Mechanisms implemented viewing the continued enhancement of employees attest for the Group's recognition that its staff force is the main driver to achieve the strategies and results set forth. Training plays therefore a key and decisive role in the achievement of this goal. In 2010, the number of training hours totalled 231,762, involving 76,453 employees.

All the while, the BES Group holds as strategic goal to consistently improve its ability to attract and withhold talented people.

This is achieved based on the following:

• Tailor-made training programme to suit the needs and future functions of each employee;
• Identification and profound knowledge of employees skills, thanks to profile definition and technical and behavioural requirements;
• Survey of the training needs of all employees likely to be met through training actions and monitoring/management of respective implementation;
• Definition of actions, contents, methodologies to allocate and ways to measure their impact, in close relationship with respective target recipients, particularly in the commercial segments - BES 360º, Business, Private, Corporate: International Corporate, Large Companies, Municipalities and Institutional clients and Medium Companies.

Training in Human Rights

In its business the BES Group give priority to a set of values that set it apart and which make it a reference: Know-How, Discipline and Transparency. Present in 25 countries and 4 continents and focussed on regions that have a great economic and cultural affinity with Portugal, such as Spain, Angola and Brazil, the Group operates in areas where it has particular competence: corporate banking, private banking, investment banking and trade finance. The BES Group recognises Human Rights as being fundamental, universal and inalienable, orienting its actions out of respect for and compliance with the Legislation of each country where it operates, remaining faithful to the principles it defends.

Following this line of action, 2012 saw the launch of a training course on Human Rights which, aimed at all of the Group’s employees regardless of where they are, definitively clarified the content of the policies and principles that govern the Group’s activity.

The course therefore recalled the fundamental rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the conventions set out by the International Labour Organization – mainstays of the Policy of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunities implemented by the Group; it highlighted the Code of Conduct placing special emphasis on its ethical principles; and, lastly, it indicated the standards upheld to prevent financial crime and corruption.

Completed by 83.74% of the Group’s employees and translated into various languages (English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, etc.), the course also awarded a certificate to each of the participants.

This was another initiative undertaken following the approval of the Group’s Human and Labour Rights Policy in 2011, a decision which reinforced the existing internal labour regulations, practices and culture of protection and respect.

School Branches (Balcão Escola)

Balcão Escola is a pioneering project in the financial sector in Portugal developed by Banco Espírito Santo. This project uses 34 branches that deal directly with the public where employees receive training. This training fosters a better and faster knowledge of the company and the banking sector, by providing a real background of retail banking and stimulating internal know-how, as it permits interaction with different business areas.

The training involves 22 days of training, comprising various evaluation phases of tasks and simulations involving selling and customer service. The programme enables employees to practice direct contact with clients and thus grow aware of BES quality service requirements.

New Training Projects

The following training projects are worth noting for the behavioural component and links with career development:

• Idea Bank
  The purpose of this initiative is to encourage the involvement of employees in the management of the company to which they belong through innovating ideas.  During the 3rd cycle occurring from October 1st, 2009 and September 2010, the Bank received  1700 ideas from 830 employees. Twenty five ideas were selected to be implemented. From the 25, 4 ideas were rewarded with a cash prize of EUR 5,000 each, encouraging employee participation in the Bank's management.
• BES Attitude Plan
  BES Attitude Plan emerged from the need to train, develop and monitor Regional Managers. BES Attitude Plan views to improve the quality of the service provided to Customers, by investing in managers' skills, based on systematised and oriented  training of key behaviours in customer service and team management. This plan extends to Private Retail Managers, Branch Managers and Sales Managers. In 2010, this training plan involved 4,467 participants and over 30,000 hours of training.
• Innovating training methodology
  BES implemented a new training methodology directed to Sales Assistants of the Retail Network. The differentiating factor in this new methodology is the availability of a  personal tutor for each trainee,  including distance and in person learning and the use of blended-learning methodology, which integrates the different methods. Interventions at coaching level and on-job monitoring constituted key success factors. This project views to prepare managing personnel and develop skills for the adoption of service quality levels adjusted to BES benchmarks.
• BES Talent
  BES Talent Pool aims at identifying, assessing and preparing employees with potential to become Branch Managers.
  Directed to young managerial staff, the Talent Pool Plan is divided  into 3 major phases: selection, training and assessment.
  The first phase identifies potential candidates, based on a strict selection carried out in the commercial departments. In the second phase, employees are subject to tests, and assessed according to skill goals and profiles.
  Selected employees are subject to a training programme in the function of branch manager.
  The third phase involves the preparation of a final report, under the guidance of the Regional Manager or Committee, based on the information collected and the results obtained.

In 2012, BES maintained its policy of awarding subsidies and support under the Internal Social Responsibility Program. As in the previous year, the benefits granted covered the following areas:

• Support for education, through the granting of subsidies for child benefit, subsidies for school support, study grants and support for children and young people with special needs;
• Support for the elderly, which is given through participation in the costs with internment in homes, day centres, home help and support in the purchase of medication or other essential goods;
• Health support through the co-payment of health expenses;
• Support in reconciling time between Work and the Family, which is intended to help out with transport expenses by participating in the cost of travel passes and also to support employees’ spouses and children who are unemployed through the Job Search Program.

Support for education
The Bank granted child benefit support for 288 cases, 137 study grants, and 153 school support subsidies, which helped to reduce the financial costs of its employees with their children. In 2012, the Bank organised the first edition of “The School Manuals Bank”, which is a voluntary program involving the exchange of used school books and manuals from the 1st to the 12th year of school. 2 750 books were handed in for exchange in the School Manuals Bank. Of these, 378 were provided to 80 families of employees in BES and in Group companies. Furthermore in 2013 the Bank will create a new form of support intended for the children of employees with special needs, providing subsidies to support children and young people with special cognitive needs.

Support for the elderly
In 2012 41 subsidies were granted to support pensioners to help them to pay expenses that arise with increasing health problems and possible internment in old-folks’ homes.

Support for health
In terms of expenditure on health, in 2012 assistance was provided to 49 employees with the co-payment of health expenses. In addition to this, BES invested around 369 000 Euros in health in BES’ clinical services, in medicine at work,  curative medicine, nursing services, mental health consultations, smoking cessation consultations and check-up programs.

Support in reconciling Work/Family lives
In 2012 BES created a new subsidy intended to help in the payment of its employees’ travel expenses. All employees can apply for this subsidy and of those who applied 25% were covered by this measure.

Furthermore in 2013 BES started to support employees’ spouses and children who are unemployed through the Job Search Program.
The BES Group also provides around 30 sports and cultural events to its employees and their families and in 2012, 6 858 people took part. Most of the sports and events are provide through the GCDTGBES - Banco Espírito Santo Group Employees’ Cultural and Sports Association.

In 2012 the benefits granted to employees totalled 34.5 million Euros.