Professional experts from leading companies and entities in the field of professional wellbeing shared the tools, good practices and projects, they are currently working on, to serve as a mirror for other companies, at the “Focus on Wellbeing, No More Burdens” conference. An initiative implemented jointly with the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, in conjunction with the promotion of the annual campaign, which this year focuses its attention on musculoskeletal disorders in workers.
The event was hosted by Carmen Soler, Eminent Director, as host of the event, along with Cristina San Miguel, Director of Sustainability.
Birgit Müller – EU-OSHA, on behalf of the European Agency, was responsible for initiating this webinar, and in her speech she highlighted the importance of providing the necessary resources to be able to prevent disease and psychosocial risks and to address teleworking or stable jobs, areas in which you in framing this campaign. Muller presented the topic of what will be the next initiative, which will be related to the digitization of work, opportunities and risks in relation to occupational health and safety.
On her part, Christina Olocki, Global Talent & Development UVESCO, a company with supermarkets and currently employing 6000 workers, explained the measures implemented in her company in terms of well-being, which mainly focuses on communication and training. Among these actions is the Strategic Master of Well-being in Health Leadership, which is implemented by about 500 workers in the company, which aims to provide tools to improve resilience, access to resources in terms of well-being and healthy habits, and also in competencies such as confidence, emotional intelligence and others . Along with this measure, they have also developed an online training platform with courses to meet business requirements, train professionals and reduce fear and uncertainty, all aimed at promoting a healthy environment.
Mercedes Sanchis, Head of Innovation – Promotion of Occupational Safety and Health IBV explained one of the projects developed by the institute, noting the adaptation of jobs with a gender perspective, a measure she considers “important to ensure equal opportunity with guarantees from the point of view of safety and health at work.” On this issue He emphasized that “the work environment is a small part, and there are many other things to work on, and in fact this is already being done, such as psychological and social risks or exposure to carcinogens, which in some cases do not affect them. Both men and women.
Regarding the actions being promoted in the framework of new technologies, he stated that “they did not come to replace people, but rather to perform tasks that provide less added value in order to focus attention on other, more important tasks.” Likewise, it has pointed out what AI can do for occupational health and safety professionals, in tasks such as coding situations to estimate comfortable levels of risk, so that people can think about how to reduce said risks.
Finally, he addressed the question of exoskeletons, in which he noted that “they should be viewed as an element to improve comfort, but not to reduce the level of ergonomic risk in jobs.” The situation should have convenient, comfortable risks, although it is true that exo can help in cases where workers have lost ability due to a previous injury, for example.”
Mª Gema Martínez, a health and well-being technician in Santa Lucia, a company with approximately 8,500 workers, noted that the Santalucía group and agency network aim to improve global well-being. “We are committed to approaching well-being in a holistic manner and, therefore, implementing tools with a holistic approach, allowing work on well-being in all its aspects, in proportion to individual needs.”
“According to this criterion, taking the theme of the “No More Loads” campaign as an example, we have launched actions such as the “0 Injury” program that treats physical load in manual handling of loads, and given the clear relationship between physical burden, emotional burden and our global health, we are working with the same intensity on Initiatives like ‘By Your Side’, the Sentiment Management Program, or the ‘Bienestar Agenda’, a tool that includes all of our initiatives related to Integral Health.”
Pablo Esteban, Occupational Health Technical Office Coordinator at UGT-PV, spoke in his presentation of the project, which was implemented with room maids, whose tasks are strict, with forced postures, repetitive movements and loads, affecting both physical and mental health. mentality, which motivated the creation of a good practice guide. This publication outlines appropriate situations and tools to help you do your job in a healthy way and prevent injuries. Esteban confirmed that the videos generated from this guide have had a huge impact with more than 300,000 visits on the network.
She also addressed in her speech returning to work after prolonged absences and highlighted that, for example, in the case of breast cancer, only 56% of female workers return to their jobs and 34% lose theirs. “These numbers must be improved because it is a complex issue and that is why we must all work in the same direction and in a coordinated manner,” he added.
Germain Monreal, Asepeyo’s advisor, stressed in his presentation that “prevention must be integrated into policies aimed at ensuring workers’ health, including their well-being”.
Mutually, what we do is help, advise, raise awareness and provide support to sectors and companies to improve working conditions. In the relaxed plan, we made it easier for them to test the exoskeletons and in the case of psychosocials, we also conducted studies, to analyze the most dangerous situations to discover and subsequently sensitize managers, and to instruct them on correct behaviour. In addition, we have implemented workshops on effective communication, emotion discovery and teamwork.
As a final presentation, the conference was hosted by Isabel Ortega, Global Medical Coordinator for SOLVAY, who emphasized that “the purpose and culture of her company have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, so the focus has been on the human dimension, in people as a key pillar of business and planetary sustainability. It is essential to go beyond health. promoting a positive culture, and improving people’s lives at work from a holistic perspective.”
Ortega noted that at his company they use “solid, validated scientific models of positive organizational psychology, such as the Labor Demand Model and the HERO (Healthy and Resilient Organization) model.” By focusing on people, we contribute to the development of well-being and healthy employees (participation, trust, resilience and health), Thanks to healthy organizational resources and healthy organizational practices, which lead to healthy organizational outcomes (performance inside and outside the role, commitment, customer satisfaction, excellence). To do this, the company has 3 pillars: Governance, Better Life at Work Monitor and Positive Actions, which focus on physical and mental well-being, social well-being and financial well-being.”
If you want to watch the webinar “Focus on Well-being, No More Burdens”, click on the following Link
