Employee database 
Documents and e-signature 
Reporting and analytics 
Payroll and incidents 
Time and Attendance Software 
Shifts and task list 
Absences & time-off 
Workflows 
Expense management 
Recruitment and selection software 
Onboarding 
Training and procedures 
Internal communication 
Performance assessment software 
HR surveys and forms 
Chatbot 
Hi Patricia, thank you for this interview. To begin with, we would like you to tell us who you are and what you are passionate about.
I was born in Barcelona, a beautiful city, on March 8th, a wonderful day to be born and to be a woman, besides being a hard worker. I am 39 years old.
As a teenager I wanted to study Journalism because I love to communicate, but I finally found my vocation in Psychology because what moves me in life are people, both personally and professionally.
✔ Degree in Psychology.
Member of the COPC in Barcelona.
✔ HR professional with more than 15 years of experience in different sectors such as tourism, leisure, IT, third sector, public administrations, etc.
✔ Personal and executive coach.
✔ Mediator.
✔ Lecturer.
✔ Trainer.
✔ HR Lover.
My vocation is to accompany people and organizations from a humanistic perspective. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute my vision!
Thank you, Patricia. Tell us, how does the work environment affect the mental health of employees?
It is important to be aware of the impact that work has on the mental health of employees, so that we can put focus and concrete actions by organizations to address mental health problems that, whether we like it or not, have an impact on the environment, productivity, sick leave and turnover.
The impact it has is enormous, as stated by the WHO. We spend most of our waking hours at work, so the impact that work-related issues have on our health and mood is fundamental, and can be the cause of problems such as stress, anxiety and depression in our teams.
And how does good or bad leadership impact the mental health of workers?
It is therefore essential to encourage active listening and not to relegate these moments to commenting on performance issues, to promote spaces for teams, employees and managers to communicate as part of the organizational culture and to establish various face-to-face, online, formal and informal channels.
Empathy is the cornerstone for leadership and is another fundamental aspect. There is increasing talk of a humanistic leadership model with fewer "bosses" and that is driven by other values that will be the key to success: generosity, recognition, empowerment, encouraging diversity, feedback, respect, inspiring teams, leading from the self.
So, what can we do?
- It's important to know how our teams are doing and measure it.
- Ask questions.
- Encourage communication and the inclusion of various channels.
- Attend to needs.
- Value and recognize the capabilities of our employees.
- Put leaders on the same page, generate an organizational culture that focuses on these issues.
- Zero tolerance to discrimination and violation of rights.
And from this diagnosis, what steps can we take to care for and promote mental health in our company? For example, to reduce stress rates in our employees or prevent them from reaching burn-out (especially for those who work remotely and find it difficult to disconnect from work).
There are many things we can do from the organization in order to promote health in the company. Some of them are part of the way we work, such as defining and guaranteeing a digital disconnection policy, and being a company that respects work schedules, not sending emails after hours or calling meetings after hours. In addition, it can be beneficial to implement initiatives such as working at central hours of the day, having days without meetings, encouraging breaks and respecting lunch hours.
We can create pills to encourage healthy habits, but this will only make sense if workloads are balanced and if the focus is on avoiding negative behaviors and/or situations that violate workers' rights.
Leaders, management team and middle managers are key players to be aligned and respect and encourage diversity in their teams, have training in diversity, equality and know the measures to prevent harassment. In addition, they must take mental health into account and be humanistic leaders who trust their teams, are authentic, talk to them in a natural way, understand that they are mere facilitators to achieve common goals and are humble in empowering their teams.
For me, communication is a key aspect that is very deficient in our companies, since we believe that, despite being together all day, in many cases we work very individually and do not collaborate as a team, which increases meetings, duplicates tasks, and increases control, but we still do not talk to each other. Working in a different way, more collaborative, without silos between departments and with more automation in the tasks that do not add value, we could obtain different results. I have no doubt about it. We would reduce thousands of repetitive and insipid tasks and we could contribute value, talk more and co-create by being trained professionals who have and want to contribute so much for a shared purpose. With something so simple, we could get totally different results.
Undoubtedly, it is also important to accompany our professionals and offer psychological sessions, whether online or face-to-face, coaching workshops, mindfulness sessions, but undoubtedly, the DNA of the organization and our people must accompany them, otherwise it will have no effect. We need to be liquid organizations with structures, values and methodologies that go along these lines.
