Globant constantly seeks for new paths to innovate. We work to continuously strengthen our pillars and our commitment towards sustainability, our diverse and global talent, and our unique culture. Our BeKind framework focuses on building a more balanced future by multiplying the positive impact of our initiatives which promote the social, environmental, economic, and cultural wellbeing of humanity.
With this goal at heart, we enriched our BeKind initiative by expanding one of our pillars: BeKind to Yourself, because in order to be kind to others we must first start with ourselves. We extend this mindset within our own organization and made an effort to offer the necessary tools so that everyone could find the kindness and care needed for their mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health.
According to Mental Health America’s latest 2021 Workplace Report, 9 in 10 employees say their workplace stress affects their mental health, incredibly high during COVID.
As part of the learning journey throughout the pandemic, we continue to strengthen our focus on the needs of Globers, supporting their health, satisfaction, and happiness levels. By enhancing a deeper understanding of this, we continue to develop the fulfilling experience they have as a collaborator in the organization.
In this frame, our BeKind initiative has never been more critical. This innovative proposal has led us to improve the lives of Globers individually, giving them tools for their mind, body, and spirit’s health. That’s why during 2021, we launched a wide range of diverse and multiple efforts that help create new possibilities for Globers to keep on acquiring tools that lead to their wellbeing, purpose, and fulfillment. Our energy supported promoting an environment filled with opportunities for individual wellness, which helps unleash each person’s potential. The results were highly successful since we obtained the participation of 13.943 Globers in the Be Kind to Yourself initiatives since April 2021.
The Wellness calendar was one of our main efforts, and we had a total of, 4631 participants. The calendar is available for all Globers to access different activities to relax, focus and reset. It offers many options that are scheduled at different times of the day so that whenever they choose, they may enjoy a session or activity of their preference, wherever they are in the world. The possibilities included meditation, mindfulness, yoga, heartfulness, online doctors & nutritionists appointment, Slack tips, and webinars.
Another effort of 2021 was to offer free membership for Headspace, the popular meditation app, so that all collaborators could use it individually and freely in their own time. Headspace reached a 39% engagement rate, with, 5307 members.
On the other hand, we included an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that involved more than 100 Globers per month. EAP is a confidential platform where each person and their family can receive personalized attention regarding health, legal and financial topics.
Our BeKind to Yourself program enclosed a holistic approach based on three main pillars:
Body
We encourage Globers to listen and embrace their body and its needs by implementing positive habits that connect to it and create a sense of happiness and health. That’s why we offered 20 talks and initiatives that included:
Active Pause Program, Gym@Home platform, Special Discounts in gyms, an online doctor nutritionist appointments, sleep medicine, webinars about health, nutrition, skincare, and preventive medicine. We also offered a Stop Smoking Program, where there was a response of 27% that are now Smoke-Free Globers.
Mind
To keep on developing their learning path and growing, it’s essential for Globers to have a fresh, focused mind that celebrates achievements, knows how to manage stress, and learns from failures. We focused our efforts for this pillar towards Smart working, where we encourage a set of individual and team practices to manage high job demands at a healthy work pace. It also included 36 webinars, in which Globers could find the Unleash my Potential Program (Webinars with tips to improve wellbeing), a Globant University “Be Kind to Yourself” path, and a Google Search Inside Yourself Program. By launching the Mindfulness Program for this pillar, we enrolled 25%.
Spirit
To help Globers align to their purpose and support their emotional intelligence growth, we created opportunities to learn, train and practice these skills, and acquire new ones. It’s essential to identify what emotions we are feeling, why, and how to handle them in order to think and act clearly. As mentioned above, meditation was one of the top used content through Headspace and reinforced by our Wellness Calendar.
The initiative allowed for sessions focused on meditation, mindfulness, yoga, wellness activities, Ikigai interactive sessions, and universal movement. Ikigai was one of the most essential tools granted to Globers, as they became aware of aligning their life purpose with their own Globant’s career purpose and path. This way, they can achieve their full potential. In each Ikigai session, they are taught to ponder their personal goals, purpose, and skills and how identifying them will strengthen their life and work objectives.
The opportunities for enjoying meditation spaces, physical activities, emotional intelligence webinars, among many others, are aligned with a significant objective: To connect mind, body, and spirit with their own personal and professional purpose.
Be Kind to Yourself is not only a new way of working, but a new way of living, improving the quality of Glober’s daily life, and at the same time, the relationship with their jobs. We have seen that by changing their inner world, their outer world changes too.
