When focusing on SMEs it is evident that pinpointing needs, in that context, is more simple than in a job centre/service, also considering that data and characteristics of people working there, with a range of contract types, are already present in the personnel department. However, it is convenient to look back to fields of knowledge mentioned and defined in paragraph 3.1.1:

• Gender-disaggregated employees’ p
•  
•  

and especially to

• individual balance needs.

Designing a reconciliation plan could be challenging and sensitive work, especially if there are no precedents in such context to get inspiration from. The following chart may be helpful to outline the reconciliation plan by presenting possible specific aims and tools required to implement them.

With regards to a broader knowledge, in general, it is widely accepted that maternity and paternity leave are the most known and used tools while, with regards to workplace related organizational reconciliation measures, flexible time, part-time, remote working and in-company child-care are the most known ones.

In the following chart, possible reconciliation plan goals and corresponding viable actions are presented.

There are several SMEs which implemented reconciliation measures: some of them did it in a structured way, some others introduced only few measures.

Overall it is considered that it is significant to introduce such measures and provide an efficient response to reconciliation needs of SMEs employees: to develop WLB measures and practices is part of a wider renovation process which will have positive outcomes for both employees and enterprises.

To this end, SMEs define their focus by answering the questions: “Where are we at now?” “Where would we like to be?”

In order to answer to these questions, the enterprise needs to weigh in their initial position with regards to reconciliation on the grounds of these categories:

• lack of practices
• initial state
• ad-hoc practices
• strategy

To this end, see the self-assessment chart presented as a possible support to the organization, preparing the ground to run an assessment of all that pertains to the promotion of WLB.

How to use it:

In the left column, under every heading, there are key words describing the current state of the organization with regards to the introduction of WLB practices and measures.

The right column shows possible developments to be implemented structurally.

See below a combination of the 4 suggested levels of action.

“What is private life – work balance? What are the issues of private life – work reconciliation?”

To answer these questions, we need to start by getting introduced to the concept of work – life balance. Acting on these problems means to focus on the context where the problems arise: the work place and different life needs.

Tackling work life reconciliation issues in an organization implies, as a first step, to identify and get to know the reconciliation needs of the employees (needs analysis). This phase starts with gathering information to support the organization to make the future WLB strategy suitable for the needs of both employees and the enterprise.

For example:

• review existing policies (mandatory leaves, …) and practices: do they work?
• gather information on the reconciliation needs of employees (commuting, after-school facilities, flexible hours options, remote working…).

Developing a business case includes also actions undertaken by enterprises as a direct response to the employees needs and it may consist of:

• Consider existing normative and legislative requirements (e.g. parental leaves);
• Identify key-elements for the enterprise and on the organizational level, such as: attracting/retaining employees, increasing performance or productivity, creating and sustaining employees’ commitment and retention, reduce the stress of employees…)
• Run a costs/benefits assessment to underline whether the implementation of WLB measures has had an impact on the health of employees as well as an increase in productivity;
• Consider the distribution of the issue in the organization, e.g. in an event of an enterprise, or as an HR initiated event.

Where the business case had not been developed in recent times, arrangements should be made for a revision.

In this case, what should be checked is whether:

• the business case is still relevant, considering the current enterprise strategy, employees’ needs, possible recent law changes, for example about leaves….
• Unions were involved at the moment of drafting it.

One of the main questions occurring in a change of strategy is: “Where would we like to be?”

The answer to this question is usually in the company vision statement and, thus, in the description of planned future arrangements in a specific time frame (five, ten years). The answer is also in how the organization of work will be when the targets set to meet the reconciliation needs of the employees will be reached.

Once the organization has set out vision statement, the management, the employees and possibly the unions, will start to identify the key-areas of actions/policies to launch the plan, the material outcome of the vision statement.

To develop WLB measures and policies is strictly connected to their identification:

• flexible hours, extension of leave according to needs and not to legislative directions, remote working, …

It will be essential to introduce measures, tools and policies to respond to WLB needs expressed by the employees in order for those to be deeply rooted in the structure of the enterprise,

Once established the reconciliation needs in the key-area of action, the next step is to determine possible solutions. In this phase, the enterprise starts the process of examining a range of viable actions.

This phase thus considers the wide range of solutions, all different types of actions/policies for private life – work reconciliation fitting in different categories such as:

• Flexible organization of work;
• Leaves;
• policies for those who have care obligations;
• actions on health and well-being (work – life stress prevention and management);
• culture of WLB. Intervene on the organizational model to change the behaviour of employees and management (work organization and leadership type).

