Maria José Bosch, Professor of People Management at the ESE Business School of the Universidad de los Andes and member of the ICWF of the IESE Business School, moderated the Experts Meeting on Relationships at Home and at Work that we held last July in Barcelona. She is an expert in data collecting and is a leader in the Latin American professional market.

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María José (MJ): In Latin America, the family is very important, among other reasons because it is the main support of society. In general, there are no social protection structures as, for example, in Europe, so the family network is the main safety net and support network. I must also stress the importance of the family bond because in general, the bond is not only in the nuclear family but also in the extended family.

MJ: In 2024, female labour participation in Chile reached 52.6%. We are only just returning to pre-pandemic indicators. In Latin America, the pandemic hit very hard. With the distribution of roles being very marked, there was a huge flight of women from the labour market, setting us back more than 10 years. In the years since then, re-entry has been slow and has been marked by a strong presence in the informal market. In the labour market, women participate mainly in the service sector, with a majority presence in education, health and commerce.

MJ: In Chile, the difference is very important between professional and non-professional workers. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security reported that during the first half of 2020, 38% of employed people in Chile were teleworking. In December 2021, 10.9% of people in Chile were working remotely. Currently, only 3.5% of salaried workers telework in Chile according to the Ministry of Labour. Although it is a benefit highly valued by people, it is not so massive, as there are still many jobs that require physical presence and there is still a great opportunity to develop productivity measurement mechanisms that are not based on presenteeism. On the other hand, different laws have tried to support the implementation of telework for people who need to take care of others. In January this year, a law came into force that establishes the right to telecommuting or telework for workers who care for children under 14 years of age, people with disabilities or people with severe or moderate dependency.

MJ: In companies and organisations we are in the business of exchanging goods and services. We measure most things in a transactional way. But human relationships are much more than transactions. We bond by getting to know and identify with each other.  There is much evidence of the importance and the difference it makes to have positive relationships within companies. Although we know it, we have not managed to implement it on a massive scale. Moreover, with all the social changes (such as the massive use of social media) it has polarised society, impacting business as well. This has made it even more difficult to promote positive professional relationships.

The whole ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) trend has been about reinforcing better companies for the world, rather than better companies of the world. I believe that as we saw in the EM, we can reinforce the importance of social and human sustainability by reinforcing the importance of building quality professional relationships.

MJ: Many policies promote work-family balance, i.e. a balance between work and personal life. What has more effect, however, is not the policies, but the leadership. Going back to what we saw in the EM, the most important thing is human relations and the links we develop: whether or not we trust our bosses, whether or not we can tell them about our challenges.

There is a measure called FSSB (Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors). This helps us to measure whether the leader has specific behaviours that facilitate the work-life balance of employees. The first is whether I have emotional support from my boss. That is, whether I can tell him/her about things that happen to me. The second is instrumental support, which means whether my boss can help me or support me in the solution (e.g. implementing compressed week, part-time or deferred entry), the third is whether she/he has structural support, i.e. beyond our team or our relationship, whether she/ he can bring about change in the organisation. Finally, whether he or she is a role model. In other words, whether the boss her/himself manages to strike a balance between work and family. Bosses show us how we should behave to do well in the company, so this measure is crucial because it is closely related to the company culture.