Building healthy public policy
What Is The Effects Of Supportive Work Environment On Employee.
Health Promotion in workplace are activities that focus on steps that allow the employees of a workplace to improve their own health and wellbeing while at work, as well as creating a healthy, safe and positive workplace. Employers can support health can wellbeing at work by promoting a healthy work culture, fostering the participation of employees in workplace health initiatives, providing training and education to staff of healthy lifestyle and supporting healthy and flexible working setup. Such aspects can help to motivate the employees to be more productive, reduce absences and sick leaves, reduce costs of recruitment and training, and improve the reputation of the organization and lower expenses on compensations and insurance payment (fitforwork.org, 2018). According to the World Health Organization, workplace is a important setting for healthcare promotion. This is because workplace affects directly the physical, mental, social and economic well being of the workers and thus also affects the well being of their families, communities and societies. Also, workplace provides an ideal setup for health promotion to a large audience. Furthermore, through health promotion, it is possible to ensure sustainable social and economic development (who.int, 2018). According to the Australian Capital Territory Government, health promotion in workplace can help to reduce the risk factors of health by 56% improve productivity by 15% (by upgrading workplace environment) (headsup.org.au, 2018).
My workplace is in the Agha Khan Hospital, which is located in Karachi, Pakistan, which was established in 1985, 15 km away from Karachi international airport. It currently has 560 beds, and has many modern types of equipment for healthcare. The organization employs 13,300 employees and has 6 campuses, and provides a wide variety of medical and healthcare services (hospitals.aku.edu 2018). To ensure the wellbeing of all the employees, the organization have implemented several policies for the promotion of health and well being of the employees.
The organization also has several programs which help to develop the health and well being of the employees. Lectures on management of stress among health professionals helps to develop stress management skills, to reduce stress levels among healthcare workers. Awareness programs on diseases such as cervical cancer that provides information on PAP smear screening also helps to improve awareness of the diseases and methods to identify them. Wellness improvement models are also implemented which focuses on 8 aspects of wellness: emotional, spiritual, social, intellectual, occupational, financial, environmental and physical (Goetzel et al., 2014). These factors can thereby help in the development of interpersonal wellness, improving relationship between the employees, and help in conflict management, improve self awareness, and foster collaboration and sense of belonging, self esteem power and fun at work. The organization also utilises posters that highlights ways to improve wellness at work, such as giving up addictions such as smoking, walking, healthy eating, taking the stairs whenever possible, annual health checkups and flu shots, and reducing stress through conversations. Such strategies aim to improve the understanding of the employees towards the various health risks associated with the occupation, and strategies one can take to reduce the risks and improve the overall wellbeing of the employees (Baum, 2016).
Creating supportive environments
The organization has two gyms set up in the main facility on the ground floor to improve access to fitness exercises for both male and females. Each department also has showers and changing rooms. Out of them one room is fixed and contains lockers in each department. The facility also has a table tennis room, to foster sports activities. These allow the employee to relax and unwind before or after work, and improve their physical activities. The organization provides pickup and drop services to ease travel related stress for the employees. Every block in the facility also has separate pathways for pedestrians and public transportation to facilitate walking and prevent accidents. Brochures, posters and booklets on health and wellbeing are provided to the employees to promote knowledge, which are also available on the organization’s website. Cafeterias have options for healthy food and also have cafes in each block. The organization also have kitchen and drinking water facilities in each block and department, which allowed all employees access to their choice of food, and access to clean drinking water (Thorndike et al., 2014; Porter et al., 2018)
Protecting the employees from events like earthquakes, by constructing each building block with two floors and ensuring structural stability. Having centralised air conditioning and closed windows. Providing specific and separate parking spots for the employees of the organization. Security personnel posted around the blocks to protect the patients, visitors, staff and property of the campus. Special shuttle services to transport the employee from the parking spaces to the office buildings, which runs at a frequency of every 30 minutes. Beautifying the external environment by planting trees, grass and freshwater pools. An international standard cafeteria inside the hospital for the paramedics and doctors, which can help them to socialise, and also release work stress. A separate cafeteria for employees who are not health professionals. Sports complex accessible to all employees to help them keep active, healthy and happy. No smoking signs are also used in the premises, and smoking cessations programs are used to help employees kick the habit (Ristic et al., 2017; Kundu & Lata, 2017).
The dining areas also help in the socializing process of the employees, and improve their interactions with each other. Programs on continuous counselling are used as social and emotional levels, which helps to understand social and emotional challenges faced by the employees, which might adversely affect their well being (Merriam & Kee, 2014). Strict policies are also used for maintaining a code of conduct in the workplace, and misbehaviours by employees are taken seriously, giving warnings to any employee reported of unprofessional behaviour or misbehaviours (Locke & Samel, 2017). Organizing social and cultural events in the workplace every 3 months helps to develop social networks within the organization. A good and positive work environment is also fostered and maintained through training programs at both higher and lower levels. Monthly meetings are also conducted, which helps to address the various agendas, performances and awards for the employees, and helps in rewards and recognition given to deserving workers. Workshops’ on weight management are available for employees as well as outsiders, to support a health weight among all. The organization also shares such information through booklets, brochures and web links, which can be accessed by all employees. Sessions on social and emotional wellness, stress management, conflict resolution and employee assistance programs were provided through the AKDN wellness programs in the organization. Telephone support services are also available that promote these support services in the workplace (Muthoki, 2017). The organization does not support the drinking of alcohol, even in social events within the organization’s premises, and doing so violates the organization’s code of conduct, instead soft drinks are provided after work or in the various events. Counselling sessions are provided to any employee in need of it, as well as referrals to rehabilitation centres if the need arises to better support the well being of the employees. Brochures on health information also share the adverse effects of addition and alcoholism, to discourage consumption (South, 2015; Mattke et al., 2014).
