Continuing a policy launched in 2003, Sacmi has presented its 2008 Social Audit, a document that offers a global analysis of the cooperative’s operations and illustrates its attentiveness to conscientious, scrupulous corporate management.
For Sacmi the Social Audit is an ever-more important tool for acknowledgement of business-related social/environmental issues, a source of information that complements and completes the economic, financial and competitive elements of management. Aware that the Social Audit is a boost to far-reaching, effective communication, Sacmi has once again, for 2008, drawn up its Social Audit in the knowledge that it is a key indicator of its role in society, its striving to satisfy the needs and wants that affect the very concept of
sustainable corporate development – for the wider community and the workforce alike.
The Sacmi Social Audit stems from a desire to provide ever-clearer information on corporate activities and results, to compare and assess, to give a voice to employees and all others who interact with the company, to plan strategies and provide information on the social and environmental effects of corporate decisions.
Slightly briefer than the 2007 edition, the 2008 document illustrates the cooperative business model, describing the social responsibilities and ethics of cooperative democracy: a model that kept AV (added value) – the link between fiscal accounting and social auditing – at high levels throughout 2008 too.
Yet the real value for Sacmi lies in human resources, in which Sacmi invests heavily: such investments take the form of improvements to the workplace, continuous upgrading of PPDs (personal protections devices), growing investment in employee health and safety (e.g. all workers in certain production areas over the age of 40 – retirees included – benefit from a free hospital check-up), plus high-quality training of the workforce. Training programmes involved 734 employees in 2008 for a total of 17,900 training hours. All this means that Sacmi has a very low employee turnover and a resignation rate well below the national average.
Good management and administration of resources has an equally, if not more important effect on positive relations with partners on both the customer and supplier sides. In both cases, Sacmi creates partnerships by applying the values of openness, impartiality and fairness that global markets have always responded to; those values also have a positive impact on the local community. Sacmi provides support through many local, ongoing initiatives that are synonymous with care in the community, offering support in the fields of health, culture, education, leisure to both its own local community and in developing countries. In 2008 Sacmi also channelled a consistent percentage of profits towards donations and subsidies and invested in environmental protection and energy saving programmes.