(Finance) – The Tuscan stage of the event took place today in Florence roadshow dedicated to the territory to spread and promote the culture of corporate welfare among small and medium-sized companies, with the presentation of the Welfare Index PMI Tuscany 2024 report. Welfare Index PMI is the index that evaluates the level of corporate welfare in small and medium-sized enterprises and is promoted by General with the participation of the main ones Confederations Italian: Confindustria, Confagricoltura, Confartigianato, Confprofessioni and Confcommercio. The event is the third territorial focus that follows that of Milan and Mogliano Veneto and precedes the Welfare Index PMI 2024 Report, which will be presented in Rome on June 13th.
Barbara Lucini, Head of Country Sustainability & Social Responsibility of Generali Italia and Francesco Bardelli, Chief Health & Welfare and Connected Business Development Officer of Generali Italia and CEO of Generali Welion declared: “As we have seen with the stages of Milan and Mogliano Veneto, Welfare Index PMI has evolved into a new phase which involves the launch of a roadshow to study the local reality and meet with local authorities and businesses. It is a sign of the maturity of the project, which has been monitoring the evolution of corporate welfare in Italian SMEs for seven years, and which intends to increasingly promote the partnership between institutions and businesses to relaunch welfare systems and innovate service models . At Generali we strongly believe in the social role of business and, as the Tuscan SMEs testify, that a solid awareness in terms of corporate welfare allows us to record a greater positive social impact and better business performance”.
The businesses Tuscan they constitute an advanced experience of social commitment and offer a significant contribution to the welfare system in the area. A commitment demonstrated, even before the statistical data, by the company stories that Welfare Index PMI has been collecting every year for seven years. More than 400 businesses from this region participated in the latest edition, and almost 2,000 in total, many of which have ensured continued membership by participating in multiple editions.
They are different Tuscans Italian best practices of corporate welfare: 7 of the 121 companies classified in 2022 as Welfare Champion, the highest level according to the Welfare Index PMI, and 34 of the 565 Welfare Leaders, the next highest level. There are around 397,000 businesses present in the region, 6.2% of the national total, 111 businesses for every thousand inhabitants. A capillarity across the territory which represents a social as well as economic value, as it determines the impact of corporate welfare on local communities and the ecosystem in which they operate. There are 789 thousand families with at least one family member employed in the private sector in Tuscany, out of a total of 1.7 million inhabitants in the region: the companies in the region are able to reach, with their welfare programmes, 47, 1% of families of all social levels.
The strength of regional production system it generates 6.4% of the Italian GDP and contributes significantly to almost all production sectors. The foundation of the social role of businesses is the ability to guarantee high levels of employment and promote social mobility among all strata of the population. The employment rate in Tuscany, 68.6%, is significantly higher than the Italian average, equal to 60.1%.
As for the distribution of corporate welfare levels in the Tuscan provinces. As can be seen, the corporate welfare initiative is spread very homogeneously throughout the area, with minimal differences. The North-West area, consisting of Mass And Carrara, Lucca, Pisa And Livornoreaches a higher share of companies with a high or very high level of welfare (24.3%), while the Eastern band, Florence, Pistoia And Lawn, has a slightly lower share (21.1%). The South-East band, made up of Arezzo, Grosseto And Sienareaches a share very close to the regional average (23.2%).
Companies with a high level of welfare are characterized by a high degree of proactivity, defined as the propensity to develop autonomous company initiatives and not only in application of the provisions of the national collective agreement. There are many implementation methods: from supplementary contracts, especially in larger companies, to company regulations, to unilateral company measures. Another determining factor is the presence in the company of skills specialists or the ability to use skills professional external: in fact, the positive correlation emerges between the level of welfare and company skills, identified as knowledge of the rules and tax incentives, as well as between the level of welfare and the willingness to bear additional costs to implement the policies. Finally, the dimension corporate plays a very important role: larger companies have not only greater financial resources but also dedicated skills and catchment areas whose size is a factor of efficiency for welfare initiatives. It is therefore essential to help smaller businesses overcome these barriers with common services, promoting associations between businesses in the area and cooperation with public bodies and third sector organisations.
The analysis published in the latest edition of the national Welfare Index PMI report is particularly significant because it highlights the positive impact of welfare on results corporate throughout the cycle of the Covid-19 context, in 2020 as a resilience factor and the following year as an accelerator of recovery. From the main results of an analysis carried out on a sub-sample of 258 Tuscan companies, it emerges that the higher the level of corporate welfare, the more the turnover per employee grows.