Companies face the challenge of ensuring the well-being of their employees

The past two years have reflected the importance of mental health and emotional well-being. Companies that look after their professionals also reap benefits in terms of productivity.

The impact of the pandemic, its effects on society, and economic uncertainty have highlighted the importance of the physical and psychological well-being of individuals, societies and organizations. Many companies are starting to worry about such aspects as being fit and taking care of their employees, putting new means and tools at their disposal for this. There are many benefits to doing this: Those companies that invest in the well-being of their employees are the ones that get higher levels of loyalty and improve their business results.

Although mental health has overcome much of the social stigma that surrounded it, there is still a long way to go. This was noted at the Emotional Well-Being and Well-Being at Work meeting, organized by EXPANSIN in collaboration with TherapyChat. According to a study by the startup, barely 17% of professionals in Spain have some kind of help or emotional support in their workplace.

the responsibility

“Each company has a responsibility to its employees, such as how they contribute to the well-being of society,” said Theresa Roche, director of compensation, benefits and welfare at American Express. The company is committed to training and communication to help its managers detect potentially disruptive behavior within their teams. “The key is to create an environment of trust in which the employee feels supported,” Roche added. “We provide this training to leaders and make sure they know the tools we put at their disposal.”

Experts agreed that the epidemic has seen before and after in this regard. Mara Allende, director of human resources at Este Lauder, agreed: “We have all seen the need to work on aspects of worker welfare, and to do that we must create environments of trust.” The company implements actions in three pillars, focusing on the physical, emotional and economic well-being of its employees. “It is necessary to combine flexibility and balance as well as the commitment of leaders,” Allende added.

How can companies organize their teams in this direction? Alejandra Saster Calvo, HR Business Partner at Jobandtalent, noted that “these aspects should be part of the culture, which is one of our strategic goals, to ensure employees are aligned with the company’s values.” Likewise, he highlighted the importance of communication between the organization and the workforce. In the case of Jobandtalent, it conducts weekly anonymous surveys to find out the needs of its employees and implement solutions based on them.

For his part, Gonzalo Martinez Coco, Director of Wellbeing at Aon Spain, noted the pillars of the wellbeing strategy: “The first thing to do is to review and define the culture, purpose and values ​​of the company; then focus a lot on leadership issues; and finally, the section on communication and storytelling “. In addition to identifying the main risks their employees may face in terms of stress and uncertainty, Martinez-Coco explained that it is “essential to have indicators and metrics that allow decisions to be made.”

Javier Cantera, President of Auren Consultores, distinguished between two concepts: “One is the delicious well-being, where companies can provide tools or training to employees, and the other is the well-being of purpose, understood as the development of people.” In the ideal scenario, the HR function would respond to this second type of well-being, based on tools such as social work, which enhance motivation and emotional connection between employees and companies. The person in charge of Oren stressed that “delicious luxury must also be present, but this vision must be overcome to reach this personal luxury, in line with the people’s goal.”

Finally, Ada Rubio, Head of Clinical Content at TherapyChat, emphasized the need for companies to constantly monitor all the actions they implement: “Measurement is key.” Parallel to the treatment processes followed by psychologists, Rubio concluded that “we must evaluate, implement and follow up on this implementation and provide feedback and extract indicators to draw conclusions.”