Ines Silva, Chief Officer Human Resources at MapfreMiddlesea plc, underscored the importance of a sound work-life balance, mutual respect and dealing with stress on today’s episode of The Boardroom with business-writer and presenter Jo Caruana.

Well-being, she said, has to do with one’s ability to deal with one’s emotions, fears, assumptions and difficulties, to learn from differences and to make new things. Especially during the pandemic, it is good to test one’s resilience, which is not a new term, but which has become so trendy. Emotional resilience is the capacity to overcome ourselves, both as individuals and also as an organisation. 

One must speak of a whole intervention, taking into account both physical and mental well-being. We must find opportunities to ease our stress levels and so boost our well-being. Well-being leads to a sustainable high performance, she stressed.

In her opinion, the main struggle is to find the right work-life balance. During the pandemic it became quite difficult to draw a line between one’s personal and professional life.

Also, people are too overwhelmed and sometimes do not know how to ask for help. So, it is crucial for the line manager to pay attention to what is going on and to watch out for any telling symptoms, including ethical reactions.

An important issue to bear in mind is communication, which, she said, is key to any organisation. Communication is vital for people to understand that well-being is crucial for the performance of the organisation. 

There are internal struggles that can lead one to burn out and, most of the time, people are not even able to distinguish between different issues, like burn-out, depression or mental breakdown. Thus, employees, and, especially leaders, need to be continuously taught about such matters and also given guidance.

Ms Silva referred to a stress-based culture. If you do not adopt a consistent attitude and approach towards employees that is stress- and respect-based, it will not work, and workers cannot be encouraged to seek a good work-life balance. Other measures, like flexi hours, remote working and maternity/paternity leave send a message to employees that they have a family and a home too beyond their professional life. Her company has also been encouraging active aging, whereby the older staff members work reduced hours in the last two years prior to retirement but receive a full pay. 

In addition, there has to be mutual respect and two-way communication. Also, if everybody controls one’s own time, all would be much more responsible and contribute better to the organisation. Of course, there are problems but, on the whole, employees have understood that there should be commitment and mutual respect and this not only between the employee and the company but also between an employee and the line manager and, especially, between employees themselves. If team members can agree between themselves, they can be autonomous and independent to achieve results for the company, she continues. 

Ms Silva said the company has been doing a lot of work on work-life balance and even the senior executives make it a point not to send emails after hours, unless absolutely necessary. She continued to say that MapfreMiddlesea has not resorted to coaching but has practised mentoring involving all employee levels and it has been a very positive experience. At times, people fail to realise that simple approaches can sort out big problems.

In conclusion, Ms Silva again spoke on the importance of well-being, a stress-based approach, and good leadership. In the end, if employees feel they are important to the company and that the company cares about them they will give a lot more to the organisation. Ultimately, the feeling of belonging is so powerful, she argued.