Projects > A Social Enterprise – The Road to Success!

A Social Enterprise – The Road to Success!

Over the period between June 2006 and February 2008, PRO DONUM have been implementing the project “A Social Enterprise – The Road to Success!” which was supported by the European Social Fund within the Sector Operational Program Human Resources.

The project “A Social Enterprise – The Road to Success!” aimed to survey and monitor different opportunities and specific limitations to women and persons with family responsibilities on the labour market. It was focused on researching and resolving the relationship between employment and family responsibilities in the regions of Nitra, Banská Bystrica, Žilina and Prešov within the following target groups:
- Employees with family responsibilities in companies of more than 200 employees;
- Selected employers of more than 200 employees – 12 employers.
- Unemployed people with family responsibilities.

In case of companies the research covered their social programs – we wanted to explore the mechanisms how they create a pro-family environment for their employees with family responsibilities.
The research of employees with family responsibilities in the given regions was focused on their experience, opinions and suggestions for improvement of social programs in companies where they work, and their capacity to adapt to requirements of their job as well as their family life.
The research of job applicants with family responsibilities was focused on their experience with barriers when entering the labour market, the problem of combining work and family life, experience with job interviews, etc.
Results of the project and the research were presented in May 2007 in the panel discussion at the conference conducted on the occasion of announcing results of the 6th Annual “Family Friendly Employer” Contest conducted annually by the Slovak Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family.

Project Goals

What was the goal of the project?

The main goal of the project was to map pro-family policies in selected regions used by companies over 200 employees with a special focus on those companies that did not apply to the “Family Friendly Employer” contest conducted annually by the Slovak Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family.

Partial Project Goals:

  • Monitor social programs in selected companies and assess if they contribute to aligning work responsibilities with family life of employees;
  • Conduct empirical research among employees of selected companies and in cooperation with HR departments survey the application of social programs in practice;
  • Conduct research among job applicants with family responsibilities in cooperation with Labour Authorities; and identify the most frequent barriers that prevent them from entering the labour market;
  • Evaluate results of both research projects and prepare a publication that would serve employers as well as the target group;
  • Through properly selected communication tools educate the target groups (persons with family responsibilities on the labour market and job applicants with family responsibilities).

   

Which were the main activities of the project?

Preparing research methodology and methods

Within the research component questionnaires were prepared for 3 target groups of the project (employers, employees, job applicants).

Recruitment, selection and research: companies

In the regions of Nitra, Banská Bystrica, Prešov and Žilina we contacted companies over 200 employees that did not join the “Family Friendly Employer” contest.
We surveyed social programs in those employers. We were primarily interested to see which mechanisms they use to create a pro-family environment for their employees with family responsibilities.

Research of employees

Research of employees with family responsibilities was conducted in selected regions and companies. We were collecting experience, opinions and suggestions of employees related to social programs in companies where they work, and how are they able to combine professional and family lives.

Research of job applications with family responsibilities

In cooperation with Labour Authorities in the regions of Nitra, Banská Bystrica, Prešov and Žilina job applicants with family responsibilities filled out questionnaires where they answered questions on their experience with barriers to entering the job market, problems of combining professional and family life, experience with job interviews, etc.

Publication

Results of the research were transformed into a publication that gives a complex overview of:
Research goals;
Research results in companies monitored;
Recommendations of support plans for every company monitored;
Outputs from the research in Labour Authorities;
Statistical data.

The publication was distributed to:
Employers;
Expert institutions;
Authorities of Labour, Social Affairs and Family.
   

Project Publicity

The process and results of the project were presented to professionals and the lay public in several ways. The goal of publicity was to deliver information to the widest possible circle of people. Results of the project were disseminated by these basic forms:
Meetings with journalists and employers – “Business Breakfast”
6th Annual “Family Friendly Employer” contest
A press release, PR articles, interviews and reports 
Website

Read more: Project Publicity

   

Results of the project “A Social Enterprise – The Road to Success”

Employers realize that having a high-quality working environment and creating a sense of well-being at the workplace leads to employee satisfaction, lower turnover rate, lower absence, and lower incidence of accident rate - and thus higher productivity of labour. Employee satisfaction and retaining them in the company has a financial benefit for the employer because investments into training and further education of employees are not lost. We still do not fully appreciate the need of lifelong learning of employees and citizens in general. At the same time it is clear that only those companies that are aware of high quality of their social programs for employees with family responsibilities participated in the research.
On the side of our employers it would be necessary to observe good practices in creating social programs by companies with international investors in Slovakia. The practice of supporting employers and thus improving the corporate culture is a standard there; this in turn improves the work environment, working conditions and quality of work; and lowers incidence of sick days, work related accidents, and increases competitiveness of the enterprise.

In conclusion we would like to quote relevant resources that dealt with how accommodating employers tend to be towards persons with family responsibilities – those were written before our research and could be considered timeless and suitable for all employer institutions.

“Social policies of a company as a series of all measures that a company does for the benefit of their employees to improve their work satisfaction or to positively influence their life outside of the workplace could by conceptual stimulation of employees focus on the problem solving related to the combination of work and family responsibilities; this has an effect on social stabilization of the company and could be measured by subjective (e.g. employee satisfaction) as well as objective (e.g. economical prosperity of the company) indicators.” (Jusko, 2005: 7-8)

“Previous research and interviews with employers clearly suggest that accommodativeness of employers is reflected not only in higher work performance but also in higher loyalty of employees towards the employer, higher competitiveness, etc. It is a mutually conditioned interaction with the win-win principle for both parties. It is beneficial for the company if people are satisfied and they feel appreciated and supported, their work performance is significantly better.”
(kariera.hnonline.sk, 7 December 2006)