Wellness E-Book

Rania Sabry

• Herausgeber: Kayan for Publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 236

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

"Curses can turn into blessings, though not always will the timing be so convenient!" Although this period has been stressful for everyone. It has also given many of us the time to reflect on our lives, relationships, goals, and make new plans for the future. Many have learned how to be more thankful and empathetic – In other words, putting aside that many have lost loved ones, this period seems to be a blessing in disguise for many. Happiness lies in self love and self care. The challenge lies in building the capability to break all the barriers within yourself that prevent you from seeking the love you deserve.

Leseprobe

Wellness

Responding to a Changing World

Rania Sabry

WELLNESS

©2021 Kayan Publishing.

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All rights reserved. Published 2021.

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Wellness

Responding to a Changing World

By: Rania Sabry

“WELLNESS: Responding to a Changing World!”

What if the pandemic we are facing nowadays was treated with more of «immunity against anxiety”? What if we had the knowledge, the power and the willingness to spend that time in wellness lifestyle? Would we have lost so many loved ones to COVID 19? Would we have spent our leisure time more peacefully and actively?

Questions that needs dwelling into people’s lives and understanding how did we survive and what changed during the many turbulent times that we faced.

From the circle of family, friends, and close acquaintances - who are getting fewer and fewer by the antisocial and distancing relationship - I can see that we are blessed with a slower pace of life, getting closer to the ones that matter, getting to know more about ourselves and getting introduced forcefully to the distance working environment.

That last return of working from home is always putting a big smile on my face, in my tenure as a Human Resources Professional and Business Consultant, I have always been fighting for the work-life balance, flexible working hours and working from home, yet that was not a welcomed idea ever. It always seemed that it will put big guys off guard all the time. It was always a challenge for me to understand the reason behind fighting that idea! It will give the big bosses more power and more advantages for the people. Meanwhile, you will get numerous and humongous benefits for adapting this in your company. For instance;

- Management will enjoy cost reductions and lower attrition rate.

- Employees will enjoy more flexibility and productivity rather than interruptions.

- You will enjoy more productivity by your team and high sense of ownership.

- And at the same exact time, you’ll identify who are the real winners and who are the fake heroes.

- Etc . Etc . Etc ………. Etc (Too early to go into details, yet details of that crucial topic are coming shortly on the book)

It had to be forced that way to understand the benefit and the fact that we need it!! I cannot begin to think of the various benefits coming out of this experience, I am definite that we will soon see hundreds of researches and studies that talks about the life before and after COVID 19. Which is not what we are intending to discuss here, we are aiming to pave the way to moving forward in a healthy way, as it’s now

obvious, we have no other way.

A healthy and positive attitude! Can we adopt such attitude for a changing world. How about putting it into a structured perspective? How about developing a guide Corporate Wellness, safety, and wellness programs?

This book is intended for leaders, decision-makers, Wellness Advisors, everyone who is interested in people in general, and interested in learning more about People Wellness and Corporate Wellness.

It is especially useful to individuals involved in the initiation, development, and implementation of Corporate Wellness programs. It includes an application model that is developed through studying Fortune 500 companies and Wellness initiatives applied in people-oriented organizations aiming to create a healthy environment for all employees. Applying the model in full should enable organizations to measure, manage, and improve all Corporate Wellness operational programs, ultimately improving people’s lives and bottom-line growth.

The book draws attention to the importance of wellness to working employees in the world. Wellness Consultants will know how to apply best practices and guidelines.

The learning for the readers is by far the higher form of wellness education and research to date.

To COVID 19!

Probably you know that, I’ll say it anyways.

You have changed the world to a better place, and probably that was not your intention, yet we are good at turning things to our benefit.

In all our strive to coming up with an art of work for a wellness model to impress the market and help those who are passionate about people, we did it. Again thanks to you, we wouldn’t have done it without you, soon you’ll be gone and we won’t miss you a bit. Yet, we will keep the memory of our loved ones who lost the battle over you. We have developed a lot since you arrived to our world, on two important aspects, people advancement and technology development - and we know which of those prevails.

We now have systems that are potentially more responsive in times of crisis – and which are better for everyone, because of you.

Please be merciful, we have had our share of lockdown and economical crisis that affected people, you can claim victory now. We will laugh last, and we will celebrate your end of service soon with powerful will and stronger minds.

Couldn’t have done it without you.

