Born from the combination of university research and managerial skills, IDEM Mind the Gap helps organisations turn the gender gap into an actual lever for development. In Modena, this start-up uses data, processes and organisational culture to build increasingly inclusive, attractive and competitive companies. For FARE INSIEME, Giampaolo Colletti interviewed Isabella Colombo, Business Developer at Idem
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Inclusion. Equality. Diversity. There are words that have become part of the public debate and risk wearing themselves out. They are indeed important words, but they are also words that can lose their meaning by being repeated too many times. That is why the story we are about to tell starts off with a different approach. It starts from numbers. Because data lies behind every gap, and a decision lies behind every data. And again, behind every decision there is the possibility of changing the future of an organisation.
Company profile. We find ourselves in Modena at Fondazione Marco Biagi, a place that has been studying changes in work and industrial relations for years. It is here that IDEM Mind the Gap was set up in 2020, a university start-up born from the collaboration between professors and researchers of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and JobPricing, a consulting firm specialised in remuneration policies and in the analysis of the Italian job market. It is a combination of academic rigour and managerial experience that has given rise to an organisation capable of turning a topic that is often addressed in terms of values into a measurable and strategic organisational issue. IDEM Mind the Gap was born from only an apparently simple question: why is there still such a difference between what organisations declare and what actually happens on the inside? “The first gap we encountered is precisely that between declarations and organisational reality. Many companies recognise the value of gender equality, but they often find it difficult to transfer it into processes, indicators, responsibilities and everyday decisions,” illustrates Isabella Colombo, the company’s Business Developer. This is where a model took form combining data analysis, organisational consultations, paths for improvements and support to certify gender equality.
IDEM works with private businesses, public bodies, foundations and tertiary sector organisations wishing to understand their level of internal equality and build actual improvement processes. It is a task that involves multi-disciplinary skills: economy, labour law, human resources management, business organisation as well as policies of inclusion and data analysis.
Measuring to understand. The point is that gender equality is not tackled as a merely ethical question. It certainly is that, but it is also a question of competitiveness. “When a company has its processes measured, it understands that equality is not just a value that can be communicated. It becomes a lever to improve the functioning of the organisation, attract talent, retain skills and build a more effective leadership,” observes Colombo. Measuring to understand. This is the principle at the basis of the start-up activities as, often, surprises come precisely from numbers. Companies that believe they already have a good female presence find out that they are progressively losing women holding roles of responsibility. Organisations who are convinced they are applying meritocratic criteria identify significant differences in access to training, growth paths or reward systems. Others realise that maternity and paternity leave continue to have a very different impact on professional trajectories. “The most difficult problem to tackle is not always that related to wages or the career path. The actual crux often concerns invisible organisational habits. Those everyday practices that may seem neutral but that produce very different effects on people,” says Colombo. And this is where the value of the method emerges. IDEM uses its own proprietary method to measure gender equality and help companies along their certification journeys so that certifications do not just represent a rubber stamp or an administrative step, but rather a tool with which to understand the organisation and set-up an ongoing improvement system.
The evolution. In Emilia, this approach finds fertile ground, as this is a region used to measuring itself with work, production and corporate social responsibility. Looking ahead to the future, IDEM Mind the Gap imagines organisations increasingly capable of reading their data and using them as a way to improve. Companies where inclusion and performance are not viewed as alternative objectives but as elements of a same journey. Because true organisational innovation also passes through the ability to appreciate the talent available. In this way, gaps are not bridges with slogans but, by observing reality, measuring it with rigour and building processes capable of generating change. Because the future of work is not only based on technology, but also on the ability to appreciate, value and make people grow.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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