One in three young people are afraid to have children due to lack of a support service network

In Italy almost one in three young people is afraid of having a child because of the lack of a public or private support network. This is stated by a survey carried out as part of the Observatory on the demographic crisis of the Magna Carta Foundation. To carry it out, a sample of 1,072 people was taken, divided between young people aged between 17 and 28 and adults over 29. To these were added representatives of some specific categories, namely 400 teachers, 60 health workers and 70 psychologists. As the director of the Fmc Observatory, Annamaria Parente, explains, the aim of the research is 'to investigate the root causes of the birth rate. Today we are asking how work is changing and how young people's expectations are being transformed. The data tell us that among the under-35s, only those who work in family-friendly contexts and with flexible working hours are satisfied'. This was the starting point for the day organised by the Foundation with Asstel in The Dome space on the Luiss Guido Carli campus in Rome, which was entitled, 'Young people change, work changes: an intergenerational pact', which was attended by, among others, the Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities Eugenia Roccella, Gaetano Quagliariello, President of the Magna Carta Foundation, Massimo Sarmi, President of Asstel, Annamaria Parente and Gian Carlo Blangiardo, respectively Director and Scientific Coordinator of the Observatory.

Among the issues that emerged from Magna Carta's research is the gap between company policies and the needs of workers, particularly younger workers. Two-thirds of the Italian companies surveyed, in fact, do not have structured listening tools related to work organisation, and only a minority have integrated employee welfare into their human resources strategy. Causing the postponement, and often even the renunciation of parenthood, are the difficulties in reconciling private life and work, which according to the sample surveyed, has a score of 9 out of 10. Time appears to be the key resource for those who want to build a family, and its absence or the lack of services make it difficult to even think about having a child. This is precisely why corporate welfare should start from here and that is by offering more time to the new generations.

One part of the study is dedicated to the role that corporate welfare systems can play. The study was carried out in collaboration with Jointly, Engineering, Wellmakers by Bnp Paribas and Prysmian, which represent 30,000 workers and have 900 operations in Italy, as well as six other large companies in the food, cosmetics and clothing distribution sectors. In order to understand the measures most appreciated by workers on the issue of parenthood, a number of good company practices were recounted during a round table attended by Laura Di Raimondo, Director Asstel, Gian Luca Orefice, Chief People, Culture & Transformation Officer Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Antonio Liotti, Chief People & Organisation Officer Leonardo, Anna Zattoni, President and Co-founder Jointly, and Stefano Colasanti, Head of WellMakers by BNP Paribas. More generally, the research shows that among the tools most appreciated by workers are hybrid work, which two-thirds of companies rate 8.5 on a scale of 0 to 10 in terms of effectiveness, reconciliation policies linked above all to hourly flexibility: among these, for one-third of companies, part-time work receives a score of 9 out of 10 and for the same share, hourly flexibility 7.5 out of 10. Also highly appreciated are corporate welfare platforms, parenting services, economic leave and incentives and the gender pay gap.

For the Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities, Eugenia Roccella, the data 'tell us that denatality is not an Italian disease but a real pandemic, which affects the whole of Europe and many areas of the world, and which concerns above all the countries with greater development. Diagnoses based only on economic factors would therefore be wrong and misleading. Economic leverage is important, and our government is investing heavily in the family and the birth rate. But so is understanding that there are cultural factors that need to be broken down in a new way: certainly not by turning back from the path of development, but by promoting a new approach to parenthood, starting with reconciliation and recognition of the social value of motherhood'. While corporate welfare can do a lot, it certainly cannot do everything, and collaboration between the public and private sectors is needed. What seems most urgent, at least with respect to the objectives of this research, is to succeed in productively combining public policies with more extensive and innovative corporate welfare programmes, centred not only on economic benefits but on a broader idea of personal well-being. The first proposal put forward to the political decision-maker by the Magna Carta Foundation together with the partner companies is to enhance the experience of the so-called 'diffuse' or 'proximity' crèches, a model that links companies, private school infrastructures and the territory to guarantee a care service for employees with small children. The proposal of diffuse crèches could be further enhanced by integrating it with a 'babysitting voucher' provided by companies to employees' families: a predetermined number of hours of babysitting, available to new parents according to their needs. The integration of the voucher with technological innovation could allow companies to include services such as 'last minute baby-sitting' in their packages, providing a valuable, timely and 'back-up' solution when faced with personal or professional emergencies. A third proposal is to strengthen public/private initiatives to partially or totally reduce the cost of summer centres (up to 90 days) and to stabilise parental leave policies. Finally, the tax credit should also be extended when companies demonstrate that they are able to plan incremental or additional investments expressly aimed at supporting reconciliation, parenthood and smart working. For the Foundation, it is crucial not to lose the value of a more agile and flexible working time culture, based on alternating presence and distance.

It is precisely from telecommunications that a very positive signal on the subject comes, since 97% of tlc companies apply smart working and 76% adopt hourly flexibility models. As di Raimondo explains, this is 'a frontier sector, and the challenge for those in charge of human resources is played out on several levels: training people, preparing the girls and boys who will be entering the workplace, and stimulating institutions to collaborate with companies to tackle demographic, digital and organisational transitions'. We cannot then forget that 'digital natives face an increasingly volatile world of work, characterised by liquid organisational models and the growing integration of smart technologies in production and business processes,' Di Raimondo continues. It becomes crucial for companies to understand how this generation faces work transitions in an increasingly connected world, and how they must evolve by offering solutions and contributing to public policies that counteract the declining birth rate in Italy'. In order to stimulate the ongoing process of transformation that concerns parenthood but also skills, flexibility is not enough, we also need "the strengthening and structuring of instruments such as the Expansion Contract and the New Skills Fund, which are fundamental to facilitate the processes of generational change and professional updating. In addition, Asstel hopes for additional support for the Bilateral Solidarity Fund for the TLC Sector, which could become the fulcrum of the sector's active policies'. All this because 'in an ageing country and where young people's access to work still has too many barriers, the real challenge is to create inclusive ecosystems, where generations reinforce each other. The complexity of work requires overcoming traditional hierarchical structures. We need agile and transversal models, capable of facilitating intergenerational cooperation and enhancing all professional ages'.