Active in OpenBank an individualized and discretionary concession remuneration for “employees with greater technological talent.” It is linked to business and strategic objectives.
Santander launches more initiatives to encourage the transformation of the group through employee remuneration systems, A strategy that has been using structured since 2019.
The bank has designed the “retention bonus”, an “economic incentive assigned to employees with greater technological talent” and that applies in OpenBank, according to the accounts of the online subsidiary.
This variable remuneration is not part of a global and defined format, but is an element of individual remuneration that the bank grants in a discretionary way.
The retention bonus has a three -year term and its payment is conditioned, in addition to the permanence of the professional at the bank, to which in the period “You have achieved its objectives and contributed to strategic goals, participating in different initiatives, whether recruitment, events, forums or similar,” OpenBank explains.
Priority
“The attraction of technological talent is a priority issue at this time. For years we have been working on it, but increasingly with more focus,” The president of Santander, Ana Botín, said at the Board held in April.
Botín, which has among its competences in the group the area of people and culture, described five axes that Santander is supporting to sign professionals with these capabilities. The group already has 24,000 technological profile employees.
A key element is to have in the organization chart “senior managers to the highest level that have a profile that allows attracting technological talent in all markets.” “We have made several additions (of managers with these characteristics in recent times,” said Botín.
“Competitive conditions and flexibility” are another determining factor, as well as having an “attractive project and we have a great unique project in our sector,” he said.
Botín also listed two other circumstances. On the one hand, “having a vanguard and modern technological environment in which to develop professionally, in parallel to have a customer base of more than 173 million.”
The president of Santander remarked, finally, the importance of being an organization with a corporate culture that allows “people to innovate and make mistakes from time to time.”
Digital Bonus
Apart from the retention bonus, the group as a whole has undergoing the so -called “digital bonus” for five years.
In front of the retention bonus, the incentive for the digital transformation that began to be implemented in 2019 has a structured format and has had different cycles throughout these years. It is conceived as an element of remuneration that allows the bank to be competitive “with the remuneration system offered by other market operators that compete for digital talent.”
Between 2019 and 2021, the Digital Bonus went to a maximum of 250 employees from the entire group and its amount was set at a stop of 30 million.
In 2022, however, the incentive became structured in two blocks, by incorporating a remuneration plan linked to the Paggonxt payments, one of Santander’s strategic projects.
In the last two years, between 2023 and 2024, The digital bonus has already been limited to enhance Pagonxt’s activity, according to Santander’s annual report. It is aimed at a maximum of 50 employees and its amount is at US $ 16.9 million.
In 2024, the average degree of achievement of the objectives of the Digital Bonus stood at 77%. The percentage reached 88% in 2023, while a year earlier the achievement of the goals established for Paggonxt was 100%.
