These are some of the best companies to work for in Spain

It is often said that people come to a company, but leave a boss.. And the truth is that this expression quite well summarizes the key role that middle managers (or managers, as experts in the management of human resources of organizations prefer to call them) currently play in achieving a pleasant work environment.

A company's talent policies may be very advanced and aimed at placing its professionals at the center of the entire business strategy, but their effectiveness will be minimal or even null if the transmission belt with employees fails.. And that link between the human resources department and the workforce are the bosses or managers, whose role was widely analyzed during the first Observatory of The Best Companies to Work For, recently organized by ACTUALIDAD ECONÓMICA.

Five companies that operate in very different sectors participated in this colloquium, but they agree on the idea that a good work environment, with satisfied employees, is synonymous with better results.. These five organizations were represented by Ana Valdivielso, HR director at the pharmaceutical company GSK; Sonia Colino, Director of People, Brand and Sustainability at Banca March; Patricia Cabal Briso-Montiano, head of Employee Experience & PMO at Generali Seguros; Encarna Maroño, Director of People and Culture at The Adecco Group, and Gemma Moral, Human Capital leader and partner at PwC.

THE TOXIC BOSS, GREAT ENEMY

These companies fight the classic toxic boss by all means, who not only is not capable of motivating his subordinates but is responsible for them becoming increasingly burned out.. To avoid these profiles, at Generali Seguros they schedule several virtual sessions a year with their middle managers to give them, in the simplest and most summarized way possible, some basic guidelines that they must be able to internalize and transmit to the members of their teams.. At Banca March they do something similar, in addition to measuring the work environment of their departments: this has allowed them to verify that a bad work environment is usually synonymous with the boss not correctly conveying the company's culture.

Similar are the evaluations carried out at The Adecco Group, where they have also detected that a good work environment usually translates into more satisfactory economic results.. “We try to make our managers see that, when you have a satisfied and committed team, the results in their business unit are better,” explained Maroño.. Following a similar strategy, at PwC they offer their middle managers specific training in people management. If, despite receiving these guidelines, they do not internalize that “people management is key for the company, they end up leaving,” Moral acknowledged.

FLEXIBILITY AND WELL-BEING

But the task of the bosses is not only crucial for the good or bad climate that they are capable of generating among their teams.. Furthermore, the best companies to work for entrust the management of the working hours of those who make up their departments to them.. “At Banca March we appeal to the individual responsibility of professionals and their commitment to work, but, from there, the work done by people managers is essential, as they must always know where their teams are and what their availability is. , as well as ensuring that they are able to collaborate with each other,” Colino explained.

Because the debate is no longer limited to the suitability or otherwise of teleworking, but rather to the management of flexibility in its broadest sense.. “At Generali we are committed to a hybrid model, because we understand that the key is balance and doing things with purpose,” said Cabal Briso-Montiano.. Along the same lines, Moral recalled that personal treatment at PwC is essential for the training of young people or the transmission of corporate culture.. For this reason, he did not hesitate to conclude that, in his opinion, “the rigidity of teleworking is difficult, but responsible flexibility is easy.”

Maroño agreed with the diagnosis, who also recalled that the objective of companies like The Adecco Group is for their offices “to be places where people want to go to work, as they are open, collaborative and training spaces in which it is easy to interact.” with other people”. In fact, companies such as the pharmaceutical company GSK have detected that, far from what is usually thought, “young people want to go to the office and have a space to sit in every day”, as Valdivielso stated.

GLOBAL CARE

Concern for the well-being of professionals was another of the issues discussed in the ECONOMIC NEWS forum. And all participating companies agreed that physical and mental health care is increasingly important and requires increasingly ambitious strategies.

For example, Colino explained, “at Banca March we try not to differentiate health care from daily work, but rather we try to make everything go together.”. Along the same lines, Maroño recognized that concern for well-being should not only encompass the specific actions that companies can implement at a given time, but should also pursue “that workers are satisfied because their companies look out for them, as professionals and also as people”.

One of the positive consequences of placing health care at the center of companies' talent strategies is that this practice can eliminate certain taboos that are harmful to society as a whole.. For example, Cabal Briso-Montiano highlighted the growing participation of Generali staff in workshops or sessions on mental health whose holding would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

On the other hand, Moral pointed out, being close to the teams generates “social well-being that people also value highly, because it helps them know what is happening to them and have listening channels.”. In the case of PwC, as explained, this task falls once again on the middle managers or managers, who have the responsibility of meeting with the members of their departments several times a year to listen to them.

THE VALUE OF THE RANKINGS

The first Observatory of the Best Companies to Work for was held after the publication of the latest edition of the ranking that ACTUALIDAD ECONÓMICA has been preparing for a quarter of a century.. As Maroño explained, these classifications help us “to inspire ourselves and organize what we do.”

For his part, Cabal Briso-Montiano highlighted the internal value of this ranking, “because it encourages us to work on issues that perhaps would not have occurred to us.”. Externally, “it is of great help to publicize our corporate culture and attract talent,” as Colina acknowledged. Finally, Moral highlighted the great exposure of this ranking, “which makes us not conformist.”