Consistent with previous years, the Lifeed initiative, originally launched in 2015 under the name "MAAM", "Maternity As A Master", continues. This initiative aims to support family reconciliation, with a particular focus on women's participation in the world of work. The programme, which is accessible in digital format, aims to make the parenting experience a "master" in transversal skills, which are also essential for professional growth and considered particularly useful when returning to work. The aim is to provide a greater awareness of the changes and skills acquired through the experience of caring for a child.
The programme is aimed not only at new mothers and fathers but also more generally at parents of children up to the age of 18. During 2023, the programme achieved the participation of about 1,200 users, who had the opportunity to enhance the skills acquired during their parenting experience. Employees who join the initiative can take advantage of online self-coaching courses that help them achieve a work-life balance, experienced not as a conflict but as an opportunity. These are webinars for inspiration, reflection, skills training and sharing on issues related to work-life synergy, well-being and the development of transversal skills.
The MultiMe®Finder programme, a tool introduced in 2022 and offered by Lifeed in cooperation with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, was expanded in 2023. This programme has been made accessible not only to parents, but to all employees who wish to improve their awareness and develop their personal and professional growth skills. The goal is to allow users to explore and discover their skills and roles in different life experiences, both personal and professional. In this way, the programme aims to increase awareness of the roles played in different experiences, enhancing one's talents with greater flexibility in an inclusive perspective.
The Company has set itself the objective of contributing to the strengthening of measures and pathways aimed at promoting active parenthood, also as levers to combat the phenomenon of denatality and to encourage an increasingly balanced distribution of care burdens. This included 4 parenting support seminars for all employees, innovative and structured parental involvement programmes with a kick-off and 6 dedicated project knowledge webinars.
In addition, in 2023, Poste Italiane promoted the "Fiocco Giallo" (Yellow Ribbon) project, which, with the aim of offering concrete support to new parents and celebrating the arrival of a child, offers employees who become parents through birth, adoption or pre-adoptive fostering a box of quality products for baby care and hygiene.
Through the Support for Active Parenting Policy, already formalised since 2022, the Company has defined a clear framework for women before and after the maternity (or adoption) period. The Policy provides for support and development pathways aimed at the individual and organisational well-being of people and focuses on programmes to support the parental role and actions to support the status of women. The aim is to offer a concrete response to colleagues who need to reconcile family life through inclusive policies.
With it, in fact, the Company outlines a people development and management strategy in line with the tools already in place and develops a modern parenting model aimed at supporting women, before and after the period of biological or adoptive motherhood. The Policy, in particular, envisaged the centrality of listening in order to correctly identify the person's needs and individual requirements, and the identification and development of a customised accompaniment programme based on the professional profile of the person and their maternity and personal care needs. Attention is also paid to the role of fathers and to the promotion of sharing care responsibilities for the strengthening of work-life conciliation mechanisms and of measures capable of promoting environments that are culturally ready to accommodate these needs. These initiatives are driven by increasingly innovative approaches and perspectives, which aim to improve the quality of life of employees and promote a sustainable and fair working environment.
With this in mind, the Policy provides for the definition of similar dedicated management paths for male personnel to:
- increase the number of male employees taking paternity leave;
- encourage the development of a culture oriented towards collaboration on care issues, because the inclusion and development of women's careers also passes through the rebalancing of care requirements with a view to the equal distribution of family responsibilities.
The Group, in fact, recognises the importance of parenting for men as well, being aware that it represents a significant opportunity to improve skills such as empathy, listening, understanding of others, patience and communication, and offers free and systematic parenting support seminars for all staff on paediatric prevention and parental support in the developmental and relational journey with children.
The "Mums At Work" project is part of the actions outlined by the Support for Active Parenting Policy, an initiative aimed at providing corporate coaching programmes to support women during the period of return from maternity leave, in order to facilitate achieving a balance between private and professional life. In particular, new mothers receive support for approximately four months from internal company coaches who assist employees in reformulating and refocusing their goals and in reconciling new family needs with the return to their work duties in the company. By 2023, the project had successfully involved more than 70 new mothers, highlighting the positive impact of the initiative in the business context.