Georgiana Andrei, Regina Maria: “More than 60 percent of the employees consider that companies are responsible for their wellbeing”

“One of the good things that the pandemic has brought was the telemedicine that probably nothing would have happened at this rhythm in Romania. We did our online clinic in 10 days. People can be closer to their doctors. For example, now we launched a new service which we are still testing, texting with a doctor. So, whenever you have a problem or you have a question, you don’t Google it, but you text it with a doctor on WhatsApp and the doctor comes to your help,” Georgiana Andrei, Corporate Sales Director, Regina Maria private healthcare network said during “Belonging at Work Conference” powered by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“There are lots of things happening in our industry, and some things are now easier for the patients. A hot topic among companies is now a program that helps employees offer emotional help to their colleagues that might need it. We see the attendance of this training is much higher and people are much more engaged.

We see lots of interest from companies to come closer to their employees and look at both the physical health of their employees and their mental health as well.

Wellbeing and mental health of the employees are always on the table when discussing with an HR department. Mental health is not only the responsibility of the employee or the company.

Over the past year, 60 percent of people said that at a certain point they had a problem that they would put it in the mental health category. Also, more than 60 percent of the employees consider that it’s the responsibility of the company to look after their wellbeing.

Other studies show that more than 50 percent of the people that take days off for mental health issues wouldn’t have the courage to mention it to their superiors.

It’s not strange to go to a see a therapist in this period, due to the pandemic. Firstly, companies need to create awareness and to make it a normal subject. It’s nothing strange about this. Leaders must learn how to offer the first emotional help, how to identify a colleague that is experiencing burnout or depression.

The second topic is how to offer support in emergency moments. This emergency could be a bad day or my husband telling me he wants to divorce or my boss telling me that my job might not be here in a month etc. The third topic is how to offer long-term help. We need to normalize therapy, make it part of our life. Another study was saying that 70 percent of the people considered that mental health is just as important as physical health. We strongly believe that we need to normalize this. Going to a therapist is just like going to a doctor.”

Click here for the event recording.