As part of our 2020-2025 strategy, we are making positive interventions to embed the ethos of diversity and inclusion into policy, processes and everyday practice, working to eliminate barriers to participation and success.
In 2021 we started to analyse the gender dimension in our mode of operation, based on the Gender Equality Assessment Implementation (GEAI). The data we collected show that Penta has achieved 54,15% of GEAI. Our will is to achieve even greater equality rates in the coming years. The way we will achieve this will be outlined in our Gender Equality Plan (GEP), our structural plan of objectives, actions and targets. As part of the plan, a Gender Equality Work Group will be set up to implement and monitor the progress of GEP. Our commitment to high levels of equity does not stop with our employees. We strive to a build gender equality in research and training, both on the side of researchers and trainers, and on the side of patients and trainees day by day.
We have significantly improved our Company welfare. In 2021 Penta introduced a facultative paternity leave package. Where the Italian law sets a 7-day paternity leave 100% financially covered by the Social Security Service, Penta has added two more weeks, 100% financially covered by the Foundation and three-month remote working reserved to new fathers.
We are building teams by nurturing our employees’ sense of purpose, a key element of our social responsibility. In October 2021 we held our annual retreat with all our staff members and close collaborators; this is an important opportunity to engage our people, understand their needs and help them make sense of what they do.
Because we believe our success hinges on highly qualified and motivated employees, we launched an Education call in March 2021, open to all our employees, to support their individual career plans in a transparent manner. The Education call provided for 17,900.00 euros to fund job specific training; 53.8% of our employees benefitted of financial support, with a total of 97.5% applications accepted. In addition to this, all Penta Project Managers attended a Prince2 Project Management training and obtained the certification.
“Our objective is to reduce the gender gap, enabling women to pursue their career paths. As we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe fathers have the right and the duty to share the parental burden and responsibility with mothers. If this does not happen, women’s careers will remain only an option. The Italian law is still behind but our facultative paternity leave package is in line with European best practices. We can do more, this is only the beginning. I strongly believe in equal parental leave as something that Europe and companies should promote together.”
Giuseppe Bonura, Penta Foundation, Chief People, Communication and Culture Office