People Management: Company nursery

Already a hundred years ago, Luisa Spagnoli, founder of Perugina, had established a sort of company kindergarten service for working mothers, forced to replace husbands who went to war and at the same time in difficulty to raise their children alone. The entrepreneur brought forward-looking innovation: women could breastfeed children during working hours, without wasting time and money and with the certainty that their children were safe not far from them.

The company kindergarten is a structure organized to accommodate children up to three years of age.
Made in the workplace or in the immediate vicinity, which can be accessed by the children of employees of sponsoring organizations. To contain costs or in the presence of a reduced number of guest children of employees, these facilities can accommodate a percentage of children who are not children of employees.

The creation of a nursery can represent for the promoting organization the expression of openness to the needs of the social context in which it operates and, more directly, a form of attention to the needs of its collaborators and their children.

The possibility of creating effective collaborative relationships with local administrations in the development of these initiatives is certainly not to be excluded, also taking advantage of some economic benefits.

The opening of a company nest can therefore contribute to achieving important objectives such as:

• to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of workers also through the reduction of the time to devote to the research and accompaniment of children in nursery schools;
• to encourage the return of female workers from motherhood more quickly and with a more peaceful attitude;
• retaining human resources by carrying out a retention action on workers with family encharges;
• to encourage, through support for family management, the opportunities for development and career of working women and the enhancement of the professional contribution of each of them to the life of the company.

For an organization, it is necessary first of all to know the needs of its employees with respect to the construction of a company nursery. Analysis of demand is a fundamental step for the design and start-up of a service, not to mention that today, in many organizations, the average age of employees does not at all suggest moving towards the provision of benefits aimed at the most tender age.

When the company implements demand detection mechanisms, it still creates expectations among employees whose repercussions should not be underestimated. It is therefore suggested to activate these surveys when there are already concrete hypotheses to implement the investment, while in the first phase it is more appropriate to proceed with an assessment based on the information held by the company and informal surveys.

If, following the surveys made, you realize that in your company the number of children concerned is excessively reduced to activate a company nursery, the opportunity to join one or more companies to jointly realize the service can be considered.

This will configure the case of inter-company asylum. Companies that decide to use an intercompany solution can use a form of direct or indirect management and consequently identify the most appropriate legal forms.

The most flexible solution seems to be to use indirect management by resorting to an external manager, to
whom the various companies commonly entrust the service.

In the event that there is an orientation in favor of direct management, there is the possibility of setting up a company for the management of asylum with the participation of several companies: this can take the form of a consortium or a temporary association of purpose.

The National Plan of Nursery Schools of 2001 made reality was of first instance, of the publication of art. 70 of the financial law for the year 2002 n ° 448 with which a fund was set up for the construction of kindergartens and early childhood education services, set at 50 million euros for the year 2002, 100 million euros for the 2003 and 150 million euros for 2004, to be distributed among the regions for the construction of nursery schools and micro-nests in the workplace.

In 2002, with financial law No. 289 for the year 2003, it was established with art. 91 the Revolving Fund for the financing of employers who provide nursery and micro-nursery services in the workplace, in order to ensure economic continuity in the reform plan for the organization of early childhood education services. Article. 70 of Law 448/01, also establishes that: “the costs of participation in the management of micro-nests and nests in the workplace are deductible from the income tax of parents and employers”. The extent of these deductions is subsequently established by the Ministerial Decree of May 17, 2002.

In addition, the criteria for access to financing are established in the context of the Revolving Fund for financing for employers who provide nursery and micro-nursery services in the workplace, in particular it is decided that at the moment the evaluation of the applications will take into account: their origin, the economic production conditions of those territorial areas, the demographic rate (children 0-2 years), the number of children without a nursery or waiting list and the employment rate of women of child bearing age (between 15 and 49 years old).

The implementation of such a service is undoubtedly demanding, but the repercussions on the organization are certainly positive in terms of improving the corporate climate and the image of the company.

Bibliography:

• People management, Mauro Tomè, Simona Deiana, Daniela Patruno, Loretta Redaelli
• Come e perché realizzare un asilo nido aziendale o interaziendale (How and why create a company or intercompany nursery) , Commune of Milano