Both personal and professional growth at Italchimica, which invests in the cultural welfare of its employees
(Padua, Italy) Italchimica has inaugurated its ‘literary café’, that is a company library and devoted a communal area between the offices and production area to display volumes that can be perused through during coffee breaks and taken home to read.
The initiative is part of an extensive series of initiatives to promote the well-being of employees: “We believe that in the company we must cultivate human values, as well as professional ones, making room for people and their personal growth,” says HR manager Stefano Belloni. “Books and culture are one of the ways of achieving these goals”.
There’s a variety of themes on the shelves: from biographies of famous people to educational books to develop soft and hard skills and novels, too. All readers can leave a review of the book they have read and thus share opinions and knowledge, thereby encouraging interaction in a working environment with more than 200 people. “We want the company to be not just a place where you work, but where you live and the literary café stimulates relationships and mutual knowledge,” says Belloni. The positive reactions from employees and the large number of requests for books on loan motivated the company to invest in a wider selection of volumes.