By: Carlos Calles

Companies and Human Resources professionals should enhance their social responsibility in these times of health and economic crisis by supporting those who seek opportunities in the labor market, even if the opportunities are not in their companies.

Promoting candidates, publishing open positions from other companies in a different branch or industry so as not to enter into conflicts are some options. Promoting Linkedin profiles, promoting entrepreneurs and ventures is another way.

Solidarity is social responsibility. Doing something for others is doing it for ourselves and our organizations.

Participating more and doing more work with talent exchange groups is another way to activate society and our social responsibility.

In times of crisis, planning and good actions are of great value.

We are going to create value from Human Resources in these new and challenging times.

 By: Julio Rodríguez

The unexpected presence of Covid19 has led to a series of changes and adaptations in companies to reduce the level of worker exposure and infection while maintaining the productivity levels included in their business plans. Telework, which had already been adopted by some service companies in a way to reduce their operating costs, became an important and necessary element at work to keep the worker free from the infection of Covid19.
This led to a significant reduction of workers attending the company worksite, especially those assigned to administrative tasks and not directly involved in basic operations, maintenance, and industrial services. Undoubtedly, the prevention aspects and working environment conditions in company office or facility, to which the worker was subject on a regular basis, changed significantly when workers were asked to stay and work from home.
There is a relevant aspect to consider related to the ergonomic and psychosocial factors to which worker is exposed while working from home instead of his usual workplace.
It arises then, to ask the following questions, in line with performing telework for the duration time of the current pandemic:
¿Does the worker have a workplace at home that meets the ergonomic and psychosocial conditions in accordance with the company health and safety policy of and that complies with the legal requirements and technical standards?
¿Are spacing conditions, desk and chair, computer equipment, lighting, noise, ventilation, and temperature suitable at the workplace?
¿Is the worker meeting active breaks, working hours, postural hygiene and health conditions while doing the work from home?
We do not know how long will last until the worker can return to the usual workplace due to Covid19 reasons. What is true is that after this some companies will decide to keep a certain number of their workers at home, as a common way of work. In that sense it becomes necessary for the company to manage or ensure for the worker, a safe workplace while working from home

 By: Carlos Calles

Although health protocols such as staying at home, healthy distance, communication, and online shopping should help to reduce problems of personal safety and our assets, it seems that this is not always the case.

In order not to be part of the statistics regarding insecurity, we recommend that behind the face mask, the glasses and / or the protective mask, remain attentive to possible events and especially to the people who hide and use these sanitary protection accessories as disguises.

The pandemic has not made us better people, vandalism and criminals are still in the streets and we should not with respect our protection and security, on the contrary, being alert is key for our safety.

Visits to bank branches and other unprotected risk places in the pandemic should be under extreme care.

Health, personal and property protection go hand in hand even in the new normality.

 By: Evodio Sánchez

A methodology is proposed that consists of 3 phases that include 8 key activities, which we will develop below:

Phase 1: Preparation

• Approach to the problem: you must identify what you want to solve and understand its causes.
• Goals and objectives of the relationship: the objectives of the practice are determined with the essence of the company (mission, vision, and values) in order to connect with the community and employees.
• Formulation of actions: proposals are created to solve the selected problem.
• Configuration and choice of feasible alternatives: the proposals are analyzed and the one with the greatest impact is selected to solve the problem, taking into consideration its relationship with the company, its feasibility, investment, and effort.
• Community mapping: the characteristics of the community to be contacted are identified in relation to its demographics, traditions, culture, and severity of the problem in the community.

Phase 2: Achievement of Bonding

• Contact with the community: it seeks to involve the community with the decisions, in addition, the company’s actions must be based on Human Rights.
• Field visits: trust meetings are held with the community to strengthen ties.
• Alliances: they seek to form alliances with other stakeholders interested in solving the problem such as the government, civil society organizations and private companies to have greater scope and resources.

Phase 3: Community Action

• Implementation of the program: the initiative is carried out considering prevention and mitigation measures, as well as social management plans.
• Long-term work: given that the problem is complex, the aim is to create capacities in the implementers, as well as to create infrastructure that serves as a base and the creation of stimulations that move the community to get involved with the practice.
• Continuous improvement: audits of the initiative are conducted to link with operational indicators (they measure development) and strategic (they measure the reduction of the problem). All results must be presented in full transparency.

