Corporate welfare, together with sustainable technology and digital transition, is at the centre of the HR agenda for the most innovative companies and those who are more sensitive to the enhancement of their human capital.
Corporate welfare: supporting the business by supporting people
Corporate welfare, with its more wellness-oriented meaning, which we know as corporate wellbeing, is a tool known to all companies to offer goods and services to support the professional and personal needs of employees. The real revolution consists in the integrated concept of welfare and wellbeing and by choosing the support of technology, in favour of a digital and innovative development from which both people and companies can benefit.
Today, the spread of integrated corporate welfare platforms to independently manage the offered services and initiatives, with flexible plans that can be adapted to the most diverse needs, is common practice in many companies. It is clear that the role of these two tools is strategic not only for increasing productivity and motivation, but also in terms of Employer Branding and Corporate Image.
The new corporate Welfare: sustainability and digitalization
The new paradigms to structure corporate welfare and wellbeing plans are based on two key concepts, which are the same on which the principles of the Next Generation EU and the National plans are based: sustainability and digitalization.
Sustainable technology is not a utopia, but a concrete example of the application of the principles of sustainable development to all fields of human life, starting with the economy and the process improvement in a sustainable way. It is in this perspective that the new concept of welfare should be read, which is based on these macro intervention factors:
- Personal expenses directly or indirectly related to work
- Expenses for family members or dependents (support for caregivers - parental leave)
- Investments to improve work-life balance
- Green mobility policies
- Investments to improve smart-working and hybrid work
Imaging concrete measures that companies can implement, alone or by organizing themselves in territorial networks, we refer to:
- nursery schools and company baby parking to support families, allowing flexible hours, optimization of travel and better work-life balance;
- economic additions to the allowances for parental leave, with a focus on paternal figures and their role in supporting gender equality;
- services related to people care, assistance to the elderly or other non-self-sufficient family members, to facilitate the reconciliation of work-life times and provide support (including psychological) to people in trouble;
- training plans aimed at equal opportunities and inclusion;
- creation of new professional figures such as the company “diversity manager” or the “mobility manager”, to support company policies and well-defined sustainability strategies in the areas of diversity & inclusion and mobility.
Corporate welfare, supported by innovative technologies, also plays a social role and becomes a determining factor for female empowerment. Companies increasingly are favourably looking at services that promote the women employment and improve their career opportunities, facilitating work-life balance.
Compared to organizations that have already implemented smart working or remote working methods, the new challenges require to keep a high level of attention to the needs of employees and promoting the adoption of technological solutions that facilitate their involvement: the lack of daily physical interactions and the absence of sharing physical workspaces should not in any way affect the quality of corporate communication and the levels of employee engagement.
This is why the first digital tools on which companies must focus are not strictly linked to an organizational area but to the whole company to facilitate the operations of all collaborators: it is a question of investing in digital platforms for videoconferencing, on functionalities to support instant messaging and cloud-based management software. At the same time, all workers should have access to these tools, and needs to get the best conditions to be able to make the most of all their potential: it is therefore essential to include adequate training on digital technologies and their use in welfare plans, in order to make them accessible to everyone without any discrimination. The issue of inclusion cyclically recalls how sustainable development is an integrated concept, which affects the company organization at various levels, with an impact on the company efficiency, as well as on performance and its governance.
From this quick analysis, the role of HR clearly emerges as a guide for the entire organizational structure through the digital transition: welfare is one of the key factors to ensure that digital transformation goes hand by hand with the sustainable one, to ensure effectiveness and efficiency to change management strategies.
Glickon Glow offers practical and flexible solutions to support HR and companies through the digital transition in a sustainable way, in order to guarantee optimal results and employees’ satisfaction.