How to develop a WLB plan?

For each of the areas of action and solutions mentioned in the previous phase, the development of a plan may include:

• a general objective for each area of action;
• specific goals and actions;
• accountability (clearly stating who’s accountable for the implementation of the plan, who, for example, are the project managers, those who have obligations in their areas of work);
• Timing (including crucial steps);
• Identifying systems of outcome assessment and essential information in evaluating progress;

Communication strategy is paramount especially when undertaking any process of managing change. Human beings are inherently resistant to change and introducing new reconciliation policies entails change. Resistance could be based on people’s behaviours as, often, reconciliation measures are perceived as benefiting some categories at the expenses of others.

A robust communication strategy aims at showing how policies and benefits with regards to quality of work are inclusive of all the employees. Communication needs to be planned and integrated in the wider WLB plan.

The implementation of the WLB plan implies:

• engaging staff in the implementation: make people feel as part of the project
• accepting that new processes need time.
• be flexible and adapt according to what is needed.
• be aware of the eventuality that timing may change during the process.

The organization monitors the plan in order to evaluate whether the planned activities are actually taking place. The monitoring of the plan could be organised around annual deadlines, the end of the solar year/fiscal year and it often shows in a report on achieved goals with regards to the what was set in the beginning.

To assess the impact or the validity of policies and practices introduced on the structural level in the enterprise means to answer the question: “Did the introduction of WLB policies make any difference for the staff? And for the organization?”

The issue of WLB is constantly changing, as much as organizations, needs of individuals and frameworks do. In this phase it is convenient to reassess the content of the plan trying to detect new needs of the employees which may have emerged in recent times as well as those needs arising from different sources.

It will be fundamental to look into reconciliation measures operating in the enterprise. This is useful because the existence of a constant assessment system, already points to the fact that a reconciliation strategy is in place in the enterprise.

There are different levels of testing that the validity assessment could take into account.

There are three levels characterized by the intensity of activities and awareness of WLB practices developed by enterprises.

Level 1 pertains to workers satisfaction.

The level of employees’ satisfaction/approval of policies and measures implemented by the enterprises is assessed through ad-hoc tools (e.g. survey). Although this is the basic level, it is crucial for enterprises because it supports the sentiment of employees about WLB issues and it can provide significant feedback about re-addressing and implementing reconciliation measures in the following years.

(Find attached example of level 1 TOOL)

Level 2 pertains to the validity of reconciliation measures provided by the enterprise. It also monitors the percentage of employees using/participating to the different measures by analysing variations over-time.

(Find attached example of level 2 TOOL)

Level 3 pertains to the relationship between the use of WLB measures by workers and the productivity rate of the enterprise. The aim is to confirm whether reconciliation measures provided for by the enterprise are in place and attuned to an actual improvement of the enterprise performance (productivity rate, revenue, etc).

(Find attached example of level 3 TOOL)

T0 stands for the first year of the implementation and it is required to set the starting point in order to monitor and assess the coming years.

Employees benefits and collective bargaining

Employees benefits generally consist of the total of benefits and services provided by the enterprise to its employees conceived to improve their private and working life.

By amending the Income Taxes Consolidated Text (art. 51) and the incentives provided for by 2016, 2017, 2018 Stability Laws where substantial modifications with regards to benefits and services, extending their range of use as a form of alternative to efficiency bonuses, as far as it has been agreed upon in the enterprise.

The Stability Laws provide for incremented tax incentives for enterprises which draft employees’ benefits plans involving social partners, namely an agreement between enterprise and unions. In this way, the innovation on enterprise bonuses to be paid through vouchers for the purchase of services, functions only along with decentralized bargaining. In the past, employees’ benefits were provided unilaterally by enterprises to their employees. In this way they were not subject to ordinary taxation.

However, to the extent they fell within contractual obligations, taxation applied. With the 2016 Stability Law (and subsequent laws) result bonuses and benefits provided for by second level (company) bargaining were tied to enterprise bargaining and transformed through tax incentives into vouchers giving access to a whole range of services and employees benefits. The employee can also choose to convert the bonus into cash (rather than services), without any tax burden. As of today, public employees are still excluded from employee benefits.

With the 2017 Stability Law, and especially 2018 Stability Law, the favourable tax regime was expanded with regards to potential beneficiaries and employee benefits services.

