Jessika Slovik

Tolerancia Activa is dedicated to implementing sustainability and compliance with an ESG criteria in companies that want to obtain quality and competitiveness certifications.

What main gaps in the Mexican working climate has Tolerancia Activa identified?
I noticed that there was a great deal of internal disorganization, especially in terms of the work environment in Mexico and matters in the workplace with gender equality and sexual, religious, or age discrimination; however, thanks to the globalization Mexico is experiencing and especially after the pandemic, companies today are ready for a change. For example, there are certifications and foreign funds that are helping create this push. When I saw that companies were looking for these certifications that give their brands credibility, I realized there was an important opportunity to intervene and change work environments from the inside. We could take advantage of the entire implementation to reward people in their day-to-day work culture.

In what ways can the NOM-035 certificate be a step forward in human resource management?
In 2016, the government implemented a new standard called NOM-035, which measures business and psychosocial risks. I find it interesting because the government could not implement it properly and unfortunately did not have the capacity to follow up on the compliance with the standard; however, the general vision of NOM-035 is positive for companies, because they make a self-diagnosis of what is happening in the governance within the company. Then, there are issues of psychosocial risk and emotional stress that many of their peers and collaborators are having that influence their productivity and day-to-day operations. CEOs and COOs of companies were not taking into account how important the well-being of their employees is on a daily basis. Now, with auditors coming to check companies randomly, they have start paying attention to what is happening. What motivated us with NOM is that companies did it as a duty, filling up the paperwork and uploading it to the NOM platform. Tolerancia Activa has a model that goes beyond just fulfilling a duty: we implement NOM-035 so that that culture of psychosocial risk is infused in all those companies through certain workshops. This creates an incredible cohesion of teams and provides 80% productivity benefits as soon as employees begin to experience being understood by their bosses in the psychosocial aspect.

What sectors are you focusing on for your pilot projects?
Our pilot project was done within the financial environment since banks are already broader structures and are actually looking for such certifications. We wanted to start with SMEs, and by focusing on smaller financial institutions, we had to pay more attention to SOFOMs, which manage important financial models. They have much smaller work environments, where we felt we could have more interactions. Our first pilot was with Pluscorp, and we started by aligning it with this approach, we wanted them to implement the ESG. We explained that it would need to have an action plan where it must have sustainability, it must measure risks and future plans, and it would work on three axes: responsibility to the environment; the need for external boards, which many SMEs do not have; and be aware of its social responsibility. These three elements need to be aligned to make companies that are inclusive and ethical and thus more competitive at a national and international level. Actions such as these can help establish a prestigious brand for future operations. This comes not only from the inside with its employees, but also from the outside, which is what we can touch. If a SOFOM, for example, lends money, it should not lend to a company that will destroy the water supply in Mexico. In its quest to issue green bonds, it was also looking for certifications, which is important in the financial sector to receive support from financiers. Tolerancia Activa has a positive influence while working with laborers in terms of sustainability and human rights, regarding education, their social responsibility, and their communities. It is important in all companies, including SMEs that may have 30 employees, to have a vision of social responsibility.