We are facing the progress of companies, this figure emerges clearly from the Welfare Index PMI 2022. The report, now in its seventh edition, analyzed the level of corporate welfare of over 6,500 companies (tripled compared to the first edition), belonging to all production sectors and every region of Italy.
The report analyzes several categories of intervention: provision and protection; health and care; reconciliation of work-life; economic support to workers; training and development of human capital; support for education and culture; rights, diversity, inclusion; working conditions and safety; social responsibility towards consumers and suppliers; community welfare.
According to this report, over 68% of small and medium-sized enterprises in our country have exceeded the basic level of corporate welfare tools made available to employees. Corporate welfare has become widespread in recent years and, statistics in hand, today we can say that the majority of Italian companies has achieved a good awareness of this issue, certainly thanks to the events of the last period.
The number of SMEs with a high and very high welfare index has doubled, from 10.3% in 2016 to 24.7% in 2022. Among companies with over 250 employees, 70.7% scored high, while for 66.8% of SMEs, with between 101 and 250 employees, the level of welfare is described as very relevant. Finally, micro-enterprises are doubling (from 6 to 9 employees) with a high index, rising from 7.7% in 2017 to 15.1% in 2022.
The improvement of corporate welfare policies has also had positive effects in terms of sustainability and social impact, as they have had a significant impact on the employment growth of women and young people.
The expert committee has therefore identified corporate welfare as "a decisive tool through which to invest more resources in key and important sectors in PNRR projects".
According to the results, companies with a more advanced welfare have achieved productivity performance "far above average" and have grown much faster in profits and employment. For example, in 2021 the profit on turnover of companies with a very high level of welfare was double that of companies at base level: 6.7% against 3.7%. But not only that. The Report also showed that corporate welfare is an excellent tool for resilience: the more virtuous SMEs "have kept better in the pandemic and shown greater momentum in the recovery".