On 13th June 2022 an event to show the benefits of the Family Audit
Trento, 13 June 2022 – 351 Italian companies are Family Audit certified, of which 64% private and 36% public. They involve nearly 200,000 employees. These are the numbers of a milestone of excellence achieved by the Autonomous Province of Trento which, through the Agency for Social Cohesion, is a national certifying body. The meeting done on 13th was an opportunity to present the goals achieved by these companies, which have invested resources and time in a path – the Family Audit certification – which directs the company towards corporate welfare and organizational well-being, in a word: in innovative work-life balance tools, which lead to the improvement of company performance and the satisfaction of its employees.
At the beginning, the general manager of the provincial agency for social cohesion, Luciano Malfer, declared that the work on the territory has started for over 12 years and recalled the importance of activating a work-life reconciliation process because it creates value both for the company and the employee. “The Family Audit in 2014 was awarded as best good practice at European level and was also presented to the UN. In Trentino there are 190 certified companies with 45,000 (out of 120,000 total) employees. Among the private companies, 104 are large companies and 44 companies with up to 15 employees. The certification – added Malfer – can in fact be developed by both large and small companies. Among the main results, company productivity increases and especially female employment. Last year, companies drafted 269 business plans (financed with internal, non-public resources) with 6,592 concrete corporate welfare actions. Other results – he highlighted – are: hourly flexibility index increases by 8% on average; female employment is growing (in 2021 from 39% to 42%), actions in favor of equal opportunities; the sickness hours and overtime hours of employees are decreasing “. Finally, Malfer presented the reward systems to promote the spread of this tool: “increase in contributions from the Municipalities; additional scores in public tenders; accreditation systems, benefits, digital business file with Unioncamere (certified companies have simplified bureaucratic procedures). “
This was followed by a succession of testimonies from artisan companies that today have received or embarked on the certification process.
“We represent small companies with 2.3 employees on average. A certification involves bureaucracy and also costs, so companies need motivation and a vision of the goals they want to achieve “said Marco Segatta, president of the Artisans Association of Trento, and added:” We would like to lighten the bureaucracy to help small businesses to approach this world. We have 275 employees with 65% women and we have introduced various measures, including flexible hours and part-time work ”.
“We have reached the fourth year of certification since 2018. Esperia srl has over 60 collaborators and 4 years ago we felt ready to undertake this path” began Maura Trainoni, owner of Esperia. “Certification does not end and becomes a corporate culture – she commented – it is a change of mentality on the part of both workers and managers. The year of Covid brought stagnation but allowed us to implement smart working within 2 days and it is still used in the company “. Finally, Trainoni underlined that “in 2022 we obtained the renewal of the certification: it was not easy to develop it in the production part that has hourly cycles on contingent shifts, but we have also succeeded on this front”. Finally, you stressed that the Family Audit should also work on eco-sustainability.
The last two testimonies came from Claudia Gasperetti, a partner of Elettronord srl, who first presented her family company that has been working in the area for 40 years and has 15 employees, and then said: “We are certified because it is important to us the loyalty of our employees and we started by creating work groups to understand their needs “from below”. We have given flexible hours and offered consultations with the psychologist after Covid, just to name a few. The employees are satisfied – she continued – they are demonstrating greater productivity in a serene atmosphere. The PNRR also wants gender certification – she said in conclusion – and, if this were included in the Family Audit, it would be a great relief for everyone ”.
To close the testimonies Marco Giglioli, director of Sovecar srl, who declared that he had started this path a month ago, stimulated by some recent layoffs of employees who had done so for lack of work-life balance actions. “Now we will start a listening operation among our employees and we are already kings registering a recovering birth rate. “
