Corporate Social Responsibility, as officially defined by the European Community, consists of ‘the voluntary integration by companies of social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their dealings with their stakeholders’. This definition was expanded and articulated by the European Commission in its Communication on a renewed EU strategy 2011-14 on Corporate Social Responsibility.
The nerve centre of corporate social responsibility governance models is undoubtedly human resources, the people, who increasingly represent a strategic corporate asset.
There can be no social responsibility if people are not at the centre of the company's growth process, with specific regard to its commitment to its employees in investing in their training.
A number of Unioncamere Excelsior surveys in recent years have focused on analysing the commitment of small and medium-sized enterprises to human resources training as a pillar of sustainability. The results of these surveys show the complex problem of implicit training, i.e. learning of a non-formal type, which is voluntary but not certified, which is not measured, which is not included in continuous training statistics, but which is widely used by small and micro enterprises almost as a daily practice; a great difficulty and a powerful limitation to business and, even before, social development. People often receive coaching or summary instruction, which does not allow them to grow in specialised skills, effectively blocking potential development of technical competence and related professional and personal growth.
The DG group makes the difference, when it comes to training and developing the potential of the individual, compared to other small or medium-sized companies, because, as a service company, it believes in the value of the individual and his or her potential for industrial and social development. Our project sees a structured training path, divided into areas of competence built ad hoc on the individual with classroom and on-the-job training, we have seen the birth and growth of partnerships and collaboration with schools and training organisations in the area for the completion of training courses (PTCO, apprenticeships, curricular internships) and for the insertion of future generations entering the world of work, we have foreseen and created specific roles that take care of the insertion the growth and training of the people who work with us, we offer transversal courses for the leadership management of those who are called upon to hold roles that involve team management, so that they have the right tools to be able to face any challenge and orient employees towards increasingly professional functions, more easily spendable in the labour market as well as being of interest to the person for his or her individual growth and relationship with the territory.
Passionately training employees and choosing consistent partnerships is one of the keys to corporate and social success: only with a ‘holistic’ approach can a company begin a journey that can leave its mark on the transformation of markets and, even more importantly, of society, one that focuses on enhancing human capital and employee satisfaction, an investment that goes beyond the very skills needed to improve production and competitiveness, aimed at enhancing the company's reputation and credibility and generating positive, lasting effects on society.