INTRODUCTION

How would you react if you were told that there are tremendous opportunities for your spiritual rebirth and awakening?! What would you say if this will not be forced upon you or precipitated by unavoidable events, rather it comes from an inner yearning and a natural propensity to seek the depths?

In the corporate world, it seems that the time has come to take good care of peoples’ desires of spiritual, mental, and physical health. We have been overthinking about how to make people professional, high performers, knowledgeable, educated, and secured. Yet we are still sticking to Maslow’s laws of needs when it comes to people’s happiness and needs.

The need to shine and not to accept second place in anything is the current trend that shows in everything and creates peer pressure. Accordingly, levels of frustration elevate when we understand that we are not one of those preferred calibers. People need to realize that not everyone is supposed to be the best, and companies need to foster differences and appreciate and accept high performance and achieving objectives, rather than continuously seek to have everyone a shining star. You can also see it in the current performance management systems that are prevailing the market, you know about those models that honor stars and keep the rest wondering when they will be one, the objectives that are not considering the current market needs versus the competition. Everyone should be up to a challenge that is reasonable rather than unrealistic. We need to admit that we are not making it easy for our people to succeed the way it should be, nor giving them the passion or fulfilling the needs that they strive for in their lives while spending more than half of their time at work.

To begin with the needs, successful managers and leaders are supposed to be keen on making people’s lives better. They are considerate of people-development and welfare, and they do have great ideas in mind to make it happen, although they put business benefits and people benefits together on an 80/20 balance - if you can call this a balance! It’s their responsibility to make the business succeed, yet focusing on business success, and business needs, automatically demolishes the people-benefit, with no intention from the bosses to do so, and with so much passion for having success on both spectra.

However, if you don’t have a system in place to take care of the people, you’ll always have a focus on the business, or you will be considered a people pleaser boss, and that will be held against you. The more technical experts you have, the higher the success rate. The higher the cost of the specialized training and expertise, the more companies invest in retention and abiding contracts for the investment in their development. That’s where it’s essential for people development experts to resonate with the business success measurement in general, and work on that other spectrum to put a focus on people’s benefit.

When I started researching the topic of wellness, it attracted my attention that there are thousands of models and implementation plans available, used in various reputable companies of the Fortune 500, and distinguished universities. Yet, they are not accurately measured. They improve performance – from readings and analysis of performance measurement mechanisms - yet the measurement of the wellness itself is not available. We have to admit that the people are happy with what they’re provided and feel valued for being taken care of in such a unique way, and companies publicize what they do to gain a reputation as a good employer who takes care of their employees; it gives them an opportunity to brag as well.

But we need to ask some questions here;

- Is that’s what it takes?

- Can we do more?

- Can we do better?

- On a scale from one to 10, are we good?

- Where is the scale?

- What are the criteria?

Another thing that attracted my attention is the learning and knowledge transfer methods for the wellness topic are SIMPLY NOT THERE. Specialized training, certification, and implementation parties are not available as they should be! So if you need to know about the subject, you don’t have subject matter experts who can transfer the knowledge - except few training bodies which will give you a crash course to hit the ground running, or stumble with implementation as it will never suffice an ambitious plan for making people well.

I spent many years studying the subject of wellness and reading about it in different publications, comparing practices and gathering ideas and thoughts of companies and governments that implemented a form of wellness programs/initiatives and their relations to employees and clients. My objective was not to write a book about wellness; it was to help me with my current consultancy work and introduce a new idea to the market. The objective was to develop an Organizational Wellness Program that was ready to be introduced to the market. And that’s where I was stuck with the real surprise!

Companies do not want to be entrepreneurs in the wellness implementation to their people, and when I say companies, I mean local, international, and multinational companies, labor-intensive businesses with over 15,000 employees, country representation offices of 40 employees. For a cost or even pro-bono, THEY DON’T HAVE TIME OR DON’T WANT TO EXERT THE EFFORT. And believe me, it was not a matter of misunderstanding how the program runs or non-impressiveness with the program. There was everything they needed to know on the overview; they called it compelling, brilliant, great value proposition and one of a kind. They even asked for a tailor-made solution rather than implementing the whole program, and when we explained that the program was a fully-fledge program, and that they would miss a lot if they choose a chapter or more rather than implement the whole thing, they were convinced, or so it appeared.

What was their biggest fear? That will remain the million-dollar question! And that was the main inspiration behind naming the book “Wellness: is it worth it?”

