Workplace Health Promotion Program Project Company Profile

Workplace Health Promotion Program Project

Company Profile

The company reviewed in this project is King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The institution of higher learning is a private research university with its location in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. KAUST was established in 2009, and has been profoundly providing research and graduate training programs (Farrar et al., 2009). Through situated in a country that largely uses Arabic language, KAUST has adopted English as the official language of instruction. Since its inception, the institution has been growing rapidly in terms of research. According to the Nature Index Rising Stars in 2013, KAUST was ranked 19th as one of the rising universities that are fastest rising in terms of provision of quality research output (Jiang et al., 2011). Noteworthy, KAUST was the first university in Saudi Arabic that admits mixed-gender students (KAUST, 2019).

The mission statement of the institution is “to advance science and technology through distinctive and collaborative research integrated with graduate education” (KAUST, 2019). The university is considered to be a catalyst for social prosperity, economic development, and innovation, not only in Saudi Arabia, but also across the globe. As the university exists in pursuance and advancement of scientific knowledge, it is also keen in striving towards enhancement of social welfare. The institution’s management greatly supports the employee wellness, particularly through its acknowledgement that excellence is depended on the atmosphere of initiative and exploration, and thus provides the employees with all the resources required for achievement of the institutional goals (KAUST, 2019).

Currently, KAUST has 2853 members of staff, who include both men and women from different ethnic backgrounds ((Farrar et al., 2009). The institution has established a working environment that bridges traditions, ideas, and people from all over the world. This has been evidenced through the diversity in both students and employees. Above all, the institution is committed towards contribution to welfare of the society through placement of special emphasis on aspects of strategic importance to the world. As noted earlier, the institution is largely driven by the desire towards supporting the wellbeing of its staff, students, and the community through provision of wide range of services that utilize a holistic approach of preventing, treating, and following-up for the patients (Jiang et al., 2011). The Family Medicine program established by the university is the central provider of care.

Assessment

KAUST hosts individuals from diverse backgrounds at different employment positions. Depending on the individual positions, various employees experience different health problems. Through the KAUST health, the institution has proactively managed the wellness and wellbeing of its workers, thus sustaining productivity and growth in the institution. Common health problems that have been experienced among the institution’s working staff include stress, anxiety, and depression, use of alcohol and other drugs, obesity, and high blood pressure (HBP) (Farrar et al., 2009). These problems have been identified through the employee health records obtained by the KAUST health. Due to the interest of the institution to prosper and achieve its vision, the health of the employees and the community in general has been prioritized, with medical practitioners adopting the approach of patient-centered care.

In light of establishing different programs for promoting health in the institution, the biggest motivation in increased productivity and creation of a brand image (Jiang et al., 2011). For the last 10 years KAUST has been functional, there is perceived remarkable growth, which can be attributed to healthy and dedicated staff. Although the Family Medicine program has been an expensive venture, it seems cost-effective considering the increased productivity that has been enhanced through healthy and motivated working force (Jiang et al., 2011). The institution has portrayed unwavering support to its staff through provision of the necessary materials and technologies for its working staff so that the can effectively perform their tasks. The middle-managers and top managers have portrayed tremendous interest in showing their ability to contribute to growth of a global institution, and KAUST has not hesitated to remunerate them handsomely for their unmatched effort. The institution is endowed with resources required to achieve its short-term and long-term objectives. In selecting the health program for the staff, KAUST considered its effectiveness and cost and how it contributes to organizational growth.

Design/Planning

Although the health issues are faced across the entire working staff, the low level employees highly experience problems of alcohol use and drug abuse. The mid-level employees greatly face stress, anxiety, and depression problems, while obesity and high blood pressure is highly prevalent among the senior managers (Vijayakumar, Waldron & Hall, 2017). These problems have greatly interfered with the performance of some employees, which implies that despite the stellar performance of the institution, that performance has not been optimal. The health problems have also increased the health costs of the university, which affects the resource allocation in other critical areas such as research and innovation. The problems of stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as abuse of alcohol and other drugs has been perpetrated by work-related pressures particularly among the low-level and mid-level managers. Indulgence in drug use has been utilized by employees as a reliever of work fatigue, which has led to compromised health and performance deterioration of the employees (Vijayakumar, Waldron & Hall, 2017). The issue of obesity and HBP experienced among the senior staff is attributable to lack of exercise as they stay in their offices for long hours. These employees are at the greatest health risk due to nature of their work that is largely demanding and involving.