In 2017, the yearly amount of performance bonus exempted from ordinary taxation rate has been increased up to EUR
3 000 (EUR 4 000 when the employee gets actively involved the plan management), limited to a maximum of EUR 80 000 (previously – Stability Law 2016 – EUR 2 500 up to a maximum income of EUR 50 000)

Concerning the services, the range extended to include insurance coverage about being non self-sufficient and having serious illnesses, including family members, in addition to social services and education and/or training for the children.

The 2018 Stability Law introduces public transportation in the employees’ benefits providing for a 19 % deductibility from expenses related to local public transport passes (up to EUR 250). The 2019 Budget Bill did not change the income limits, including reconciliation measures in the Family Policies Fund. In 2020 there were no substantial changes, except for the rise of the tax exemption limit for electronic luncheon vouchers (from EUR 7 to EUR 8, and contextual reduction for those in paper, from EUR 5.29 to EUR 4) and an intervention on mixed-use company cars (with a new taxation related to emissions).

The current range of services part of employee benefits varies greatly, from family income support, to education and parenting, to health care, up to free time and business-related concessions. This definition includes all methods and models of flexible work, hours and location provided to the employee to facilitate the managing of private life and professional life balance.

For a summary, refer to the following chart divided into services for the family, for the individual and ancillary services.

According to data from the Ministry of Labour, in 2018 on 9 389 active contracts, 3 870 included employee benefits measures. Until recently, most of these measures and policies were available only in big enterprises. These enterprises can rely on robust actions packages as well as on bigger economies of scale. Small enterprises have had the most difficulties in accessing employee benefits measures.

The implementation of these measures is also linked to the distribution of the enterprises on the ground (higher presence in the North and centre- north) and to the production sector, first industries followed by tertiary sector, construction and social services.

More recent studies, such as OCSEL-Cisl (2018)[1] show an increase in the effect of employees and fringe benefits, even though those are still predominant in medium-sized and big enterprises. It is worth noticing how second level agreements in medium enterprises (from 50 to 249 staff) are overtaking big enterprises (250 – 999 staff) for 37 % to 22 %.

Small enterprises are also more active in comparison to their recent past. There has been an increase in bargaining about issues related to education and childhood, followed by perks for buying goods and services, prices regulated by vouchers and home-work transportation.

Local social bargaining

Local social bargaining is another tool to improve private life – work reconciliation. Local social bargaining is used more and more often which, backed by agreements reached either verbally or through platforms, aims at meeting the needs and necessities of a specific local context. It involves unions as well as administration and local associations. This bargaining supplements the traditional bargaining in the enterprises represented by the employer part and the unions.

In many contract renewals, employees’ benefits and sectoral welfare (specialized in subjects such as social security and complementary healthcare, including non-self-sufficiency) have become part of the bargaining. In some cases, these agreements also meet local bargaining and consultation, with the participation of local administrations and private service providers. For example employee benefits plans are beginning to be widely adopted with regards to children, and in agreement with local administrations, it gives the possibility to parent and children living in the same area to use of part of the services (a reserved percentage).

Social partners are an active part in the laying out of employee benefits plan and they are also part of local consultations regarding public policies and service systems. The play another crucial role through the form of patronato, a very similar institution to the citizens advice bureaus. Patronato is a form of organization recognized by the Ministry of Labour which provides social assistance and advice for workers and citizens; it is direct expression of unions, employers partners or associations.

Patronato advises and gives orientation about: maternity, parental leaves, elderly, disability, relation with bureaucracy, social exclusion, inclusion of non-EU workers and their families.

Furthermore, it provides information and technical assistance about:

• social security;
• social services, pensions and taxes
• employment and labour market
• health and safety on the workplace
• Family and succession law (right to health and safety; prohibition of dismissal, resignation, right to return to work; maternity and paternity leave; support measures to increase birth-rate and to families; daily leave and sick child leave; parental leave; national and international adoption and foster care; children with serious disabilities; wages and social security terms and conditions).

Because reconciliation is a complex process and it involves different multiple actors besides families (administrations, enterprises, service-providers and social partners), it is essential to ensure access and provide valid information and directions with regards to available alternatives.

Law No 328/2000 (framework law for the reform of social assistance), extends the competence of patronato (and obviously local administrations) to those of social secretariats. In the frame of a local governance of social services, patronato is a fundamental public service in advising citizens about their social rights. In that sense, patronato is the base of the relationship between public administration and citizens by enabling the citizens to claim their rights.

^[1] Ocsel- Cisl, (2018), National observatory on second-level bargaining, Report, Rome

See below two good-practice summary sheets of good practices implemented on the European level with regards to WLB.

For other available information on good and promising practices refer to: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/good-practices.

For other available information on good and promising practices refer to: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/good-practices.