The impact of wellness initiatives on BBVA’s workforce
In the last year, the bank has stepped up its efforts to improve the wellness and health of its employees. These initiatives are already proving their worth by helping employees in areas as wide-ranging as sleep quality, early detection of genetic diseases and mental health.
The continuous improvement of working conditions is one of the principles that contributes the most when it comes to the safety, health and well-being of people. It also has a positive impact on workers’ engagement with the company and their productivity.
“At BBVA we view wellness as a combination of financial health, physical-mental health and managerial leadership. This outlook, together with our purpose, culture and professional development tools, helps us to improve team engagement, which is key to BBVA’s people management strategy,” explains Araceli Morato, head of occupational health at BBVA.
The bank has identified a series of changes that its employees have experienced in recent years in the way they relate to their work, and when it comes to their needs and preferences. “Nowadays, salary is not a person’s only motivation when it comes to choosing a new job or staying put. There are other factors beyond pay that are becoming increasingly important, and which help people grow, both personally and professionally. These elements have a direct impact on the quality of life at work and with the family,” she adds.
This concept of emotional salary is not the same for everyone, but varies according to what each person values and prioritizes based on their own specific needs and circumstances. And professional and personal well-being is gaining more and more weight in this area. “We can now see that employees are beginning to view their professional and personal lives holistically and are insisting that their company support them in this regard. Therefore, it is important to focus on initiatives that allow them to achieve this goal and help them to enjoy quality rest time and minimize levels of stress and anxiety,” she explains.
Improving physical and mental health
For all these reasons, in late 2022 BBVA launched an agenda of wellness activities that is already yielding significant results. Upward of 10,000 employees have taken part in conferences dedicated to the subject of emotional management, including lectures given by psychiatrist Marian Rojas Estape, Dr. Mario Alonso Puig and neuroscientist Nazareth Castellanos. Another program to have achieved a remarkable impact is the sleep hygiene course, following which 64 percent of the participants stated that they had increased their hours of sleep and/or improved the quality of their sleep. A further 1,000 employees have attended conferences on anxiety, delivered by experts from Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, and nearly 900 have taken part in Sanitas’ laughter therapy workshops. Meanwhile, knitting has already amassed a community of 600 employees, who have found knitting to be an excellent way to disconnect and take care of their mental health.
“We have really been listening to the workforce to learn more about their concerns and provide them with the tools that can help them the most. We know that if employees are happy, they will work better, and if they work better, they will be happier, like a fish that bites its own tail,” proclaims Morato. One of the aspects that the bank has been most concerned about is mental health. Along these lines, it has launched a 24/7 psychological support service that includes free and anonymous telephone and online support for all employees and their immediate family members. This service has carried out more than 550 consultations in its first six months of life, garnering a net promoter score of over 90%.
When it comes to physical health, the bank has focused its efforts on offering services for the early prevention of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular pathologies and stroke. Among the most cutting-edge alternatives is the possibility for employees to undergo a genetic analysis of hereditary cardiovascular diseases to help ensure an early response to any related health concerns. A total of 1,173 employees have taken part in this study, which was carried out in conjunction with the Quirón Group. BBVA has also launched a colorectal cancer screening campaign for all workers over 45 years of age, which has succeeded in diagnosing pathologies at an early stage for certain participants.
Employees have also been given the opportunity to take part in first aid workshops, talks on migraines alongside the European Migraine & Headache Alliance, and on food, nutrition and intestinal microbiota with the Autonomous University of Madrid, along with a personal consultation with a nutritionist. “We want to respond to the various wellness concerns of our employees in a holistic way. For BBVA, the workforce is our most prized asset and that is why we endeavor to find the best value proposition,” explains Morato. “We maintain ongoing dialog with employees and they have conveyed to us how highly they think of all the emotional health programs. At the end of the day, they are activities that are genuinely useful to them and that they can apply on both a personal and professional level. This also has benefits in terms of the sense of belonging and engagement among the workforce,” she concludes.