Employees’ well-being at work and ability to work came up in Drama Queen Communications, a marketing communications agency taking care of its staff. The health care related view offered by the occupational health care service was not enough to face this challenge, but instead, comprehensive individual mentoring was needed. As an outside mentor, by means of individual guidance discussions, Innoman’s expert brought employees and their superiors closer to each other as members of the working community, and the correct measures were found to solve the decrease in a key person’s ability to work.
Marketing communications is a demanding line of business: a creative individual is required to regenerate continuously and to cope with the often hectic everyday work. Drama Queen Communications is among the forerunners in the line in placing emphasis on well-being at work, and when a key person was found to suffer from decrease in ability to work, action was taken to solve the issue.
–Our employee felt that the health care provided by the occupational health care service was not enough to solve the situations. A human being is a whole, and besides health care related measures, also mentoring was needed, in order to get also matters related with the tasks at the workplace fixed. We asked Innoman’s Matti Hyry to help us, tells Ilona Kangas, a strategist at Drama Queen Communications.
Tripartite negotiations to improve working conditions for individuals
Innoman’s expert began with confidential discussions with the employee and the superior. Later on, the occupational health care service was included in the discussion, in order to have also the point of view of the occupational health care included. The advantage of an outside mentor is a neutral role in the situation, with the aim of helping the entire working community.
–The aim was to find the means for the overall improvement of workplace conditions. My task was also to bring an outsider’s view to the solution and to create a situation, based on the discussions, where both the employee and the management can rise above everyday situations, to find new solutions in peace, says Innoman’s Matti Hyry.
–We’d like to give all members of our working community a chance to be the best possible selves at work. In our case, discussion with mentoring was just the right method to solve the issue. Cooperation with Matti Hyry worked fine, and also our employee thanked Matti’s contribution, Kangas tells us.
The working method was confidential discussions that were conducted at agreed intervals and participants approximately ten times.
–Matters important for the development of the working community often come up in connection with an individual’s problems. When these issues are discussed, it benefits the entire working community, tells Hyry.
More should be invested in well-being at work
Companies should invest more in well-being at work and coping with the workload. With regard to the maintenance of the ability to work, the first warning signs may be for instance cases of illness. Short sickness absences, however, don’t help to solve the fundamental issues within a working community.
–It is unfortunate, that fatigue is nowadays the main reason for incapacity to work. Within working communities, conscientious and hard-working people, who start to show symptoms, function often as a kind of indicators. Therefore, it would be important to intervene at as early stage as possible before the problems begin to build up, says Hyry.
–I think companies should use mentoring services more than they do today. Individual and group coaching given to a working community are actually important means to maintain the entire working community’s ability to work, Kangas tells us.
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