“The well-being of our employees is an integral part of Pirelli's ethical and work culture.” It is the start of the Welfare Global Guidelines that Pirelli has put down on paper, not last year after the Covid emergency, but in 2016. The guidelines, adopted by the Headquarters and extended to all the countries in which the group is present, are the backbone of a programme that is deeply rooted in Pirelli, which go far beyond being formalised, since they are part and parcel of the company's history and very DNA.
“The pursuit of this objective – the policy continues – is through welfare activities, processes and tools designed to create a cohesive and collaborative work environment, providing the necessary support for all employees and their personal needs.”
For Pirelli, Welfare is essential to achieve and maintain a corporate culture based on dialogue and mutual respect, because only in a working environment of this type can commitment and successful results be achieved.
Pirelli's global welfare strategies are based on four main pillars.
1. Working life and working environment. An appropriate organisation of work methods and work spaces promotes sustainable, high-quality work/life balance, consistent with the professional challenges every individual and team faces. In this area, for example, even before the arrival of Covid, Pirelli introduced working from home, a tool that allows employees to strike a balance between their personal needs and those of the company, to foster the digital transformation of the company through the dissemination of new technological tools and to provide greater autonomy and individual responsibility in achieving results, so employees can manage and organise their own work activities in a flexible way. In order to facilitate the balance between work and family life, Pirelli has an in-house concierge service that allows employees to get someone to run their errands for them, from paying postal orders to collecting parcels. Laundry, tailor and shoe mending services are also available. For those who want to cycle to work, there are two covered parking areas in the Bicocca head office and a changing room with showers.
2. Support for families. This involves promoting projects to support families with a particular focus on educational opportunities. One highlight is the Bicocca crèche for children of employees, a high-profile educational project which the honorary professor of general and social Pedagogy at Milan-Bicocca University, Susanna Mantovani, launched and which has seen Pirelli among her supporters since the opening of the crèche back in 2006. Among the other initiatives for the children of employees, those which have proven especially popular include the summer campuses, which are totally free of charge, as well as the assignment of numerous scholarships for schools and universities: 140 grants worth approximately Euro 400 for those attending secondary school and 25 grants worth approximately Euro 1,500 for those attending university. These initiatives are supplemented with the partnership with Intercultura: a collaboration that each year offers up to 4 one-year scholarships at secondary school abroad.
3. Lifestyle. The implementation of health support and prevention programmes aimed at promoting healthy eating and caring for both body and mind. Here, we discover Pirelli's long-standing commitment to welfare, because the creation of the Pirelli Outpatient Clinic situated in Bicocca dates back to 1926. All the specialist health visits carried out at this specialist centre inside the company headquarters building are free of charge: from a cardiologist to a nose, ear and throat specialist, a dermatologist and an orthopaedic specialist, as well as many others. And in addition to specialist visits, laboratory tests, ultrasound tests, physiotherapy and much more are also free of charge. 8,000 specialist visits are provided each year and 25,000 healthcare services. In order to care for mind and body, Pirelli has also activated a range of on-line courses, which are completely free of charge, for ‘Mindfulness', held by specialists in the field, and of well-being (yoga, stretching, Pilates, physical exercise) with the possibility of exercising from home with a dedicated trainer. These tools have been supplemented, since the beginning of the Covid-19 emergency, with a family helpline that gives employees the possibility to receive useful support in the management of family and social problems. This helpline was set up to support employees who are also “caregivers”, who care for a relative who is not self-sufficient, and people who are experiencing moments of major change within their household. Last but not least, conferences on many different themes are periodically proposed to all employees, all aimed at creating sensitivity, raising awareness and good practices on the issues of well-being and health - their own and that of their family.
4. Leisure activities. Responses to employees' personal needs through a range of social and recreational services and initiatives outside the workplace. To meet this need, Pirelli has developed a portal, called Pirelli People Care, where everyone can find opportunities, services and solutions at agreed prices that provide a wide choice from travel to leisure activities, both sports and cultural. Moreover, through Open Days or other sociable occasions (drinks, days on the snow in winter,...) organised in many Pirelli Group offices, the families and friends of Pirelli people can meet and spend time together for a day, also using their work spaces in a different way. Finally, sports teams consisting of employees are supported in various company offices.
It is also worth noting that Pirelli, for its Headquarters' employees, due to an agreement with the entities in question, allows those who wish to convert their Annual Bonus into individual welfare services, selectable and usable in a completely personalised way from an extensive array of services to choose from. To support this choice and bear witness to the value attributed to welfare in general, Pirelli also further increases the amount of individual welfare credit by providing an additional sum of twelve percent of the total credit.
