Psychosocial risks in companies: what are they and how to combat them?

What are psychosocial risks and how can they affect companies and workers?

It is often believed that psychological well-being is something that is dealt with 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 kinds of very specific situations.

One of the most relevant areas of psychological counseling is found, for example, in companies, in the organizational world. And in this context there is no shortage of work to be done: it is estimated today that around 30% of work-related absences are due to psychosocial risks, such as stress, fear of stress, fear of work, etc.such as stress, fear of communicating problems, fatigue, low morale, etc.

In these lines we will see how psychology works to curb psychosocial risks in companies.

What are psychosocial risks?

In the organizational context, psychosocial risks are those patterns of interaction between the individual and his or her environment. patterns of interaction between the individual and his or her environment that increase the likelihood of a deterioration in people's psychological well-being and in the quality and quality of work. and in the quality and quantity of their work. Psychological health and performance are elements that go hand in hand, and therefore companies that take measures to prevent psychosocial risks enjoy several advantages, as we shall see.

Thus, the very term "psychosocial risks" indicates the nature of this concept: these are realities based on interaction, and are found neither in the workplace nor in individual workers.

In other words, psychosocial risks exist in the movement and interaction between all that constitutes it (including its workers), the dynamism with which companies struggle to reach their objectives and adapt to the new challenges posed by the environment.

As a psychologist specializing in anxiety and stress problems and cognitive-behavioral psychology, I have seen that a misunderstood need for dynamism on the part of the top management of companies can be totally counterproductive, causing psychosocial risks in the physical and mental health of workers to skyrocket. Being dynamic is not about constantly pushing the accelerator, but adapting to new times and new opportunities means having time to train, rest and work on your own problems.

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 anger management and irritability, psychosomatic disorders, panic attacks, burnout syndrome... However, there is one psychological phenomenon that stands out, and which at the same time is usually present in all the others: sustained, excessive stress.

This "pathological" type of stress is what can cause a worker to begin his or her downhill slide towards a significant deterioration in health. towards a significant deterioration in health. Being highly stressed means feeling insecure when deciding what to do, which causes delays in production. It also often causes insomnia, with the resulting discomfort and difficulty in 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 put off 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, we may also experience fear of communicating bad news, guilt for feeling responsible for a drop in overall performance, and even irritability with those who arrive to assign new tasks.

And all of this, it must be remembered, 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 deterioration of the health of almost all its members.

What to do?

Having seen the extent of psychosocial risks, it is not surprising to learn that companies that prevent them and know how to tackle them in their earliest manifestations of symptoms are much more competitive and flexible than those that do not. Moreover, it is estimated that companies that maintain this type of psychological self-care are estimated to be 55% more creative.In environments where there is constant anxiety and pressure, no one wants to risk going off the rails.

But what can companies, in particular, do to prevent disruption and ensure the overall well-being of workers?

The first step is to a "change of chip" in the company's management, one in which the sole objective is no longer frenetic production and evaluation.This is an obsolete business model that is gradually dying out in successful organizations that generate high added value. The need to connect empathetically with workers and to lead without just giving orders must be put on the table, to prevent problems from accumulating under the carpet because of 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). (in this case, the company). Only 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 starts with a diagnosis of the situation that is not only focused on the person or the organization, but on the whole that makes up the latter, a unit in movement. Rather than a photograph of something static, a monitoring of the company as a living entity.