Over the last few decades, society has evolved rapidly and we have seen substantial changes in the way of seeing life in each of these generations. Each one of them was educated in contexts and with different visions of life and work.
It is clear that little or nothing has to do with the way of understanding the work of a 60-year-old person against someone of 20, who understand the world in a radically different way and even begin to speak of “pandemic’s”, a generation shaped by a Historic moment.
Although the people belonging to these four generations have a different era, vision and objectives, the constant that persists over time is the social concern to maintain standards that guarantee the occupational and psychological well-being of the collaborators.
Given this situation, authorities and private initiative have had to make a paradigm shift in labor management, ranging from working hours, vacations and of course adjustments in the minimum wage. Additionally, an issue that has gained relevance is ensuring and guaranteeing the mental health of employees and the challenge of aligning the work environment to avoid psychosocial risks.
As a result of this concern, in October 2019 the Mexican authorities launched NOM-035, a standard focused on identifying, analyzing and preventing psychosocial risk factors, as well as promoting a favorable organizational environment in the workplace.
It is important to emphasize that NOM-035-STPS-2018 comprises two aspects: psychosocial risk factors and the favorable organizational environment, which by definition is one in which the sense of belonging of workers is promoted; training to carry out their tasks; the precise definition of responsibilities for workers; proactive participation and communication between workers; the proper distribution of workloads, with regular working hours; evaluation, as well as recognition of performance.
Five months later, in March 2020, the pandemic put a handbrake on and slowed down the implementation and evolution of this standard for two years, specifically dedicated to the issue of occupational health.
As of that quarter, work environments were one of the main protagonists and subjects of these changes. The industries advanced processes to keep their operations dormant and survive and many improvised, without measuring the impact on the collaborator.
In the midst of all this, human beings had to make intensive use of technology, which plays a preponderant role in this paradigm shift of which we are actors and historical witnesses. Today, teleworking and other new work practices that are now normal, add new challenges for NOM-035 to fulfill its mission.
In this way, the great debate arises about the most efficient way to adopt it and ensure that labor ties are effectively improved and strengthened in all their dimensions. The big questions that are generated when knowing it are: how to achieve its effective implementation?, how to measure progress and fulfillment of its objectives?, what goals are there for the benefit of the workers?