He burned worker syndrome, or ‘burnout’, It is a disease that manifests itself in some workers, mainly caused by physical and mental exhaustion, causing chronic work stress. Such is the magnitude of this disease that in January 2022 the WHO (World Health Organization) recognized it as professional illness and more and more workers suffer from it.
Its causes can be diverse and, in fact, as established in the guide “Emotional salary: How to reinforce your remuneration proposal” prepared by Sodexo Benefits and Incentives, One of the keys to avoiding this problem is its recognition, since valuing, motivating and highlighting the work that employees do allows companies to maintain the team united and committed.
In this sense, the role of leaders in companies plays an important role in the well-being of workers. Gone is the authoritarian leadership style, but currently the most widespread trend is known as ‘responsive leadership’. Sensitive leaders are those who take into account the feelings of their colleagues, put themselves in their place to know their point of view and thus make better decisions. They are people with very clear ideals who take into account the objectives of the company, but are also committed to the emotional well-being of their team, and for this reason they defend
their rights to promote their psychological well-being. From Sodexo Benefits and Incentives Four keys stand out for applying this type of leadership in companies:
- Apply active listening: The only way to find out how employees feel and detect areas for improvement is by talking to them, asking about their status and asking for their feedback on areas for improvement. Active listening is a great way to create a dialogue with employees and make them feel understood. In addition, it is the best tool to detect areas for improvement that will increase their commitment to the company. Managers and managers must apply active listening as part of sensitive leadership, since they are the closest and direct point of contact with the employee, allowing work on both professional and personal aspects.
- Communicative skills: Empathy and assertiveness are fundamental soft skills in a leader so that communication flows naturally vertically and horizontally, both with teams and with other leaders. The importance of communication skills is such for companies that they have acquired the categorization of power skills, which, in other words, are the skills that make an employee unique and enable them to optimally address certain responsibilities, turning them into an important piece within the company.
- Create inclusive, respectful and happy work environments: Faced with cultural and social changes, companies have had to adapt and promote inclusive policies as a sign of business culture, which should also be promoted through the leaders themselves. Prioritizing diversity and inclusion, in addition to respect, is essential to improve the well-being of the entire company and create happy environments, and it is also a lever for attracting and retaining talent.
- Working on leadership through training: Exercising sensitive leadership may be an innate quality of many professionals, but it is also possible and advisable to train the employees themselves to learn how to better manage a team through upskilling processes. For this reason, many companies offer training options through training vouchers -such as Sodexo’s- with the aim of enhancing the skills of their employees and increasing their commitment simultaneously. In addition, it is a service that is totally exempt from personal income tax, so the employee can save at least 25% of the amount of the course if it is managed through flexible remuneration.
“In line with the prioritization of emotional well-being in teams, more and more companies are betting on increasing the focus on intangible values, such as leadership style, to improve employee commitment by promoting emotional salary strategies”has explained Miriam MartinDirector of Marketing and Communication at
Sodexo.
