Sustainability: a word that is often used and perhaps overused. Yet today, it is the central topic, especially in professional and business contexts, where the term sustainability refers not only to the natural environment. Two crucial points: ethical sustainability in the workplace and organizational well-being. What can be said? These are all words that convey a sense of grandeur, but what do businesses and innovation mean: people at the center? Certainly, putting the person at the center and developing their skills within an innovation process that relies on training and information. The reason is very simple: working in an environment where employees feel actively involved in the company’s life can only bring medium- to long-term benefits to the worker and, consequently, to the entire organization. In fact, there is a strong correlation between economic performance and employee engagement, which is the state of employees that allows them to actively and passionately engage in their work and the life of the organization. According to Gallup’s research (2013, State of the Global Workplace. Employee Engagement Insights for BUSINESS LEADERS Worldwide), companies with the best employee engagement rates have productivity and profitability that are 21% and 22% higher, respectively, than others. If these numbers are correct, they cannot overlook, in addition to current activities, the development of innovation initiatives. But let’s go into more detail to understand how the value placed on people represents the key to success for companies.
Businesses and innovation: people at the center.
The environmental issue, as we know, has been a longstanding and debated topic for decades. However, today we want to focus on people, for whom the central issue is environmental sustainability, as they are considered the true resources of the global system. So, how is the concept of environmental sustainability translated within a business perspective?
Let’s start by reviewing the data. Numerous studies have highlighted the urgency of corporate environmental sustainability policies, which aim to merge economic performance with social and environmental policies. Among the conclusions adopted at the General Conference of the International Labour Organization, held in Geneva for its 102nd session in 2013, the three major dimensions to be addressed simultaneously for sustainability are environmental, economic, and social. Businesses and innovation: putting people at the center has an enormously significant and profound value. Companies that influence their employees, their value chain, customers, and local communities have an important task that impacts profitability. By doing so, they will contribute to creating environments that foster responsibility, a sense of belonging, and motivation, creating increasingly inclusive value chains, placing people more and more at the center of innovation.
Organizational well-being: areas of application
Value creation: this is the focus for well-being within any self-respecting organization. But what are the areas in which a company can intervene to create the conditions for employee well-being within the organization?
Let’s discover it together!
Culture
The first and essential area is undoubtedly culture, the intangible yet strategically important area, as it is capable of inspiring the activities and actions of employees. Corporate culture is the way people behave within the company, its values. Decisions, as well as what is encouraged versus what should be avoided, all come from corporate culture. It represents the company’s beliefs, which are reflected in its modus operandi with employees and customers. Just think that the quality of people a company is able to attract and retain largely depends on the culture that guides the organization: it is indeed true that taking care of your people naturally doubles, if not triples, the care that employees will have for the company and its needs! Upon reflection, in fact, Businesses and innovation: putting people at the center has culture as its core principle, certainly the most important piece for any company that wishes to thrive and nurture well-being in the medium to long term, achieving incredibly unique results!
Organization
From theory to practice. When talking about corporate culture, one cannot overlook the set of rules and processes that enable the execution of activities within the company. This is where the area of organizational structure becomes strategic, as it undoubtedly facilitates the balance between private and work life, as well as corporate well-being (as the English say!).
A true corporate organization, in fact, is able to deliver value not only to its employees but also to its customers, to the inevitable benefit of its business.
Services
Every company is somewhat like society on a smaller scale: duties, respect for rules, and corporate ethics are fundamental, as well as the rights of every employee, which consist of a range of services that the worker can use at the workplace or in their free time. Among these are cultural and recreational offerings that can awaken the most human aspect of every organization, because, after all, living the company is nothing more than feeling part of that reality which, thanks to its “savoir faire,” is capable of drawing ingenuity from the minds involved.
Finance
There is no well-being without a financial support system for people, even during delicate moments in their private lives: the heart that beats, even at work, reflects our being, first and foremost, soul and emotion, as well as a thinking mind! Sounds obvious, right? But not so! This is exactly where the difference lies, the difference between well-being and discomfort, between what is good and what is bad within the so-called “business innovation”! We always like to emphasize and bring this aspect to light because integration is the true innovation!
Work environment
Finally, the term “Environment Area” refers to the implementation of initiatives aimed at the psycho-physical well-being of the employee. It is no coincidence that working in a healthy work environment with comfortable spaces brings well-being and serenity, as well as greater profitability in the long term. Therefore, living in a healthy work environment brings positivity that inevitably reflects on employees’ work life.
Organizational well-being: skill development
Among the pearls of well-being within a company, the person and skill development are certainly at the top. If change has become the preferred keyword in recent years, promoting accessibility and thus opening the doors to knowledge and sharing is essential. Indeed, innovation plays a central role, driven precisely by skill development and knowledge transfer. Imagine being at the center of a room where there are multiple doors to access it. Each of these doors has its own name: environment, resources, organization. These doors open and close based on the current in the room, the same current that slams the doors when the windows are open and the weather changes. This is where the exchange happens in a mutual flow. Of course, in these cases, imbalance is just around the corner, but if the helm is steady, managing the current is not only possible but necessary, as change requires a new language that must be explained and applied. This is where training and information come into play. These are the two cornerstones of innovation. The reason is very simple: innovation requires method and strategy, and organizational change involves the transfer and management of knowledge, as well as strengthening learning capabilities. What does all this mean? Simply put, valuing the resources that live within the company by integrating professional and personal skills means giving prestige to the company itself: motivated and participatory resources can only generate profit for the company, forming a team and becoming fertile ground for collaboration initiatives.
“Education and training are the most powerful weapons you can use to change the world.”
Nelson Mandela (Nobel Peace Prize) was not wrong: training is essential to generate sharing and create the conditions for understanding values. It is also capable of training the mind to open up, shedding old habits to adapt to the needs of an ever-changing market. This inevitably involves a good deal of adaptation and flexibility. It is easy to deduce that training is the foundation of our culture of change because this is where the sharpness of knowledge and the growth of relationships converge.
In a digitized world, marketing automation takes care of maintaining relationships: the relationship with the customer, originally personal, followed and nurtured with a great expenditure of time and energy, is now managed completely automatically. This is not meant to take away authenticity from relationships, but rather to give them the emphasis they deserve. In this, marketing automation has a challenging but not impossible goal to achieve: its task is to touch the deepest emotional levers, and succeeding in this is its vocation. For those who want to delve deeper, exploring the importance of marketing automation in managing customer relationships, we suggest reading our post “Managing Customer Relationships: CRM and Marketing Automation.” And now? A change in the wind, awaiting new horizons, a world focused on people, capable of ensuring sustainable solutions, based on certainties, not myths and rhetoric.
