Productivity up by up to 30% in companies with welfare plans
The largest increase in average annual turnover is seen in companies with between 50 and 249 employees
by Valentina Melis and Claudio Tucci
Key points
Corporatewelfare is not just a package of 'goods and services' that looks after the well-being of workers, sometimes of their families. For an increasing number of companies it is a true 'industrial policy' measure that generates value, especially, somewhat surprisingly, forSMEs. This is supported by the first annual report of the Corporate Welfare Lab, the new Observatory realised by Luiss Business School in collaboration with Edenred Italia, which is being presented on Monday 16 February in Rome.
Data
The numbers are quite clear. The introduction of every new welfare service, e.g. supplementary healthcare, reimbursement of school expenses, incentives for mobility or leisure, generates an average increase of 2.1% in per capita turnover.
Not only that. The study, conducted on 600 Italian companies, highlights a real 'productivity spread', with an impact that rewards small and medium-sized companies in an extraordinary way. In small companies, those between 10 and 49 employees, those who adopt a structured welfare plan record an average turnover of EUR 6.5 million, compared to the 5.1 million of competitors without one: a positive differential of 26.7 per cent.
In the medium-sized companies (50-249 employees) the competitive gap grows further: companies with structured welfare achieve average revenues of 33.9 million euro, clearly outstripping companies without welfare at 26.1 million. This surplus in value is worth EUR 7.8 million, i.e. a growth of 29.8 per cent. The trend is also confirmed in large companies, where structured welfare accompanies a turnover differential of 19.5 per cent.
In short, a strong push to support businesses and workers, which coexists with the more traditional productivity bonus, facilitated by the last Budget Law with a taxation dropped from 5 to 1 per cent, up to a maximum of 5 thousand euro gross per year (private workers with incomes up to 80 thousand euro are eligible).
