Over the next 24 months, the 1,400 workers of the Italo railway transport company will see an increase in the offer of services to reconcile life and work and for the family, which represent one of the pillars of human resource management policies. Given the desire to improve the offer of services, the management has decided to take a further step by joining the Conciliamo Bando of the Department for family policies.
The investment
This is a project that involves an overall and shared investment of approximately 3 million euros based on 4 pillars. The first is support for parenting which is fundamental in a society where the average age of resources is around 35 and 33% have children: 80% are children under the age of 10. The second is health protection and then support for caregivers. And, finally, the balance of workloads between men and women: in Italy gender equality has always been a priority, in fact 50% of employees are women and also cover various operational roles that until a few years ago were considered to exclusive male prerogative.
Training and the cultural leap
Since inclusion and reconciliation are very cultural issues, the path that Italo has chosen to take also includes a lot of space for training and raising awareness of people, through various types of initiatives. The first, realized by joining the Conciliamo Bando, will concern psychological support and will start at the end of the month. These are 6 completely free meetings for employees following traumatic events. “Sustainable” training will be a central theme in Italo’s near future: all employees will be adequately trained on issues such as inclusion, trust and sustainability: approximately 15 hours will be dedicated to each resource. In addition, ad hoc training courses have been designed for caregiver workers, offering them various guidance tools that guarantee the necessary protection for the category.
«People are at the center of our strategy – says Gabriele Cerratti, Human Resources & Organization Director of Italo -. We train them and include them in projects, because we believe that the company’s growth path also includes their personal and professional growth. Training today no longer has to be exclusively technical and oriented to the specific work sector, which is why we are launching courses that will train the employee in the round, helping him to manage the needs of private life as well “.
The birth bonus and flexibility
To this is added a large catalog of initiatives, among which the company cites, for example, the bonus given at the time of birth, will initiate the new mother or the new father to a training course on parenting, will provide additional hours of leave during the first year of life of the child in addition to those that it will guarantee for inclusion in the nursery school, will offer a contribution to school fees and summer camps and will make scholarships available for children (from elementary school to high school, rewarding the merit).