I kept thinking of the effort exerted, the studying and reading to put things together that shouldn’t go in vain. So, after over year of facing rejection, I realized this should be introduced one way or another. I had the idea of the book - with the help of a couple of friends who inspired me after writing their books and getting noticed locally. I truly believe the concept and model should go global. It’s the new thinking process of people after introducing happiness as an ultimate objective to our world. Everyone now is seeking happiness, either through meditation, yoga, gym, or traveling the world. Getting rid of toxic associations, getting into a good relationships, women’s rights movement, inclusion and engagement, etc.

Turning the world around you to be a better one that serves your purpose is becoming the real deal. We give organizations the tools to make this happen for people and earn respect while maintaining and improving performance, along with many more benefits to reap when understanding the concept of wellness while personifying it to each employee in the organization.

Before going any further, let’s first explore the meaning of wellness. Wellness is not the mere absence of disease. It is a proactive, preventive approach designed to achieve optimum levels of health, social, and emotional functioning. Wellness can also be defined as an active process through which you become aware of, and make choices toward, a more prosperous lifestyle. There is agreement on the definition of wellness, and identification of its impact on the mind, body, and soul.

Now let’s discuss the difference between welfare, wellbeing, and wellness.

Welfare is directly related to resources; in other words, financials. Be it in the form of salary, benefits, accessibility to luxurious medical health, and fringe benefits that are available through hard work and your level in the organization, which make you feel special and go for the luxuries in life - peer pressure demands.

Wellbeing (well being or well-being) is a mental state of happiness that comes after feeling valued and appreciated when realizing your full potential. It’s a neuroscience term that is attained through the condition of being contented, healthy, or successful, which is a direct result of welfare, back to resources and taking care of your needs.

Well-being at work exists when people are happy with what they do, how they are treated, how they get on with others. The well-being of employees depends on the quality of working life provided by their employers – the feelings of satisfaction and happiness arising from the work itself and the work environment.

Wellness is more of wants rather than needs; well-ness is one’s primary desires and ambitions. Be it a hobby, relationship, health targets, cognitive abilities improvement, or self-exploration. A state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal. An intended and deliberate choice that leads to wellness. Its personalized act that makes you feel well, even if you don’t attend to your welfare or wellbeing goals, you feel good. You choose wellness over other things in life; you get rid of pressure as you have enough personal well-being that makes you well. It doesn’t have to do with resources and possessions, and that will never prove a state of a healthy mind and body. Welfare is temporary as it relates to the needs, while wellness is a state that if you get to experience once, you know the way to contentment. Leaving that state would be an act of insanity or a mental illness, and you’re highly unlikely to want to go back after getting to the wellness high. It’s considered to be a state of infatuation with yourself that is highly addictive and healthy at the same time. So why would you ever want to leave?

Now let’s look at corporate wellness. Is a workplace health promotion activity and organizational act designed to support behavior that improves health? Known as ‘corporate wellbeing’, corporate wellness often comprises of activities such as health education, medical screenings, weight management programs, or on-site fitness programs or facilities.

These programs can be classified as primary, secondary, or tertiary health programs, depending on the goal of the specific program.

Primary prevention programs usually target a relatively healthy employee population and encourage them to more frequently engage in health behaviors that will promote ongoing good health.

Secondary prevention programs are targeted at reducing behavior that is considered a risk factor for poor health.

Tertiary health programs address existing health problems and aim to help control or reduce symptoms, or to help slow the progression of a disease or condition. Such programs might encourage employees to better adhere to specific medication or self-managed care guidelines.

The lifestyles of people in the workforce are essential for the sake of their own health and the sake of their employer’s profitability. Companies often subsidize these programs in the hope that they will save companies money in the long run by improving health, morale, and productivity.

Other examples of corporate wellness organizational policies include allowing flex-time for exercise, providing on-site kitchen and eating areas, offering healthy food options in vending machines, holding “walk and talk” meetings, and offering financial and other incentives for participation.

In recent years, corporate wellness has expanded from single health promotion interventions to create a more overall healthy environment, including, for example, standards of building and interior design to promote physical activity.

A wellness-oriented lifestyle encourages you to adopt habits and behaviors that promote better health and an improved quality of life. It is a positive approach to living - an approach that emphasizes the whole person.

Wellness programs aim to assist employees with a wide range of needs. Employees’ needs are not static; they vary from person to another and may change over time. Some requirements are shared by many employees, while others may be particular to one employee. The aim of the wellness program is to assist and support all employees, whether on an individual or group basis.

