The reduction of labor liabilities begins long before the actual dismissal of the employee. It starts on the first day of work, when the new employee joins the company’s team. “Many times the contractor is only concerned with legal issues, such as point control, periodic internal audits, attention to documents, but forgets that the human factor, the quality of the employer-employee relationship is crucial for the employee, when leave the company, decide whether or not to go to the Judiciary”, explains Caroline Gil, a labor lawyer, with a postgraduate degree in People Management and Labor Law and Procedure.
The Labor Connection method, developed by Caroline based on her experience of more than 10 years working with claims and labor auditing, seeks precisely to link the two sides of a delicate relationship: attention to legislation and people. With that in mind, she listed five tips to help companies reduce labor liabilities – all tested in practice with her clients.
1 – Listen to what people need:
The first and most effective tool is listening, which can start with an organizational climate assessment. With the right questions, it is possible to extract exactly which are the weak points that need to be adjusted and also the strong points that must be emphasized.
2 – Mental health is a top concern:
More than ever, people are concerned about mental health and the blurred space occupied by work in their lives. During the pandemic, many employees took their work home and, since then, have been unable to establish boundaries between their personal and work environment (even those who returned to face-to-face work). This ends up triggering psychic illnesses such as Burnout Syndrome, depression, anxiety, etc.
“People need to feel cared for and have the security that the employer cares about their mental health”, stresses Caroline. For this, it is essential that in addition to the culture of prevention, which begins with the form of communication within the company, organizations can also work with tools that indicate the level of mental health of their employees and offer support in cases of illness. A survey by Vittude, for example, shows that 72% of Brazilians would choose to work in a company that takes care of the mental health of its employees.
3- Invest in expressions of recognition:
One of the greatest human needs is connection and it only happens when people realize they are recognized, considered and belonging to the group. In this way, the creation of programs that celebrate together with the employee important and unique moments of his personal trajectory, such as marriage or birth of a child/adoption; or professional, such as company time; are essential for people to feel seen and welcomed within the organization.
4 – Give real feedback
It is not enough to evaluate the employee, it is important that the feedback is delivered routinely and appropriately. Companies need to understand that this is a process to support employee growth and not a scheduled date to “pull ears”. In this way, it is important that leaders are trained to give feedback through adequate communication, managing to create processes of constant evolution and learning. Likewise, the team also needs to be taught how to receive feedback.
5 – Betting on Non-Violent Communication
“In ALL the clients I’ve worked with, communication has always been the biggest problem indicated by organizational climate surveys. Either because of excess or lack, but mainly because of the way of communicating”, says the lawyer.
The corporate environment is still a place where communication is extremely violent and, most of the time, people cannot even clearly identify this. This is because violence is implicit and engendered in the way of relating and for this reason it becomes so difficult to translate.
Introducing Non-Violent Communication within the company’s culture changes the game completely, because it is a way of communicating that generates connection and when we are connected with people, organizations and purpose, we are naturally instigated to collaborate and support.
