EPHA Finalist – CUF Hospitals and Clinics, Lisbon (Portugal) for its project “The CUF Inspira Programme”
1/ What makes your project so special?
The families of our employees are a very relevant stakeholder and several measures are aimed at family members. This way, our impact is more structural and more significant for each person who works with us.
2/ What does this award mean to you and your teams?
A special recognition that enhances the need to continue on having this concern with the employees and their families, allied to the certification of a family-responsible company. Increasingly we cannot dissociate the employee from what he is as a person and in this sense we increasingly value the conciliation of personal / professional life.
THE PROJECT
Since the foundation of our company, the concern of the well-being of our employees has always been there and can still be seen in our culture which also materializes in our values of Human Development and the Respect of the Person’s Dignity and Well-being. In order to keep on providing our excellence in healthcare services for the society, it’s always been our mindset to provide a healthy working environment, where people enjoy collaborating and whose voice can also be heard, so that we can keep improving constantly, with the new trends regarding human and talent caption and retention.
With the increase in activity and expansion of CUF to new geographies in recent years, it is essential to be a company that cares and that continuously promotes happiness for the employees, and a good conciliation between personal and work life balance, where employees have access to measures that promote access to education (upskilling), get their work recognised and also initiatives that enhance the importance of starting a family.
– “Rede de apoio ao colaborador” (Employee support network) – free and confidential access to specialists in the areas of psychology, legal, financial and social work. In response to the current challenges, the lines of support for the well-being of employees and direct family members were reinforced, namely in psychology and coaching.
CUF’s contributions to its employees
- “Cabaz Escolar” (School basket) – support for the purchase of school materials for employees’ children.
- “Ocupação de tempos livres” (Leisure time occupation) – Support for leisure time occupation activities.
- “Nascer na CUF” (Born at CUF) – Monetary contribution towards the payment of expenses for the birth of an employee’s child that took place at the CUF Maternity.
- “Presente de Nascimento” (Birth gift) – Creation of a savings account for employees’ newborn children.
- “Bolsas GO UP” – Award of scholarships to employees, not graduates, encouraging their personal and professional development.
- “Bolsas de estudo da Fundação Amélia de Mello” – scholarships for children of employees of CUF and other José de Mello Group companies for undergraduate and masters’ degrees.
- “Cabaz de Natal” (Christmas Basket) – Christmas baskets were offered to employees produced by the BIPP Association, which promotes the social and professional inclusion of adults with intellectual and developmental difficulties.
- CUF25+ – Gift in recognition of seniority and dedication to 30 employees who in 2022 will complete 25 years in the company.
This positioning towards the employee well-being and personal-work-life-balance will not cease here and CUF will continue to develop measures and initiatives that continue to show us as a reference employer, which can be evidenced, for example, by the certification as a family-responsible company that was renewed in 2022.
A huge impact
Having this concern of an internal social responsibility, creates a disruptive model with the concern of a good conciliation between personal and work life balance, where employees have access to measures that promote access to education (upskilling), get their work recognised and also initiatives that enhance the importance of starting a family, which is also verified by the renewal of the certification of EFR, family responsible company, which we are the only portuguese health company that has it.
In 2022, in the program CUF Inspira, we highlighted the reach of 4278 employees from every hospital unit and CUF offices, knowing that most of the measures that we provide are available for each employee. We do believe that promoting these transversal processes provides an opportunity of access for each employee, that with the diversity of professional categories, will continue to contribute for the wellbeing of the employees and exceptional clinical service.
Almost every measure that we’ve been developing had a significant raise of adherences in 2022, which is a reflection on our boost of communication of these measures.
For example, the “Rede de apoio ao colaborador” (Employee support network), had close to 100 new adherences that was also accomplished by the internal program of mental health awareness and new benefits for the employees. In education, the “Cabaz Escolar and Ocupação de Tempos livres” had an average of 200 new adherences in each measure while in birth measures, “Nascer na CUF” and “Presente de Nascimento” had an average of equal value for both measures. The biggest raise was on the “Cabaz de Natal”, that is offered for the categories of lowest income, that had almost 600 new employees receiving the basket for the Holidays.
We intend on continuing to enlarge these benefits, to keep on boosting the communication in order to have these measures and requirements on regular easy access for each employee, besides having it on our intranet available for everyone.
For additional information, consult CUF’s Integrated Report
