Health is, after all, a critical strategic asset!

We are living in unprecedented and critical times, due to the presence of COVID-19, which is forcing many immediate changes at the personal, social and economic level, consequently, affecting all organizations everywhere in the world. We can look at this challenge as with any crisis in two ways: as a problem or as an opportunity for profound learning and change.

For many, this is the first social crisis situation they are facing, which forces citizens and organizations to adopt restrictive measures such as constantly working from home and being in social isolation. Most organizations created a contingency plan because they were forced to develop it or adjust it to ensure their continuity, and others were forced to extreme measures of shutting down.

This situation generates extreme stress and insecurity, as it forces us to leave the comfort zone and head straight to the panic zone, but it can also serve as a reflection on what role or importance should be given to organizational health and, consequently, to each person in this organizational asset. Until now organizational health was not considered a strategic issue by top management, but health has now reclaimed a critical role.

In this context, we should reflect on some procedures that should already have been thought of and implemented, not just part of a written contingency plan and which would greatly now facilitate crisis management, decreasing the perceived discomfort and organizational stress.

The truth is that, more and more, we live in constant change. A change may imply changing something small and easy, but we may also have to radically change habits and activities that imply some sacrifice, for example, as a consequence of a pandemic. According to Wood (2011), the survival of organizations depends on their ability to adapt to change, especially those that involve changing habits and behaviors. It is therefore essential to understand and prepare the processes of change, including preparing workers for this new reality.

The main issue is that organizations are made up of people, who have habits, emotions and some higher resistance to change. On the other hand, solely focusing on the business as a major concern, could lead to a difficult or even impossible recovery since business is managed and performed by people. Therefore, people are essential and these plans have to be previously thought, simulated and values monitored during their development and implementation to clearly realize the impact of each crisis.

Healthy organizations’ performance results depend on the physical and mental health of their employees, who are strongly influenced by resources and healthy organizational practices (Acosta, Cruz-Ortiz, Salanova & Llorens, 2015). Therefore, just as it is essential to roll-out the development and continuity of the business, it is necessary to involve and question people, listen to them attentively, and understand the trends of organizational health and its respective evolution overtime. More specifically, it is essential to measure systematically, through more frequent organizational diagnoses and health risk assessments, in order to abandon a purely reactive response.

On the other hand, living in a global world, it is crucial to create conditions and train people so that they can work from home, and accelerate technology to do more out of the office or plant. In addition to being a work-family-friendly measure, it has now revealed crucial for resiliency and continuity in crisis situations such as COVID-19.

It is certain that, when in isolation, perceived anxiety and stress will always tend to increase because social connectedness is a basic human need (Deci & Ryan, 2010), besides the fear to get sick or any close relative, colleague and friend. Therefore, in addition to this previous work, it is important to radically increase the level of support given to employees at this stage, providing increased resources for individual and team crisis management and adjustment to a new life-work, that has arrived so suddenly and unexpectedly.

When necessary, these processes will be carried out in a natural way, as if they were remembered, reducing discomfort, the perception of stress and allowing productivity and health and well-being levels to be maintained in the organization. Moreover, according to a study carried out by Joshua Gans (2020), it is quite likely that these situations of isolation will be repeated. Therefore, it is important to create solutions for today but also for the future, so that a new situation is received with more preparedness and less impact.

References

Acosta, H., Cruz-Ortiz, V., Salanova, M., & Llorens, S. (2015). Healthy organization: Analysing its meaning based on the HERO Model/Organizaciones saludables: Analizando su significado desde el Modelo HERO. Revista de Psicología Social, 30(2), 323-350.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). Intrinsic motivation. The corsini encyclopedia of psychology, 1-2.

Gans, J. (2020). Flattening the Coronavirus Curve Is Not Enough. Disponível em: https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/flattening-the-coronavirus-curve-is-not-enough/?fbclid=IwAR2wyvidfAnRZt2xOeuNK6Io3qgQyhPhWB1vx4W42pKmGXJvzBXYbrWI5z8

Wood Jr, T. (2011). Mudança organizacional e transformação da função recursos humanos. Organizacional. In Thomaz Wood Jr., Mudança Organizacional.