In the last three years pre-Covid, 88% of companies in the supply chains have adopted responsible measures on personnel training, corporate welfare, sustainability environment, relations with the education system, the world of culture and the third sector (against 55% of companies not in the supply chain). A percentage that rises to 92% in the South.
This is what emerges from the last one survey of manufacturing firms between 5 and 499 employees created by the Tagliacarne Study Center on behalf of Unioncamere, according to which companies in the supply chains show greater attention to the well-being and development of human capital as well as environmental protection, and the quality of social relations in the area where they operate .
Going into detail, half of the Italian companies in the supply chains have invested in the training of their personnel, 43% have focused on products and/or processes with a lower environmental impact; 40% pursued activities aimed at protecting the health and/or well-being of their employees. Looking at the data of companies not in the supply chain, we discover that the same parameters reach 25%, 24% and 16% respectively.
Particular attention to corporate welfare is shown above all women-led businesses who work within the supply chains (46% against 39% of the other companies in the supply chain), while within the next three years, a third of the companies in the supply chains expect to make more investments in green.
“Until today we knew that companies that work in the supply chain are better performing and more inclined to develop innovation processes, now we have also verified that they are more attentive to corporate well-being and sustainability issues thanks to their innate propensity to network with other subjects”, underlines the general manager of the Tagliacarne Study Center, Gaetano Fausto Esposito, who adds "precisely for this reason they can be an extraordinary channel for bringing the objectives of the dual digital and ecological transition contained in the Pnrr to the ground, because they have a natural vocation to invest in the environment and in training to adapt the skills of their staff to this ride".
“The companies in the supply chain show a strong relational skills with the various actors of the community in which they operate, contributing to the growth of the human, cultural and environmental capital of the territory”, reads the study which shows how, in the three-year period 2017-2019, 44% of companies in the supply chains collaborated with schools and universities for internships, apprenticeships and school-work alternation initiatives, against just 17 out of 100 of companies that do not operate in the supply chain. 28% supported cultural initiatives, 43% invested in environmental sustainability against 24 out of 100 among those not in the supply chain. “A strategy that these companies more sensitive to sustainability are also pursuing by having a greater dialogue with the world of third sector: the share of companies that, between 2017 and 2019, established relationships with the non-profit sector (voluntary associations, etc.) is clearly higher in the case of companies operating in the supply chain than in the others (12% vs 2 %),” the report points out.
As for the future, the companies in the supply chain say they are even more convinced of increase relatedness within the next three years with its employees both in terms of welfare and training. Between 19 and 2021, 2013% of companies that collaborate with each other expect to increase initiatives to protect the well-being of their employees against 12% of those not in the supply chain. Also the share of companies aiming to increase investments in personnel training is higher in the case of companies in the supply chain than in the others (10% vs 5%). And as many as 33% of companies in the supply chains are ready to invest more in green, a double share of those of companies not in the supply chain (14%).
In this context it must be remembered that they are in everything 17 supply chains identified by the Ministry of Economic Development, a universe that has over 3,8 million enterprises - 75% of the Italian entrepreneurial system -, employs more than 12 million workers (71,4% of the total non-agricultural economy) and generates 2.500 billion euros in turnover (78,9% of the total industry and services). Collaboration between companies that have interconnected activities along the entire value chain - from creation to distribution - of a good or service - is an important factor of competitiveness for entrepreneurs.
