SENSENET – SOCIAL ENTERPRISES SUSTAINABILITY NETWORK Erasmus Project

Project Title

SENSENET – SOCIAL ENTERPRISES SUSTAINABILITY NETWORK

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The cooperation between the 7 partners of the European project SENSENET (France, Denmark, Italy, Portugal and Romania) has enabled the successful delivery of all the intellectual productions expected within the 36 months of the project, translated into 6 languages, which can be consulted on the project website www.sensenet-project.org :
The 1st output is a state-of-the-art (60 pages) of existing diversity and inclusion practices focused on improving the performance of managers and human resources (HR) in Social Economy organisations aiming at strengthening the potential of the most vulnerable workers. It has been written by the co-responsibles FACE and APROXIMAR, with the support of the other 5 partners and the collaboration of 81 participants. This production allowed to collect data on diversity management in different European countries, promoting mutual learning and exchange of good practices between the project partners, and to build the following deliverables.
The 2nd output is an online self-diagnostic tool for managers and HR managers to assess their performance in terms of managing diversity and inclusion (D&I) within their organisation. It has been developed with the cooperation of managers and HR to :
– raise awareness on D&I management in SE organisations and companies,
– help them to become aware of recruitment practices or management methods implemented within their own organisation, especially when they are not sufficiently inclusive (not encouraging the inclusion of vulnerable groups within their teams) or socially innovative.
The questionnaire is divided into 5 dimensions: organisational policies within organisations, recruitment processes and policies, talent management, performance management and inclusive leadership and then, the user receives recommendations adapted to its level of maturity.
The tool has been widely disseminated on social networks and during the project dissemination events. The opinions of 67 users were collected through a satisfaction form. This method was also used for each intellectual production. It appears the result of the diagnosis depends strongly on the involvement, sensitivity and knowledge on D&I issues of the respondent, thus demonstrating the relevance of developing a comprehensive learning model (IO4).
The 3rd production is a learning programme on diversity and inclusion for SE managers and HR. It aims to provide them with the necessary skills to integrate diversity into their recruitment and management processes and thus improve the performance of their organisation in terms of cohesion and social innovation. The programme is divided into 6 modules: D&I business case, D&I policies, attracting talent, developing talent, retaining talent and team management. The training format has varied from country to country, ranging from 6 to 24 hours and can be delivered both online and/or face-to-face. The programme was presented during the pilot courses undertaken by the project partners as well as at the 5 national closing events. All the results of these pilot courses are available online in a compiled report. However, these results have been negatively impacted by external events such as the transport strike in Paris in December 2019 and more widely by the Covid-19 related measures. At the end of the training, the 119 participants mentioned in their evaluation questionnaire that they would recommend the training and that they wanted to keep the link between them, which is in line with one of the objectives of the project to create an active network of committed structures.
The fourth and final output is divided into two deliverables :
– The networked learning model written in the form of a short and attractive guide to enhance the results and promote understanding of the process. It represents a visual element that will facilitate the dissemination of the project tools and the integration of new stakeholders into the SENSENET network.
– The end-user instruction guide for the implementation of the model presents coaching methods adapted to small organisations to help them engage their team towards more diversified D&I practices, starting with awareness-raising exercises. These methods were tested during the oline staff training activity carried out in an original, interactive format that mobilised 33 participants over 3 days.
The objectives of the project were achieved despite the context of the global health crisis. However, monitoring the impact of the post-training project to assess the appropriation of the tools by the participating organisations was hampered by the lack of availability of the participating managers and HR staff due to containment management.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 346167,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

FONDATION AGIR CONTRE L’EXCLUSION & Country: FR

Project Partners

• FONDAZIONE GIACOMO BRODOLINI
• CENTRUL PENTRU PROMOVAREA INVATARII PERMANENTE TIMISOARA ASOCIATIA
• Associação IBIS – Iniciativa Beira Inovação Social
• Det Lærende Fængsel
• ASOCIATIA EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR SOCIAL INOVATION
• APROXIMAR- COOPERATIVA DE SOLIDARIEDADE SOCIAL, CRL