The role of organizations to solve community problems is an essential part of the business strategy since each time clients and society question the duty of intervention of companies to solve those problems of the community. Short-term successes should be forgotten for propaganda purposes based on a supposed concern for the common good, the interest must be real not because of a question of reputation, but because it is the only way out for the company survival in the long run.

By: Evodio Sánchez

After analyzing several Social Responsibility initiatives that involve a link with the community, identify a pattern that begins with the intention of the company to solve a problem, but where there is a lack of understanding and causes that originate it, they can even be external (social, environmental or economic) of the same company that feed into it.

There is seldom a reflection on how the support offered to the community should maintain a relationship with the mission, vision and values ​​of the company, because the problem to be solved probably requires a long-term commitment and the causes are multiple, therefore, it is not feasible to solve it in a short time, in addition, scarce resources are involved that are seldom well used because there is no strategy for linking with the community.

The above results in the shaping of objectives aimed at improving the reputation of the company through a RS initiative that attempts to connect with a community to try to solve a problem, the result will only reveal the tip of the iceberg of the problem that arises that is needed to solve. This chain of errors is reflected in the indicators used to monitor development and results, the information focuses on the volume of efforts and little or nothing on mitigating the problem (social, environmental, or economic) to be solved.

For example, a company may aim to increase employment for a certain community through a series of specialized courses that train young people of working age focusing its indicators on: hours of training, number of courses, number of trained / participants, number of affiliate companies, attendance / desertion of participants and number of graduates or certificates

The interest is to ensure that the trained young people can be employed within the organization or with a supplier or client, in order to create a mutual benefit, but according to studies the indicator that would demonstrate the achievement of the objective is omitted due to poor results. From the analysis in the outreach initiatives, on average 5% of the participants manage to place themselves in the first year and the second year shows a decrease of up to 2%, so it is better to show the interest groups volumetric results than the real solution to solve the problem.

Linking initiatives are mostly implemented by volunteer employees who start with enthusiasm and dedication causing a sense of belonging, but after the low results it causes the opposite effect since the volunteers are discouraged by the poor results and the company over the years buries the initiative resulting in the lack of capacity to solve the problem of the community.

 By: Julio César Rodríguez

The key issue in companies to prevent accidents and occupational diseases is to institute operational discipline at the individual and collective level; in other words, each and every one of the members of the organization “performs each activity in the correct way, always”.
With the continuous application of operational discipline, it is possible to reduce the level of risk, by reducing the exposure and probability of infection, as well as, the consequences and severity of the condition in the presence of Covid19.
We assume that every socially responsible company has generated the policies, procedures and work modalities to prevent the contagion of its workers. Some have applied teleworking, eliminating exposure in the workplace. Others have limited the number of employees present in the workplace, reducing the probability of disease and other companies, due to their continuous production, keep their workers attending the work centers permanently.
Of course, the level of risk in the work environment is higher in this last modality. The application of operational discipline in these circumstances is crucial to keep workers free from contagion of Covid19, as well as from any accident or other occupational disease
Within the policies and procedures adopted by each company, the application of operational discipline should be emphasized. For this, it is necessary that each worker knows how to perform each task correctly, including the measures implemented to prevent contagion. In the same way, you must verify that your colleagues apply the same prevention measures.
Second, you must make a commitment to do what is planned. Likewise, alert about those procedures that seem unsafe, take personal responsibility for what you do and stay focused on the task you are doing.
Finally, each worker must be aware of the potential of contagion and the seriousness of the situation and its consequences. To do this, you must take into account that the task can deviate from what was planned, maintain a broad vision of what is happening around you, control your work environment and the tasks you perform.

 By: Blanca América Flores

Today’s behavior builds the future of the planet, the economic conception based on consumerism, excessive urbanization, obtaining resources for consumption impacts negatively in the environment in which we live, people’s well-being and sustainability.
Environmental sustainability is the guiding principle, related to social, economic, and environmental balance, so as to guarantee continuity in the future. The term involves promoting an environmental culture in such a way that people are aware of the impact of their activities, having as a priority, implementing measures that ensure the prevention, or the minimization of their activities, products and services of the industries and of the daily routine of the human being.
This approach is causing organizations to constantly change their environmental management system, since the traditional approach is insufficient to stop the effects on the planet. A management system that is aimed at environmental sustainability incorporates the perspective of the analysis of the life cycle of the product, considers the carbon, water and environmental footprint of its product as indicators and the circular economy as a practice to demonstrate the commitment to society and sustainability.
Individually we can take action to contribute to sustainability, with a firm commitment and awareness of the effect of our actions on the environment, some of these actions can be: reduce and take care of water, minimize energy consumption, reuse, recycle, separate waste, use green technologies, contribute to education and citizen action, be aware of the policies issued at the state level that may impact and periodically evaluate personal behavior and compensate for negative impacts

