What is emotional health?
The definition of Emotional health is characterized by the ability to control and manage behavioral changes that influence our daily activities. In this sense, feelings that cause:
- lack of motivation;
- empty emotional life;
- diffuse personal and professional goals;
- apathetic behaviors and procrastination in daily activities, etc.
In this sense, it is essential not only to identify problems related to emotional health, but also to guide your actions to resolve them .
What is the difference between emotional health and mental health?
Emotional health, as proposed above, is about controlling emotions, recognizing that they are part of life and that eventually they will not be positive. Faced with this situation, it is up to the person to identify this feeling and know how to handle it, maintaining a balance. This self-knowledge is essential to become someone resilient, that is, someone capable of recovering and learning from adversity.
Mental health, on the other hand, using the definition of the World Health Organization, is “a state of well-being in which the individual perceives his own abilities, can deal with the normal stress of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to their community”. In other words, the second expression is also associated with controlling emotions, but it deals more closely with the symptoms and physiological reactions they can trigger.
If one side or the other is deficient, the signals the body will give are pretty much the same. In personal life, you can notice a growing disinterest in activities that once gave you pleasure, as well as constant irritation and insomnia. In professional life, the lack of motivation to work and the lack of concentration to carry out your routine can present themselves. In both cases, companies need to be prepared to deal in the best way, demonstrating an active and respectful attitude towards the health and quality of life of their employees.
Why is emotional health important in companies?
A survey by the University of California , in the United States, found that a happy employee is 31% more productive, has a 37% superior performance and is three times more creative. These statistics prove that management’s concern with employee well-being must be present in the organizational climate and go beyond corporate benefits.
How leaders and teams handle and express their emotions in the workplace can become a standout—both for good and bad. It has been proven in several studies that a boss with an aggressive temperament, who demonstrates impatience with the team or does not give it due attention, is fatal for good management, as well as for keeping good talents in the company.
For this reason, improving emotional intelligence can start “at the top.” Management support in corporate initiatives contributes to the engagement of teams, but this also depends on a good relationship between those involved. It is worth noting that a good relationship, in this context, is conceptualized through a partnership of trust and respect, not camaraderie.
The emotional health of an organization’s employees is essential to maintaining good results and strengthening the employer brand. Its image in society is reaping the rewards of this type of investment, which has long since ceased to represent something more to be a point for which people expect and demand.
How to help employees take care of emotional health?
1-Analyze internal and external factors
How is the atmosphere at the company? Are satisfaction surveys carried out periodically? Do employees feel free to give suggestions and feedback ? Questions like these must be evaluated in order to identify any problems in teams and in the organizational climate as a whole.
2-The company’s benefits in taking care of employees’ emotional health
Discover 4 benefits of taking care of the emotional health of employees in your company.
3-Improvement in internal corporate relationship
The corporate environment is, for many, the second home. After all, people tend to spend more time with their co-workers than with their own family.
In this way, taking care of everyone’s mental health would enable the result in a process of internal and external maturation, improving the corporate relationship among its employees.
As a result, conflict management tends to be less necessary. Satisfied people end up having a friendlier relationship.
4-Increased productivity
When taking care of mental health, reducing intense levels of anxiety and stress and increasing concentration and motivation, the tendency is to increase productivity in the corporation as a whole.
Thus, the capacity of employees to carry out their activities in a more engaged manner is enhanced, generating good results for the company.
5-Decrease in medical leave (INSS)
The number of medical leaves of absence due to illnesses such as depression and anxiety has increased a lot in several sectors, and this can harm the company’s health, when employees are removed from their service.
Therefore, prevention must be seen as an investment: the employee wins, the entrepreneur wins.
6-Decrease in turnover
The company that cares about emotional health, taking care of the employee as a whole, can gain his trust, his motivation, and this can make him remain and grow within the company, thus reducing the turnover rate and the expenses generated .
After all, the most expensive selection process is always the one to replace an employee who could have stayed.
