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The search for a balance between professional and personal
life is a sign of our times, and can bring benefits to employees and the company |
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When he took part in our Leadership Development Programme, Wilson Hernandes, Superintendent of Solution Certification for Branch Operations, chose the theme “How to achieve a balance between professional and personal life” for his end-of-course project. This was no accidental choice: having worked in financial institutions for 27 years, Hernandes himself has been a victim of this unbalance. “Many of the tips I give in my paper are for myself”, he observes.
The difficulty to balance one’s personal and professional life is a sign of our times. Work has become all important in our lives, relegating families, friends and even our own well-being to a supporting role. Over time, though, this situation tends to be harmful for companies, since long working days tend to bring on stress and burnout, and professionals tend to lose productivity and efficiency. Working too much is not sustainable for employees or for the organisations they work for.
“It’s no use speaking about sustainability and then scheduling a meeting for six o’clock on a Friday afternoon”, says Carlos Nomoto, Superintendent for Sustainable Development. From the Bank’s standpoint we still have difficulty in balancing sustainability with the demands of the modern world, which does not stop
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There is no easy solution. The humanisation element in our Business Model, which puts the individual at the centre of our processes, is critical for us to avoid a corporate relationship which does not see the person behind the employee.
On this premise we opened a dialogue channel about this and other issues. Called the Dialogue Platform, it promotes pro-active behaviour by creating conditions for everyone to share their daily activities and independently ask questions or request assistance. |
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The Platform is based on four pillars or open communication channels. The Specialised Personal Support Programme (PAPE, or Programa de Apoio Pessoal Especializado) is a personalised individual guidance service provided by a third party whose teams of specialists deal with a broad range of personal issues. Service is also available also for family members. The Behaviour Questions and Dilemmas channel, managed by the Compliance area, helps with situations of personal confl ict. The Reporting Channel lets staff report instances of negligence, intimidation, discrimination or any other suspect behaviour, whether criminal or antiethical. The Good Practices channel is designed to share solutions and practices with everyone. |
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Thanks to the Good Practices channel, a team from the São Lourenço branch (MG) was able to show its colleagues a feasible solution for selective waste collection. In conjunction with the neighbourhood association, they stockpile a large amount of recyclables which is then collected by a company from a neighbouring city. Many branches outside Brazil’s larger cities cannot carry out their waste separation ideas because of insufficient volume. This idea was one of the 2006 Best Practices award-winners. |
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How can we provide financial counselling to anyone if our own personal accounts are making us lose sleep? We often have to deal with our own problems and those of our customers at the same time. When we discovered that this was happening to some of our staff, we began holding events called Life and Work Encounters. The first cycle, in 2006, dealt with Personal and Financial Balance. The lecture covered planning and budgets, and distributed a template spreadsheet for use by the participants. About 440 people took part in the six events. For 2007, theatre plays and lectures have been planned in response to topics suggested by participants, such as sedentary lifestyle, stress, family time and work time, and problems with drug abuse. |
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