Corporate Wellness and wellness programs should be an integral part of the overall company strategy for a healthy workplace. There are laws governing the employee/employer relationship, and there are ethics and work cultures that call for having happy employees through implementing a successful and realistic Health and Wellness Program.

For health and safety programs, some specific laws and regulations must be taken into consideration. Corporate Wellness programs are different from traditional health and safety programs; there is no legislative mandate. However, the purpose of Corporate Wellness and wellness program is to offer a comprehensive health service - mental, physical, and psychological for all employees. Therefore, it is important to remember that employees are potentially exposed to a wide variety of health hazards or situations, in and out of the workplace, on a regular basis which can affect their general wellbeing.

The fact that your company wants to help you be a better person is a great retention tool, and it works both ways on a cost-benefit analysis for the return on investment to the company versus the value of the investment in the people.

HISTORY OF GLOBAL EFFORTS TO IMPROVE WORKER HEALTH

The origin and evolution of efforts to improve worker health, safety, and well-being are complex, as ideas about how best to achieve the World Health Organization’s (WHO) and International Labour Organization’s (ILO) goals for workers have evolved over time.

WHO and ILO joined forces very soon after WHO’s formation, in the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health, recognizing the importance of these issues. It is relatively recently, however, that health promotion has specifically been linked to the Corporate.

For several decades, health promotion activities and occupational health activities operated in two somewhat separate streams. In recent years the streams have converged, and the linkages have become stronger, both within WHO and between WHO and ILO.

A brief chronology and description of key events and declarations is as follows:

Health Promotion

Occupational Health

Declaration of Ama-Ata

Ottawa Charter

Jakarta Declaration

WHA Resolution 51.12

Bangkok Charter

1950

1978

1981

1985

1986

1994

1996

1997

1998

2002

2003

2005

2006

2007

Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occ. Health

ILO Convention C155 OH&S

ILO Convention C161 OH Services

Global Declaration of OH for All

Global Strategy of OH for All

Luxembourg Declaration

Cardiff Memorandum

Barcelona Declaration

ILO Global Strategy on OSH

Stresa Declaration; ILO Convention C187

Promotion Global Plan of Action

1950 – Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health. Soon after the formation of the World Health Organization, this joint committee initiated collaboration between the two organizations, which has continued to the present day.

1978 – Declaration of Alma-Ata.After the International Conference on Primary Health Care held in Alma Ata in the former Soviet Union, this Declaration was signed by all participants. It “heralded a shift in power from the providers of health services to the consumers of those services and the wider community” and in noting that primary health care brought national health care “as close as possible to where people live and work” rather than only in hospitals, provided the right environment for the concepts of health promotion and occupational health and safety to develop and grow.

1981 – ILO Convention 155. Passed at the 67th ILO session in 1981, this Occupational Health and Safety Convention requires Member States to establish national policies on occupational health and safety, dealing primarily with the physical work environment, and to establish legislative and infrastructure support to enforce health and safety in workplaces. The aim of the suggested policy is to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of work, by minimizing the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment. To date, 56 nations have ratified it.

1985 – ILO Convention 161. Four years later, at the 71st session of the ILO, this Occupational Health Services Convention was approved. This resolution calls on employers in Member States to establish occupational health services for all workers in the private and public sectors. These services would include surveillance of hazardous situations in the environment, surveillance of worker health, advice and promotion related to worker health including occupational hygiene and ergonomics, first aid and emergency health services, and vocational rehabilitation. This Convention has been ratified by 28 countries to date.

1986 – Ottawa Charter. This key document, generated at WHO’s First International Conference on Health Promotion, in Ottawa, Canada, is generally credited with introducing the concept of health promotion as it is used today: “the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health.” It further legitimized the need for intersectoral collaboration, and introduced the “settings approach.” This included the Corporate as one of the key settings for health promotion, as well as suggesting the Corporate as one area where a supportive environment for health must be created.

1994 – Global Declaration of Occupational Health for All. Over the years, a network of over 60 WHO Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health has developed. These Centres hold an international meeting approximately every two years to ensure coordinated planning and activities. At the Second Meeting of WHO Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health, held in Beijing in 1994, a Declaration on Occupational Health for All was signed by the participants. One notable aspect of this Declaration was the clear statement that the term, “occupational health” includes accident prevention (health & safety), and factors such as psychosocial stress. It urged Member States to increase their occupational health activities.

