There is mensa company serving seasonal products, the lecturea Water House to fill the water bottles, the same thing for the detergentsa fridge where employees can be delivered to expense after having ordered it online (so as to take it away before returning home), another place to leave the items destined for laundrywhich will come back clean and ironed, as well as a emporio company where you can buy seasonal products from partner companies at discounted prices. “We also had the company kindergarten, but we closed it because it was rarely used,” he explained Martina Ballerio, whose family has been at the helm of Elmec for 3 generationsan Italian company that deals (among other things) with IT security, cloud computing, renewable energy and 3D printing.
The kindergarten “was rarely used” probably also because in Elmec, which is based in Brunello, a short distance from Varese, the age of employees is very low: 34 years the overall average, which even drops to 24 in the departments with the highest technological specialization, such as those related to information technology and cybersecurity.
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Elmec employs 700 people and its campus, which we had the opportunity to visit, extends over about 130,000 meters and consists of 4 business unit (Informatica. 3D, Solar e Cybergon) to which is added a data center powered 100% by renewable energy. And walking from one office to another, outside the structures, in the parking lot with charging stations for electric cars, taking a look at the solar panels that power part of the buildings or the safety devices that allow (or prevent) access to certain parts of the company, the clear sensation was that of visiting an American company, one of those giants of technology that we often envy, but maybe they are also here with us. We just often don’t know.
Above all, we got the feeling that it is a nice place to work: “We try to be a welcoming workplace – Ballerio explained to us – because today the challenge is not only to find the right people and hire them, but also to make them feel good, treat them well and prevent them from leaving”. In the last 3 years, Elmec has invested approx 45 million euros for the renovation or expansion of the structures and also has a team dedicated to the so-called personal care, that is (simplifying) the care of the staff, which deals with more or less concrete initiatives that make employees feel at ease. Some are the ones mentioned at the beginning, but it is also worth mentioning the Bonus Mom (an economic contribution for pregnant women), the Bike Bonus (500 euros if you cycle to work at least 50 times a year), the carpooling company, a recycling market, where you can leave and take away used products, and one of reconditioned electronics, to buy at discounted prices.
Cybersecurity, data, solar energy and 3D: what is done at Elmec
Elmec is one of those companies in the tech world, large or even very large, of which little or nothing is known, why they tend to work behind the scenes: founded in the seventies, today it is present in a hundred countries around the world, has customers in the fashion, publishing, large-scale distribution and automotive sectors and in 2021 it had a turnover of 129 million euros.
During our visit, we were particularly impressed by the commitment in 4 operating sectors. First of all, cybersecurity: the Cybergon division (on Italian Tech we talked about it at the beginning of 2022), born in 2019, but somewhat active since 2015, employs a team of 55 people who look after about seventy customers, mainly providing backup, training, disaster recovery and configuration services for company computers and software. Then, the cloud computing and storage: in main data center (one of the few in Italy to be Tier IV certified)where just under 200 people work, the company manages the equivalent of about 5,000 computers for 500 customers, for a total of 10 petabytes of data.
Still: the plant for the 3D stampwhere the company uses machines from HP, Desktop Metal and 3D Systems (which cost between 50 thousand and 450 thousand euros) and which in the years of the pandemic collaborated with many Lombard hospitals to rapidly produce valves for breathing helmets, filters for masks and other useful devices to help patients and healthcare professionals. Today much of the effort is also dedicated to the concept of repair and reuse: “We want to spread a culture of 3D printing – explained Ballerio – and show that if a piece of something or a spare partit is possible, convenient and more sustainable to print it instead of buying it back “.
And in this perspective, that of respect for the environment, it obviously also moves Elmec Solarwhich between 2021 and 2022 went from the installation of 350 residential (and 60 industrial) plants to 450 and 120 and sees the future market in marked growth, despite the problems caused to the supply chain by the war in Ukraine and the chip crisis : “At the moment there is an excess of demand that companies are struggling to keep up with – explained the CEO of Elmec Solar, Alessandro Villa – but the prospects are excellent, and only in Italy there is still 70-80% of buildings to be covered, including private and industrial properties ”.
google maps: Elmec’s headquarters in Brunello
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From what we understand, the springs that push Elmec’s work, net of understandable ones reasons related to profit, above all two: treat your employees well and treat the environment well. Which seem like two different things, but often go hand in hand: the company has its own Sustainability Report (you can read it here)last year it hired more than 80 new people, provided over 16 thousand hours of training and at the same time, thanks to the use of renewable energy and the application of the principles of the circular economy, it avoided the emission of 160 thousand kg of CO2.
“We try to do what my grandfather always told me – Ballerio told us again – We try to to lead by example and to convey a little of what we have had“. It is a way of acting that is somewhat reminiscent of Google’s old “don’t be evil” motto: don’t be bad, don’t hurt. Confirming the fact that this corner of Varese could be a bit like the Italian Silicon Valley. Were it not that it always rains, even in the middle of a sunny day in early June.