage the Bank’s managers to draw on the wealth of resources brought by diversity and the skilful management of people. The basis for organizing such training by the Bank is the conviction that appropriate diversity management contributes to an increase in the efficiency of the work of the team, an improvement in the atmosphere at work, the retention of valuable, experienced employees at the Bank, and an improvement in innovativeness and creativity within the team. In 2018, 231 managers participated in trainings on Diversity Management.

OSH organization and strategy

The OSH Service at the Bank has been organized as an OSH Office and placed within the structures of the Administration Centre. The Office encompasses field teams, supporting all units of the Bank throughout the country. The Bank’s branches located abroad have their own OSH service and act in accordance with the law which is applicable to the place where they are located.

The strategy of the OSH Office is based on preventive action by visiting facilities and monitoring the working conditions on an ongoing basis. An important tool in the monitoring process is having a risk assessment at the work posts. The assessment of occupational hazard has been developed at the Bank for all the employees. Any defects or threats that are noticed are reported and removed by the administrative services as they arise.

The Bank applies broadly understood accident prevention. The Bank’s employees have regular OSH training, which also includes first aid instruction. The training scenario positively contributes to building awareness of the safe conduct of employees at the work place. However, road traffic accidents are an important cause of accidents, over which the Bank has no particular influence, as they often arise from circumstances over which the employee has no control. Prophylaxis in this area boils down to additional tests for people driving company cars and referring employees to supplementary training on safe driving.

The Bank’s Group OSH policy has not been formulated at the Bank.Other entities from the Bank’s Group perform OSH tasks in accordance with the current provisions of the law. These provisions are so clear that, in fact, it means applying the same OSH rules throughout the whole of the Bank’s Group.Other companies located outside Poland operate under the rules which apply to the country in which the entity was registered.

Indicators

None of the establishments of the Bank or other Bank’s Group entities carries a high occupational risk related to the work performed. The accident rate is at a negligible level, which proves the effectiveness of accident prevention. The Occupational Risk Assessment encompassed 92.7% of positions in the Bank’s Group and 100% of the positions at the Bank. Among the positions assessed, there are no positions for which the level of occupational risk is high and actions to reduce it would be necessary.

The training policy at the Group is pursued on the basis of the internal regulations prepared and implemented by the individual companies on their own, which guarantees the adaptation of the approach to employee education and development to their own specific needs.

The principles of Knowledge Management in PKO Bank Polski SA set the goals, conditions and organization of trainings, not only for the Bank’s employees but also for agents, brokers and other co-workers of the Bank, as well as persons employed by them. The main assumption made in the training policies is the support of:

• the achievement of the strategic goals of the Bank’s Group entities and the business goals;
• the introduction of new employees into work;
• the assurance of professional qualifications for the employees and the adjustment of their knowledge and skills to the changing requirements of the market on which a given entity operates;
• the preparation of the employees for the implementation of new solutions and products offered by the Bank’s Group entity or for introducing changes into the existing solutions and products offered.

All employees, regardless of their age or sex, may take advantage of training activities throughout the Bank’s Group.Individual companies may apply the criterion of the position held when referring employees to specific training, such as participation in education at degree level (different levels of education at the individual companies of the Bank’s Group) or foreign language courses.The employers finance training activities in whole or in part.

When referring employees to training, the majority of entities in the Bank’s Group take into account internal appraisal systems, e.g. regular interviews, individual development plans, testing of training needs, ISO based assessment system and feedback.In companies in which the competence model was adopted (this applies to the Bank and two other subsidiaries), the improvement of the employee’s professional qualifications and skills is related to it.

The Bank enables the employees to use various forms of improving their professional qualifications.The Bank’s internal portal contains the Catalogue of Trainings which is updated and communicated once every quarter. It contains a number of development activities to select from, both for employees and managers, with the description of these activities and easy to use tool for signing in to the individual trainings.

Projects are conducted to develop both hard and soft skills.A team of several dozen internal trainers conducts group training, on-the-job training and internal workshops.Group training is held by external companies in selected projects.The Bank’s employees also actively use the internal e-learning platform, including on training regarding product knowledge, as well as knowledge of processes and use of IT applications.Academies and Programmes dedicated to specific groups of employees and organizational units are launched as part of the strategic initiatives.In 2018, as a result of the Digital Transformation, a number of development activities were made available to the employees participating in the process, mainly in the area of agile methodology.

The Bank’s employees may also use language courses, both individual and group (including Virtual Classes, i.e. on-line group classes).An internal e-learning platform is also actively used at the Bank, mainly for holding trainings on product knowledge, knowledge of processes and use of IT applications.

The Bank also holds adaptation trainings for new employees of the retail network, the objective of which is to prepare the new employees for working at the Bank branch in the position for which he/she was recruited and acquiring skills in talking to Customers in accordance with the Customer service standard in force at the Bank.

In 2018, 2708 employees of the retail sales network were trained in the adaptation process in 657 training sessions in 205 groups.

Additionally, as part of the pilot adaptation programme for employees of the corporate network, three job post briefing trainings were carried out for the total of 8 persons.

A total of over 52,000 participants took part in the trainings organized by the Bank in 2018, which means that each employee of the Bank participated in an average of two training courses.A total of 174 trainings were offered in the e-learning formula.In addition, 661 persons took part in trainings from the list of training sessions available to the Bank’s employees.