Strengthening community action
Development of personal skills was ensured through different training and education programs, which was done at various levels of the organization. This helped to develop personal skills. Change in health behaviour is underlined by several social and cultural contexts. The factors affect the way people understand health had illnesses, the individual behaviours and habits that affects health, how the actions of an individual are perceived by the community and how the culture interacts with its environment, politics and economy thereby affecting health of individuals. Culture can provide a template to an organization of the different psychological and social factors that can explain the behaviour of individuals. Different social factors that can affect health behaviour of people includes: income and occupation, education, ethnicity and race, political affiliation, religion, and geographic region (Sallis et al., 2015; Higgins, 2015; Greene, 2017).
Change or modifications in health behaviour is fostered through cultural aspects in the organization. For example, discouraging drinking of alcohol, also as sociocultural underlining, as drinking of alcohol is chiefly prohibited in Pakistan. This prevents the incidence of alcohol dependency and alcohol abuse by the employees. Healthy behaviour is also fostered though the setup of facilities that allows the employees to engage in physical activities such as sports, games and exercises. The organization tries to implement a culture of health and safety, to encourage the employees to adopt a healthy lifestyle and avoid addiction or addictive behaviour (Napier et al., 2014; Kok et al., 2016).
The organization however lacks flexible work options (everyone has to work fixed hours), and has a lot of workload, which prevents employees to socialize, a lack of group activities on health and well being, no sessions on healthy diet, and non smoking policies are not enforced strictly.
IN order to improve the efficacy of the health promotion strategies in my organization, different strategies can be suggested.
- Involving yoga classes for all employees, and setting up yoga rooms in each block, which will encourage the employees to participate in these classes. Setting up separate yoga rooms and classes for male and female employees can also help to address the cultural sensitivities of the employees and thus help to improve participation (Siegel et al., 2016).
- Adopting standing workstations, wherever possible, to improve the physical activity among employees and prevent sedentary lifestyle. These workstations can be implemented at various levels for both healthcare professionals and non-healthcare professionals (Garland et al., 2018).
- Providing flexibility in the work hours and shift rotations, allowing the employees to opt for less stressful working hours and plan their daily activities in a convenient way, without affecting the quality of work, and the productivity of the organization (Eldredge et al., 2016).
- Ensuring that the employees get adequate time to socialize, and preventing the workers to be overburdened with work. Regular assessment of work related stress for all employees can be implemented, and fixed times for fun activities can be suggested which can allow workers to get some time off from their regular work, and interact with others (Jannat-Khah et al., 2017).
- Classes on physical activities like walking groups can be implemented that can foster physical activity among the employees, and encourage them to take some time off from work to engage in daily exercise and fitness routines (Malik et al., 2014).
- Promoting the usage of stairs should also be encouraged in the various educative sessions and health education (Van Hoecke et al., 2018)
- In the monthly meetings, agendas related to the assessment of the health promotion strategies can be considered, to understand whether they have been effective in improving the overall health of the employees and foster healthy behaviour in the organization. This can also help to identify scope for further development and amendments, to improve the outcomes of the strategies (Eldredge et al., 2016).
- Sessions should also be conducted on healthy eating and healthy diet, as well as classes on cooking healthy meals at various workshops, to help employees to take a more proactive approach towards ensuring their own health and well being (Fontana & Partridge, 2015).
- Stricter implementation of the no smoking policies in the organization premises, to prevent smoking (Eldredge et al., 2016).
Conclusion:
Workplace and its environment can affect the physical, mental, social and economic well being of the employees as well as their families, communities and society, due to which it is an important setup for health promotion. Moreover in a workplace, health promotion can reach to a wider audience, and through these strategies organization can help to develop and healthy, safe and positive work environment, and encourage the workers to be more productive. A healthy workplace and workforce can also help in the reduction of expenses due to injuries, sick leaves and insurance payments. The Agha Khan Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, has implemented several strategies to ensure and maintain a safe and healthy environment for the employees as well as for outsiders. The organization have implemented safety in the architecture and construction of the buildings, and implemented programs that encourage physical activities among the workers, such as table tennis rooms, gyms and parks. The organization also offers places for socialization, such as cafeterias and common rooms. Education, educative materials, counseling sessions are also provided to the workers to support a healthy lifestyle, providing them with emotional and social support and encourage healthy lifestyle among them. However, the organization also needs to ensure that the emp0loyees are better able to cope up with their work stress, and that the work pressure does not prevent them from accessing or using the health promotion programs, facilities and infrastructure. Various other strategies can also be incorporated, which have been discussed before, which can further help to improve the health promotion practice within the organization. Implementing them can be useful to develop the overall health and well being of the employees.
Developing personal skills
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