One of the major change factors of working life is digitalization. Technology changes employee tasks and changes business logic. For some technology enables mobile and remote work, which on the other hand eases combining working life with other life areas and on the other hand, challenges severely our life management. Digitalization gives freedom but demands new kind of skills and increases individual responsibility related to health.
There is still a cave human under the expensive suit
The world around us has radically changed during the past 20 years, but we as physical creatures have not changed much during the past 300 000 years. One of the very concrete examples is our capability to manage stress. Our physiological stress reactions are surprisingly same as they used to be. Imagine walking in the morning rush hour a café latte in your hand – a little bit late – to a demanding customer meeting. Then imagine a homo sapiens running away from a sabre-toothed tiger which has interrupted our search of food. Under the car cowl we look quite the same as before. However, now our cave has become global and we get so much information and stimulus that we are unable to manage it. 300 000 years ago life was hard but more simple and clear.
The vanishing borders of work and free life
When we think of changing working life, we don’t even need to take a perspective from so far away. If we focus on 70’s, the golden time before fax machines, work was a different framework in our life than it is today. Then the employee had to go to a certain place for doing the job, to spend there a certain time before moving to home to spend free time. It was like giving a baton from a runner to another in a relay race.
These days many businesses tend to mix the time of work and free time. How fluent this is on an employer and employee level, depends on the nature of work but also on the individual skills to act as a conductor in one’s own life. The individual responsibility and the meaning of life management skills is not going to decrease.
Successful employers of tomorrow are able to focus on health and wellness capital of their employees, along with the capital of expertise. When searching for the best ways to do this, it’s good to keep the cave human in mind. No fancy digital systems are subsidiary to humanity. Our deep brain functions are still steering our actions.
Employees are unique and the solution is simple
Each individual employee behind a company business ID has different backgrounds, values, hopes and needs. In addition to the unique life, also the unique life situations keep on changing together with the flow of time. This is why it’s impossible to foresee when and how the employee should be supported. This is one reason, why campaigns and projects related to health seldom bring any results. For our luck, more and more companies have ended up in the very same conclusion with us: if the company wants to get sustained effects from the money invested on employee health, two criteria need to be filled: 1) the content offered needs to be individual and 2) the service needs to be constantly available whenever the need appears.
Movendos Health Coaching is always right timed, focusing on the life aspects which are important for the employee and where emerging change motivation is visible. Our coaching helps individuals to increase their life management skills and live a healthier life in a way which is suitable and natural for them as individuals.
