It’s the middle of the workday at the telecom company du but senior staff and employees from several departments aren’t at their desks. Instead, about 15 of them, wearing their sports gear, are in the gym on the top floor of du’s corporate office in Dubai. Last year, the company initiated a Fitness Challenge, inviting the entire workforce to participate. In fact, the company has been developing a wellness programme since 2010.
An Emirati employee, Saoud Al Mudharreb, had just returned from a holiday, but he was on the floor giving the in-house fitness coach 30 burpees and 10-kilogram dumb-bell snatches, followed by a five-minute run on the treadmill. Bence Hamori, a senior corporate account manager at the company, who is also a member of the wellness committee at du, cheered him on.
Al Mudharreb admits he wasn’t ready for the challenge but his colleagues motivated him to join anyway. “That’s the thing about a long-standing wellness programme at work,” says the 24-year-old e-sales professional. “The culture is ingrained among the staff, so everyone encourages you to lead a healthy lifestyle. And the knock-on effect is that, when a company seems committed to your well-being, you want to be an efficient worker.”
Companies in the Emirates are gradually realising that investing in sustainable wellness programmes can have a positive effect on company growth and employee satisfaction.
A study by the Rand Corporation last year found that more than 85 per cent of companies employing 1,000 people or more in the United States, offer some sort of workplace wellness programme. While there isn’t research on the uptake in the UAE, the 2014 Daman Corporate Health Awards indicate that more organisations are now willing to embrace the trend.
A GCC Compensation and Benefits Trends study in 2014 also underscores that desire among employers in the region. More than half of the 160 employers interviewed said they have some form of an employee-wellness programme in place, and some stated they are working on introducing or revamping schemes based on employee surveys.
Dr Mansoor Anwar is a family medicine and occupational health consultant for du. In 2010, he launched an on-site clinic with a full-time physician and nurse for the company.
“Our strategy in employee wellness has progressed with a calendar of activities throughout the year,” he says. “We began with putting in an on-site gym and healthy-food vending machines, and created a dedicated wellness department in 2013 and a committee to ensure sustainability of our strategy in 2014.”
The programmes at du now include weight-loss challenges, step-counting competitions and yoga classes. During the Biggest Winner challenge last year, participating employees collectively lost 500kg.
“We also have a year-round participation in major marathons and disease-prevention parades,” he says.
The company has also developed a step-counting and wellness app that can be downloaded by the public from the app stores. It is just one of the many ways companies are getting proactively involved. Smaller corporations find it beneficial to team up with fitness centres to achieve wellness goals.
Gaurab Dasgupta, the corporate wellness manager at Gold’s Gym, says leadership teams are stepping up to create an environment of care in the workplace through partnerships. “Based on their requirement and investment,” he says, “we begin with an on-site information session and then work out either an employee participation plan or company participation plan.”
The former includes discounts on membership and trainers. When the company decides to raise the investment for its entire staff, the gym team lays out a plan that includes boot camps, periodical assessment, measuring BMI and setting specific goals. “A lot of companies are trying out such programmes for the first time and this is still in its infancy stage,” says Dasgupta.
“There has been a plethora of health initiatives undertaken by the government that has resulted in voluntary initiatives in private companies in recent years. But because this is their first time, they want to take it slow to see if there is a sustainable difference and if it is worth continuing.”
The benefits of such programmes, when implemented effectively, are well documented. In 2010, after assessing the best practices of several companies, the Harvard Business Review concluded that the results of a wellness programme that concentrated on education and personal discipline were worth the effort and financial commitment. That includes a reduction in health-care and insurance costs incurred for each employee, higher productivity and a drop in illness-related absenteeism, as well as a boost in morale, pride and loyalty towards the company, which cuts down turnover.
The programme offered by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company – SEHA for its employees resulted in a 32 per cent drop in absenteeism, with productivity going up by 52 per cent in 2013. RAK Ceramics reported improved fitness levels and reduced stress because of its wellness programmes last year.
Anwar, who is also a family medicine consultant at Al Zahra Hospital in Dubai, adds: “We are passively contributing to a healthier community, too – the employees will share their healthy habits with their families and friends.”
Du earmarks Dh200,000 for its programmes and it seems to be making a difference.
Al Mudharreb has been with du for more than three years and plans on staying on. “You don’t always find companies that are so involved,” he says.
“It makes coming to work interesting. We aren’t only talking about work and interacting with our department, but participating in these programmes opens up our interaction with our colleagues in other departments.”
He says it has had a positive effect on his confidence. “Also, I’ve never been an early riser, but because we have fitness sessions at the office gym in the morning, I come in early and start the workday early as well.”
But physical activity is only one dimension of corporate wellness. Nutrition awareness and disease management are equally important. Oil and gas companies in the Emirates have had such programmes for years as a way to retain employees.
The nutrition and inch-loss expert Rashi Chowdhary is leading a three-month programme at BP in Abu Dhabi. “It is an intensive programme where we are looking at improving the overall well-being of their employees with a focus on food and fitness,” says Chowdhary, who is working with 80 employees at the moment. “A nutrition workshop is followed up with personalised meal plans for each employee. They are also looking into making changes in the quality of food available in the workplace and have yoga instructors coming in regularly to conduct classes.”
But not all programmes are designed to succeed. Research by Gallup in the US found that a significant number of employees were unaware of the programmes offered by their companies and many cited a lack of time to participate.
Chowdhary says one of the biggest mistakes in setting a programme is to make it a detached one-time effort. “Just offering discounts on gym memberships does nothing much to motivate the individual,” she says. “Companies need to be more actively involved in creating a healthy environment in the workplace so that employees can take real action. Modifying menus in the cafeteria, getting health experts on board for guidance and creating a fun competitive environment are all far more effective.”
Anwar says one of the solutions is to start with the top management to trigger change. “We are the first company in the region to incorporate a wellness Key Performance Indication into the yearly performance objective of our employees – including the chief executive.”
The senior managers’ end-of-year benefits are linked to the achievement of their fitness goals. “Senior-management support is the number-one incentive for the rest of the company and their participation in a wellness event portrays this support. Recognition from the chief executive for those participating is another strong incentive. And then there’s always monetary incentives.”
Dasgupta says wellness committees need to be in place to implement and monitor the progress of such initiatives. “They need to set realistic goals and plans based on employee feedback, plan a wellness year and find champions in the organisation to lead the way,” he says.
“At the same time, they must put out useful information through company newsletters, on their intranet, which will lead to a snowball effect.”
aahmed@thenational.ae
