Workplace Health Management: What Role do CEOs, Managers & Employees Play?
On Thursday, February 16, 2023, the SME Connect initiative “Health at Work & at Home” held a workshop on the topic of “Workplace health management: what role do CEOs, managers & employees play?”. As a follow-up workshop to “Mental Health at Work” in this series, the presentation addressed issues and opportunities in workplace health management.
After a welcoming speech by Patrick Wind, Ulrike Ditz emphasized that especially in medium-sized companies managers are pulled out of their own companies and here the training for management is often neglected. However, she said that employee management in particular should not be neglected, as dissatisfied employees miss an average of 3.5 days more per year than satisfied employees. She herself would have liked more training on employee management at the beginning of her career, emphasizing the opportunities offered by the new network.
The threshold between demands and excessive demands is easily crossed, emphasized the first speaker Matthias Bullmahn, making it all the more important to build resilience. Self-esteem and the right way to deal with difficult situations and stress should already be taught in schools. With an early awareness of mindfulness, one could achieve an overall improvement in society and solve problems such as a lack of therapists with lower demand.
Florian Hausmann looked at the topic from a different angle. His presentation included a lot of data on “what do workers expect”. Contemporary and individual leadership is needed to bind the new generation of employees to the company. Furthermore, time spent on leadership is not wasted, but invested, as it increases the productivity of the individual.
Stefan Bust emphasized the importance of social skills in the company. The potential of employees can be used to create a better and more productive climate throughout the company. In the home office, he said, it is particularly difficult to separate the private from the professional. He agreed with Matthias Bullmahn, resilience should be built up at a young age.
André Eichenbaur presentation dealt with the meeting space between people and how to design it to prevent burnout. The responsibility of design always lies with the stronger party, it must ensure that both can speak at eye level. An imbalance leads to difficult mostly important topics being left out.
Regula Senn spoke about physical and mental health. Systhems must be applicable to every employee. Immune regulators are the most important key to bring a cell back into balance itself and to build up a good immune system.
