Location:
Objective of the practice:
The primary objective of the Family Audit standard is to promote and support family well-being in the workplace through the promotion of work-family balance.
Subtopics of the practice:
Work life, work-family balance, public polices, family policies
Geographical scope of the practice:
Italy
Short summary of the practice:
Family Audit standard is a certification tool elaborated in the Provincia Autonoma di Trento to establish the level of attention that a workplace gives to the work-life balance of its employees.
Detailed information on the practice:
The “Family Audit” standard aims at certificating the attention given to work-family balance. The “Family Audit” certified organisations are therefore oriented towards the corporate well-being of their employees, in line with specific parameters indicated in the standard’s guidelines. The Guidelines describe and regulate the Family Audit process, the roles and tasks of the organizations that apply to the Family Audit and the various actors that act within the process. Certification requirements are also defined in the Guidelines. To obtain this certification, an organization, from companies to municipalities and non-profit organizations, undergoes an auditing process that involves variable costs based on the size of the organization. The idea originates from the German standard “Familie und Beruf”. The first testing happened from 2005 to 2008. Throughout its implementation, the two parameters considered for the monitoring were the number of organisations and employees involved. Family Audit conceives the balance measures as a useful instrument to improve the well-being of workers’ families as an objective of public interest, in a worldview linked to territorial welfare. Investing in the reconciliation of work and life is a medium-long term strategy that the Department for family policies pursues in the belief that it constitutes an effective driving force for the growth of companies, for the increase of productivity, the participation of women in the labour market and birth rates.
Resources needed:
Results achieved:
Data collected in May 2018 by the provincial agency for the family, birth rate and youth policies indicate that the organizations involved to date are 213 and involve more than 100 thousand employees. About a third of the organizations (77 out of 213) are public. Certified enterprises concentrate in the North of the country, especially between Trentino and Lombardy.
Potential for learning:
The standard Family Audit is easily replicable. Its guidelines and processes are known, and its model of governance is thoroughly analysed. Family Audit traces a good example for a concerted effort and collaboration of different political entities at the national level towards the goal of family well-being. Work-family policies are a strategic field to put effort into in order to foster the culture of wellbeing in general. Moreover, the Family Audit covers a broad panorama of themes, that can be useful for other programmes and measures, such as work organisation; corporate culture; diversity & inclusion management; internal communication; corporate welfare and people caring; territorial welfare; new technologies.
Further information:
https://famiglia.governo.it/it/politiche-e-attivita/famiglia/conciliazione-famiglia-lavoro/family-audit/informativa/
Keywords:
Work life, work-family balance, public polices, family policies, local level
