The office, but also the factory, as a place for sharing and protecting the values of freedom and democracy. The 2022 edition of the Global Inclusion event, entitled “The wheel of growth: businesses, democracy and freedom”, starts from a model of corporate social responsibility. A marathon under the banner of inclusion – with over 3,000 participants connected – opened by the director of the Sole 24 Ore, Fabio Tamburini, who underlined how important it is, especially in a context of war in which the defense of rights seems to be retreating, to continue on path taken by companies.
On the stage of the Elfo Puccini theater in Milan, the actors of this path of civilization who presented their inclusion projects, achieved above all through sharing, listening and involvement. Not companies, but communities, in the Olivetti sense of the term, in which two apparently irreconcilable philosophies intertwine: the market, capitalist economy and the egalitarian, democratic economy.
Banco BPM’s journey of inclusion goes beyond words but starts from them. The first stage is represented by the search for the truest meaning of the word respect. And here the first choice is essential, explains Licia Ciocca, Inclusion, Diversity and Social Manager of Banco BPM “because the interpretations of the term can be different. They range from a respect that represents deference to authority, to the acknowledgment of a person’s exceptionality. But the interpretation in which we have identified is oriented towards the recognition of the value of each person, an interpretation characterized by reciprocity”. Once the word has been defined, the project comes to life and develops through listening, the involvement of one thousand nine hundred managers and the organization of forty-four workshops. The word respect is therefore declined through five different relational spheres: the man-woman relationship, the boss and colleague, bank and customer, relationship between peers, bank functions and the network. Then, for each relationship, the active behaviors of respect, the obvious ones of non-respect, or the passive ones of respect are studied. Once the behaviors to be followed have been identified, the challenge of putting them into action begins, inserting them into any type of relationship. Listening, empathy, valorisation, reciprocity, cooperation are the clear words that emerged from the discussion.
On the other hand, the project implemented by Autostrade per l’Italia called the Ability Garden is a garden where abilities flourish. A model of work inclusion that affects young people who received the recognition of law 104 during their school years, but who, after leaving the training course, collided with the difficulty of being accepted into the world of work, with the consequent isolation from social life and relationships outside the family. Through a method oriented towards the capability approach, these kids have the opportunity to show their aptitudes and experiment with different activities. Not a placement conditioned by the percentage of disability, which instead represents an impoverishment of the person, but a job aimed at the emergence of her potential. Fourteen young people took part in the project and after an on-the-job training they found their place in the company, regaining a space that belongs to everyone by right, but, as explained by Alessia Ruzzeddu, Diversity, equity and inclusion manager of Autostrade per l’Italia , “also contributing to the growth of the organization and corporate culture”.
Focused above all on gender, race, sexual orientation and gender identity is the work of TIM Brasil. “Starting from our ‘universal’ values of freedom, respect and courage, TIM Brasil defines the policies and initiatives on the characteristics and priorities that emerge from the social reality of the country, with particular attention to the issues of gender and race inclusion. The goal is to promote programs of ‘productive social inclusion’, in the sense of qualifying support with opportunities for economic income, training and awareness of the value of the person in the community.”