 By: Evodio Sánchez

To undertake an initiative in improving the quality of life in an organization, it is necessary to analyze working conditions and their impact on: quality of income; rest and leisure; career plan; food and health; education; labor and social relations (employer, bosses, employees, community); workplace; business ethics and labor abuses; transport; housing and public service; spirituality, religion and personal beliefs; loyalty and perception of the company.
Improving the quality of life must start by solving the most serious problems, such as increased costs, inefficiency of processes or fines. For example, absenteeism may be related to a harmful work environment or health problems caused by working conditions.
Achieving job satisfaction requires a thorough review of the mission and vision of the company. Few workers will be motivated if they know that the organization’s sole purpose is profit. Determining the degree of commitment of employees to improve depends on the maturity of social responsibility in the company. In case of not having these initiatives, a road map based on the problems encountered should be proposed.
The job gap, that is, the lack of meaning that an employee feels is due to the perception of knowing that what he does not interest anyone. This, without a doubt, can be a difficult challenge to solve.
Organizations must value that create connects with employees, which requires a selection of appropriate values. Social responsibility practices aimed at improving the quality of life should focus on health and safety at work; labor relations and human rights; economic benefits, training, and healthy recreation.
The benefits of a healthy quality of life bring positive results such as: better performance, greater efficiency in processes, loyalty, reputation, image, commitment, innovation, competitiveness, and profits. Because companies are made up of people, and if they are satisfied with their work, they will probably want their organization to continue to exist in the long term.

 By: Inés Guardia

Some strategies during the new normal: First, obey health protocols and try to reduce the digital divide to incorporate technology options into work activities such as forms of telework, work from home, virtual meetings, digital education, among others. This for people who keep their jobs, people who lost their jobs need to acquire digital skills, know the new trends in the economy and profiles that are required and if it is possible to develop in the occupations that are going to be lacking in such a digital age. as director of digital transformation, data scientist, digital talent, smart city management, director of sustainability, digital innovation, business continuity, digital marketing and digital content or all those activities that cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence such as related to arts and crafts. The list of new jobs and opportunities is large, the challenge to develop the skills to access those job sources such as cloud specialist, drone operator, YouTube content creator, Instagram, blog or Big Data analyst, to mention others. But, above all, it is necessary to rethink the way society produces because this pandemic definitely changed the forms of production as well as the way we relate. Considering things like this, we must think locally, promote local commerce and environmentally friendly options, market from goods and services from this perspective with emphasis on the creation of shared value; establish alliances and participate in platforms such as SEDEX and EcoVadis that promote ethical trade and connect local suppliers with large global buyers. Finally, it is necessary a citizen more committed to his immediate environment, more participatory, who promotes public policies aimed at local development and is committed to caring for the environment in order to ensure the survival of the planet itself.

 By: Inés Guardia

Is it possible to achieve a proper balance between health and economy during the new normal? The first thing is prevention: you have to take care of yourself, obey the health protocols in different countries, use a mask, wash your hands and clean food, keep a healthy distance and avoid non-essential exits. In relation to the economy, reduce unnecessary expenses, limit purchases, cancel credit card balances and above all reinvent or incorporate the use of technologies to reduce the social gap and continue those that have MSMEs complying with the requirements of their customers in goods and services. There are many examples: small inns or restaurants that incorporated home delivery or sale to businesses or corporate buildings to continue their income and not have to opt for the dismissal of their workers or close their businesses. The other option is to establish alliances between companies to offer new options to customers, for example, an alliance between butcher, greengrocer to bring food to customers in a single trip. In another sense, we must be clear that the moment is a great opportunity at the business level for them to communicate the actions carried out, contribute to the stability of the economy, avoiding layoffs and transforming operational processes to, for example, make respirators or antibacterial gel as well as support through food banks or in alliances with governments to equip hospitals. In this sense, socially responsible and sustainable companies in the region have set an example of the power they have to positively influence communities and have earned the prestige and recognition of the population