Psychosocial Risks In Companies: What They Are And How To Combat Them
It is common to believe that psychological well-being is something that is addressed exclusively in clinical contexts, such as in health centers or in the psychologist’s office, during psychotherapy sessions.
However, although these areas of intervention are very important for psychologists, their work goes far beyond these types of very specific situations.
One of the most relevant focuses of psychological advice is found, for example, in companies, the organizational world. And in this context there is no lack of work to do, precisely: today it is estimated that around 30% of sick leave has its roots in psychosocial risks such as stress, fear of communicating problems, fatigue, low mood, etc.
In these lines we will see how psychology works to stop psychosocial risks in companies.
In the organizational context, psychosocial risks are those patterns of interaction between the individual and their environment that increase the chances of a deterioration in psychological well-being of people and in the quality and quantity of their work. Psychological health and performance are elements that go together, and therefore companies that take measures to prevent psychosocial risks enjoy several advantages, as we will see.
Thus, the very term “psychosocial risks” tells us what the nature of this concept is: these are realities based on interaction, and they are not found solely in the work space or in each of the workers individually.
In other words, psychosocial risks exist in the movement and interaction between everything that constitutes it (including its workers), the dynamism with which companies fight to reach their objectives and adapt to the new challenges that poses the environment.
As a psychologist specialized in anxiety and stress problems and in cognitive-behavioral psychology, I have seen that a poorly understood need for dynamism on the part of the management leadership of companies can be totally counterproductive, causing psychosocial risks to physical health to skyrocket. and mental health of workers. Being dynamic does not consist of constantly pressing the accelerator, but adapting to new times and new opportunities implies having time to train, rest and work on the problems that one has.
Why do these harmful psychosocial phenomena appear?
Psychosocial risks to the mental and physical health of a company’s workforce can degenerate into relatively varied problems and disorders: sleep disorders, poor management of anger and irritability, psychosomatic disorders, panic attacks, burnout syndrome… However, , there is a psychological phenomenon to highlight, and which at the same time is usually present in all others: sustained, excessive stress.
This “pathological” type of stress is what can cause a worker to start going downhill towards the significant deterioration of their health. Being very stressed means feeling insecure when deciding what to do, which causes delays in production. It also frequently causes insomnia, with subsequent discomfort combined with difficulties concentrating on a task.
The fear of facing the problems to which stress has contributed in turn generates another added problem, procrastination, or the tendency to constantly postpone our responsibilities in order to keep them out of our minds.
And if that were not enough, to all this we must add that when working in interaction with others, you can also experience fear of communicating bad news, guilt for feeling responsible for a drop in general performance, and even irritability with those who arrive to assign new tasks. .
And all this, we must remember, may be occurring at the same time in many workers in an organization In the same way that in companies there are many people generating synergies and producing added value thanks to the fact of working in a certain system of coordination between professionals, if this same system of business operation has certain problems, it may be favoring the erosion of the health of almost all its members.
To do?
Having seen above what the scope of psychosocial risks can be, it is not surprising to know that companies that prevent them and know how to tackle them in the earliest manifestations of their symptoms are much more competitive and flexible than those that do not. Furthermore, it is estimated that Companies that maintain this type of psychological self-care are 55% more creative ; Certainly, in environments where there is constant anxiety and pressure, no one wants to risk going off the rails.
Now… what can companies do, specifically, to prevent disruptions and ensure the overall well-being of workers?
The first step is allow a “change of chip” to occur in the management of the company , one in which frenetic and evaluable production in the very short term ceases to exist as the only objective, an obsolete business model that is little by little becoming extinct in successful organizations that generate great added value. The need to connect empathetically with workers and to lead without simply giving orders must be put on the table, to prevent problems from accumulating under the carpet due to this unidirectionality.
When working with organizations and companies, I apply the principles of cognitive-behavioral psychology focused on an ecological model developed by the Albor-Cohs Group, from which three elements are taken into account: the context, the skills and resources available to each person, and the perception of the demands of the environment (in this case, the company). Only by starting from this global vision of the problem is it possible to respond to the needs of the people and the company in which they work.
In short, everything begins by carrying out a diagnosis of the situation that is not focused only on the person or the organization, but on the group that makes up the latter, a unit in motion. More than a photograph of something static, a follow-up of the company as a living entity.
