The director-general for Women’s Affairs of the Community of Madrid, María José Pérez-Cejuela, opened the event together with the managing director of the Madrid por la Excelencia Foundation, Alejandra Polacci, and the chairman of Promomadrid, Jesús Sainz.

Alejandra Polacci stressed the importance of corporate social responsibility. “There is no excellent company that does not practice CSR,” she said. She also underlined the benefits reaped by companies that favour reconciliation:  “They get better motivation, involvement, participation, performance and organisation of work, plus they reduce rotation, absence and stress; as a result, the company’s profitability goes up”.

Different companies that hold the Madrid Excelente seal of approval, including BT Iberia, FCC, Iberdrola, the Gesor Group and SM, companies that stand out for their good management of equality and reconciliation issues, shared their practical experience.

Luis Suárez, the FCC Group’s Industrial Relations manager, presented FCC Construcción’s equality plan, which was signed with trade unions on 19 November last and will remain in force until 31 December 2012. This plan is an orderly set of measures aimed at achieving equal treatment and opportunities for women and men and at wiping out any trace of discrimination for reason of sex. FCC Construcción is the first company in its sector in Spain to have an equality plan and one of the few companies that have launched such a plan at all, according to a report by the Ministry of Equality. The FCC Group’s Environmental Services division also signed an equality plan of its own in December last.

The closing address was given by Eva Piera, second in command at the Community of Madrid’s Economy, Trade and Consumer Affairs Department. She affirmed, “Today the best way of attracting talent is to apply equality and reconciliation policies at work”, and she stressed that “reconciliation is synonymous with business competitiveness”, reasoning, “The companies that favour reconciliation and equality are more competitive, because their employees are more satisfied, perform better and are more productive”.