Drafting. That working conditions affect the health of workers is nothing new. The work is a important risk factor for the physical and psychological well-being of workers when it does not work properly, but it is also a protective factor when it occurs in the right circumstances.
Understanding this in time and making consistent decisions marks a significant difference in health of people and the success of companies.
Every October 10th the world mental health day, a relevant date if the interaction between work and emotional well-being is taken into account. First of all, it is a relationship that must be taken into account at an ethical level. Furthermore, from a strictly corporate point of view, companies are understanding that the lack of investment in prevention and care of psychological well-being of its employees generates Millionaires loses.
Companies may look the other way, but declining performance, sick leave, absenteeism and deteriorating corporate reputations don’t come for free.
Respond to employee needs
Times change, and with them, the workers needs and circumstances. The classic idea of working for a company that allows an adequate balance between work and what is not work has become more sophisticated.
Employees today don’t just look at whether the pay or hours look good, they value working for an organization that explicitly care regarding protecting your health and not use it as a bargaining chip to achieve the objectives in any way.
When this doesn’t happen, motivation with tasks decreasescommitment to the company decreases, relationships within the team are strained and the company’s results are far from being the best.
Many workers then rethink their careers, sometimes drastically, in response to a unresponsive work ecosystem to what they need now. There is the phenomenon observed in recent years, especially in the United States, of the so-called great resignation.
Other employees do not take that direction, but remain in the company at half throttle, or at fair throttle. They do not abandon their positions, but neither do they put all their capacities into them. is the call silent resignation o quiet quitting. This phenomenon also says a lot regarding its lack of psychological well-being and, therefore, regarding the consequences that this has for the company.
Invest (or not) in well-being
According to World Health Organization (OMS), “Globally, it is estimated that 12 billion working days are lost each year due to depression and anxiety, at a cost of $1 trillion per year in lost productivity”.
This means that the lack of effective prevention strategies of mental health problems at work and enhancing well-being has effects that can be concretely quantified. Also, according to OMS, “there are effective measures that can prevent mental health risks at work, protect and promote mental health at work”.
Therefore, those companies that launch emotional well-being services available to your employees and adapted to their needs, they prevent these effects, and, in addition, they are stronger compared to their main competitors: improvements in performance of more than 30% are observed and the hours of absence from work decrease by up to 50%.
carry out these programs professionally and continuously over time, it is possible, and it is proving extremely useful to protect the most important resource that any company has: people.