In order to alleviate the health of the employees, there is need for development of a Best Health (BH) program that promotes the wellbeing of all the employees regardless of the positions they hold. The mission of the program is to aim at improving the health of all employees with large commitment to excellence in all endeavors. In the long-run, the vision of the BH program is to provide a transformational healthcare experience through establishment of a culture of excellence, innovation, service, safety, and quality. The goals and objectives would include offering quality services and care that establish standards that exceed the expectations of the employees through provision of care in an accessible, cost-effective, convenient, and caring manner. The budget for the program would be set at $500,000 per year. This amount is sufficient to cater for the equipment, medical supplies, consultation, and any other medical costs that may be deemed necessary under the BH program.

Implementation

Improvement of healthcare for the BH health program at KAUST will be effectively realized through establishment of the 4P’s of marketing mix, which include Price, Place, Product, and Promotion. Because price is huge concern to most employees, KAUST will ensure provision of best care at minimal or no cost to the staff. The health promotion services will be provided in a healthcare facility established in the institution for easy access and will be open for access at convenient time for all employees. The BH program is a product that improves the quality of life of all the employees. This will include availability of such items as medical supplies, modern technology testing and treatment tools, as well as services related to on-call concierge. The promotion of the program will be done through internal memos and communication through business and personal emails for all the working staff. A promotion newsletter about the program will be distributed to various offices whereby all employees can access.

The awareness of BH program will be done to all the existing staff and new employees as they are recruited. For the new employees, an orientation about the program will be done, whereby all the information on maintenance and improvement of healthcare for the staff will be provided. KAUST will ensure that the individuals who are recruited are in the right state of mind in terms of use of drugs and stress free as a way of avoiding recruiting individuals who are at a high risk of experiencing health problems. The institution will perform numerous surveys that ensure that the employees are ready, interested, and uphold the acceptable values as those of the organization. adherence to these factors will facilitate easy implementation of the program. The employees will be aware of what is expected of them in terms of job performance and wellbeing, and the management will seek to provide the support that is required for prosperity of the program.

Evaluation

As noted earlier, the goals and objectives would include offering quality services and care that establish standards that exceed the expectations of the employees through provision of care in an accessible, cost-effective, convenient, and caring manner. KAUST’s BH program will be evaluated quarterly (after every three months) so as to identify its progress in achievement of the established goals. This will be done through data collected at KAUST health for the institution’s employees. This information will specifically be obtained from the health care claims data report. In addition, the wellness director will be tasked with the responsibility of creating a questionnaire that is distributed to all the employees regarding their feelings on the BH program and how it has impacted or improved their lives at the workplace. The questionnaires will play a central role in reflecting the feedback of the employees regarding the program, and provide an avenue for determination of the necessary changes for enhancement of the program.

KAUST health will also collect data from the questionnaires and health care claims data report and determine whether the program has contributed to decrease in cases of alcohol and other drugs abuse, stress, anxiety, and depression, obesity, and HBP. Based on the information obtained, the BH program will be reviewed towards establishment of a program that indeed impacts the health of all the employees positively for more productivity and growth of the university. It will be crucial for the feedback and progress of the program to be communicated to the employees and management. This will be done through memos and emails to all staff. Any recommendations by the staff for proper improvement should be communicated to the wellness director through his official email.

References

Farrar, J. T., Lentz, S. J., Churchill, J. H., Bouchard, P. R., Smith, J. C., Kemp, J. N., … & Hosom, D. S. (2009). King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) mooring deployment cruise and fieldwork report, fall 2008 R/V Oceanus voyage 449-5, October 9, 2008–October 14, 2008. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Retrieved from https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/handle/1912/3012

Jiang, J., Hidayah, L., Ramadan, H. E., & Elsayed, T. (2011). BEST of KAUST at TREC 2011: Building Effective Search in Twitter. In TREC. Retrieved from https://trec.nist.gov/pubs/trec20/papers/kaust.microblog.update.pdf

KAUST. (2019). About us. Retrieved from https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en

Vijayakumar, J. K., Waldron, J., & Hall, G. (2017). University Library Annual Report 2016/2017. Retrieved from https://repository.kaust.edu.sa/handle/10754/625954