90% of Nestlé's workforce in Esplugues opts for teleworking

The multinational Nestlé in Spain has joined the large business corporations that, after the experience of teleworking during the months of confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic, have decided to definitively implement teleworking. In its case, it has initially established it for the 1,800 employees who depend on the headquarters located in Esplugues de Llobregat, of which about 600 work for its Global IT Hub, the global technology center installed in Barcelona.

The teleworking proposal, established since November 2021, has been signed by 90% of employees who, for the most part, have opted to reduce their in-office tasks to 50% of the workday.

However, there are workers in all the modalities that the food multinational has proposed within the teleworking formula. That is, we see employees who have chosen to maintain a 100% in-office workday, others who telework one day a week, and the rest have decided to do so between 40% and 50% of their working time.

In all cases, it has been the worker who, when their job allowed it, has chosen the modality that best suits their needs to reconcile personal and professional life, according to company sources.

Hybrid work has been implemented in administrative positions on the Esplugues de Llobregat campus, as the specific characteristics of the tasks performed in these facilities allow it. Meanwhile, in factories and production centers, work remains in-person.

The same sources assure that the step taken simply reaffirms a policy of labor flexibility to facilitate conciliation that the group had been applying (with measures of flexible hours when the job allows it, reductions in working hours and leaves of absence for childcare), and that the hybrid model "will allow us to maintain all the good that in-person work and remote work bring us," explains the human resources director, Delia Martínez.

The manager adds that "teleworking has helped us to have greater flexibility for conciliation, to avoid unnecessary travel, to have more productive meetings; but in-person work also allows us to work as a team in a more enriching way, more creative and contributes to emotional health... and we believe that we cannot lose all that."

A large part of business corporations have reached this conclusion and teleworking has taken shape in companies such as Cellnex, Desigual, Naturgy or Telefónica, to name a few.

More hirings

For Nestlé, the Global IT Hub staff, due to their type of responsibilities, is the most suited to the hybrid work model. The technology center continues to grow. At the moment, the company has almost forty open vacancies and diverse profiles: IT ---almost half---, marketing, Supply Chain, eCommerce. As well as positions for the technical and production area of centers such as Reus or Girona.

Created five years ago, Nestlé's technology center in Esplugues employs experts with capabilities covering all areas of IT, from connected devices to artificial intelligence, through next-generation technology or digital finance, among others. Coming from 50 different countries and with 40% women in leadership positions, the professionals of the Global IT Hub provide support with IT products and services to all Nestlé markets and brands.

The multinational has hired and offered permanent employment to nearly 650 people in the last three years. Group sources highlight that "even in 2020 and in an unprecedented environment marked by the pandemic," the company maintained its contractual pace and incorporated 200 new permanent employees.