Advancing, improving, doing more and better: it is from these premises that IBSA carries out its projects and invests in its resources. In view of the production expansion announced also during the launch event of the new Cosmos plant in Lugano (CH), IBSA is increasingly shifting towards cutting-edge technologies, that often require a high level of expertise. To allow People to grow and better manage this evolution, training thus becomes an essential asset.
Precisely in this context, the IT Literacy project – which involved almost 200 production collaborators and has just been completed – is an important initiative, carried out with the contribution of the Swiss Confederation, specifically the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (DEFR, Dipartimento federale dell’economia, della formazione e della ricerca), which financed the costs of the training.
IBSA trains its People with the IT Literacy project
THE PERSON AT THE CENTRE
As Antonella Villani, Rewarding & Recruiting Specialist of IBSA’s Human Resources department told us: “At the heart of our company’s philosophy we find the Person, who in this case is represented by our collaborators. We listened to the needs of department heads and production operators, and the necessity emerged to acquire basic IT skills, in order to better face the on-going changes; a challenge that IBSA was more than happy to accept”.
The Human Resources Department, therefore, relayed this request and, in agreement with the Information Technology and the Pharmaceutical Clusters Department, decided to start an IT Literacy course focused on the MS Office suite. The project, which took place from September 2020 to October 2021, testifies to the company’s willingness to invest in its People: IBSA chose to focus on its assets, giving them the opportunity to grow and train internally.
CONTINUOUS DIGITISATION
Another keyword for IBSA is Innovation, a process closely linked to the search for cutting-edge solutions. Among the various activities, the digitisation of processes goes in this direction: and precisely in the context of Digital Transformation, IBSA is working on a paperless macro project. This digitisation process is affecting the operations related to production and packaging and, through an effective electronic management of Quality flows and documents, allows for a significant reduction in paper consumption. The IT Literacy project fits well into this growing propensity to the digitisation of processes, laying the foundations for making the best use of these new tools.
COLLABORATION AND TEAM SPIRIT
This project was important not only at a training level, but also for the team spirit and team work that the People have shown. Production managers worked on the realisation of the project with great enthusiasm and team spirit, and made the most of its opportunities, an aspect that proved to be a winner; Human Resources supported it right from the start, taking advantage of the great growth opportunity it represented for the company, supporting the investment of the working hours that the operators dedicated to their training; Information Technology coordinated the project and collaborated across all the departments involved. The collaboration was crucial, and paid off everyone’s efforts, especially considering the organisational and logistical challenges that arose in organising the training of almost 200 people operating in different production sites in the Canton Ticino and working on several shifts. The result was outstanding: 98% of the attendants completed the training path.
Andrea Pagni, Application Manager of IBSA Group stated: “The success of this project is due to the commitment of all the department heads, who managed to convey the importance and great value of the course to the production operators. It was very important to know that the Confederation is so attentive and close to corporate needs”.