1996 – Global Strategy on Occupational Health for All. The Global Strategy drafted at the 1994 Beijing meeting of Occupational Health Collaborating Centres was approved by WHA in 1996. It presented a brief situation analysis, and recommended 10 priority areas for action. Priority Area 3 pointed out the importance of using the Corporate to influence workers’ lifestyle factors (health promotion) that may impact their health.

1997 – Jakarta Declaration on Health Promotion. Signed after the Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion, this Declaration reinforced the Ottawa Charter, but emphasized the importance of social responsibility for health, expanding partnerships for health, increasing community capacity and empowering individuals, and securing the infrastructure for health.

1997– Luxembourg Declaration on Workplace Health Promotion in the European Union. While each WHO Region has been active in some ways in relation to workers’ health, the European Member States’ political activities in coming together in the European Union has accelerated their ability to work together on certain themes. The European Network for Workplace Health Promotion was formed in 1996, and at a meeting in Luxembourg the following year, passed this Declaration, which reported the group’s consensus on the definition of Workplace Health Promotion (WHP). They defined WHP as “the combined efforts of employees, employers and society to improve the health and well-being of people at work. This can be achieved through a combination of: improving the work organization and the working environment; promoting active participation; encouraging personal development.” The subsequent text went on to make it clear that WHP included improvement of the physical and psychosocial work environment, and also the personal development of workers with respect to their own health, or traditional health promotion.

1998 – Cardiff Memorandum on WHP in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. The European Network for WHP followed up on the Luxembourg Declaration by adopting this Memorandum that emphasized the importance of SMEs to the economy, and outlined the differences and difficulties in implementing WHP in SMEs. The Memorandum outlined priorities for the European nations to apply WHP in SMEs.

1998 – World Health Assembly Resolution The Fifty-first World Health Assembly passed a resolution (51.12) on health promotion endorsing the Jakarta Declaration, and called on the Director General of WHO to “enhance the Organization’s capacity and that of Member States to foster the development of health-promoting cities, islands, local communities, markets, schools, workplaces and health services.”

2002 – Barcelona Declaration on Developing Good Workplace Health Practice in Europe. This Declaration, following the 3rd European Conference on WHP, stressed, “there is no public health without good Workplace Health.” It went so far as to suggest that the world of work might be the single strongest social determinant of health. It also noted the strong business case that exists for WHP. A clear message was the importance of having the occupational health & safety and public health sectors to work together on WHP.

2003 – Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health. At its 91st annual conference, the ILO endorsed this global strategy dealing with the prevention of occupational injuries and illnesses. The importance of using an OSH management system approach of continual improvement was stressed, as was the need, and a commitment, to take account of gender specific factors in the context of OSH standards.

2005 – Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World. This second charter was signed after WHO’s Sixth Global Conference on Health Promotion. While noteworthy for several reasons, a significant one was a key commitment to make health promotion “a requirement for good corporate practice.” For the first time, this explicitly recognized that employers/corporations should practice health promotion in the Corporate. It also noted that women and men are affected differently, and these differences present challenges for creating workplaces that are healthy for all workers.

2006 – Stresa Declaration on Workers Health. Participants at the Seventh Meeting of the WHO Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health at Stresa, Italy, in 2006 agreed on this statement, which expressed support for the draft Global Plan of Action on Workers Health. It specifically noted that “There is increasing evidence that workers’ health is determined not only by the traditional and newly emerging occupational health risks, but also by social inequalities such as employment status, income, gender and race, as well as by health-related behavior and access to health services. Therefore, further improvement of the health of workers requires a holistic approach, combining occupational health and safety with disease prevention, health promotion and tackling social determinants of health and reaching out to workers families and communities.”

2006 – ILO Convention 187. This Promotional Framework for Occupational Health and Safety Convention was approved at the 95th session of the ILO in 2006. Designed to strengthen previous Conventions, this expressly urges Member States to promote an OSH management systems approach with continuous improvement of occupational health and safety, to implement a national policy and to promote a national preventive safety and health culture.

2007 – Global Plan of Action on Workers Health. Operationalizing the 1995 Global Strategy on Occupational Health, providing clear objectives and priority areas for action.

The two parallel timelines for health promotion and occupational health. As noted above, the overlap between the two domains has become greater with the passage of time. Now “occupational health” activities are understood to include not only health protection, but also health promotion in the Workplace; and “health promotion” is understood to be an activity that should include Corporate settings for implementation.