Feb 19, 2016

1.   The Problem:

At no point in human history has mankind ever lived so long, been so wealthy, had abundant options for good nutrition, or been so educated and interconnected. Developments in the financial system, the manufacturing industry, the Internet and transportation have created an integrated global village and opened up opportunities and the potential for a higher quality of life that our ancestors could only dream about. Despite these incredible advances, a decline in human health and wellbeing has been observed, negatively affecting the potential for value creation of the individual, the firms they work for, the society and the world at large.

With 1 million of the 9 million deaths in Europe between 1992 and 2000 related to chronic diseases (coronary heart, high blood pressure, obesity and a lack of physical activity) (Biswas & Faulkner, 2015), 13.7 million working days have been lost as a result of work-related illness including stress in the UK costing £28.3 billion per year (UK Government, 2014) and only 13% of worldwide employees being engaged (Gallup, 2015), an opportunity presents itself to improve these value-destructive trends. As global equity markets tumble and central bank policies fail to boost growth further by reducing interest rates, the world economies are entering an unprecedented phase of volatility with firms responding by laying off employees and consolidating their core businesses.

2.   The Solution: Malak Wellness

Firms that invest and influence their employees towards optimum performance through the Malak Wellness Model will benefit from a more engaged and resilient workforce that are able to fight off the challenging business environment to succeed. This results in a boosted financial performance through a leaner organization with improved empirical metrics such as lower absenteeism, presenteeism[1], productivity, innovation, reduction in negative mood contagion, stress reduction and increased team spirit. A high state of health and wellbeing consists not only of the absence of disease or infirmity, but also of an elevated psychological, physiological, social and spiritual wellbeing.

During difficult economic conditions, the perceived ‘fuzzy’ or ‘soft’ factors such as human development are usually the first to be cut out of budgets due to the myopic focus of management on the next quarterly results; they fail to realize that their employees are their biggest asset (as the common adage goes) and that by strengthening their workforce, they will achieve better results. Many manufacturing companies decide not to invest in them due to 1) the perceived difficulty of calculating an ROI, 2) the cultural bias in many manufacturing firms in that work is not a place for activities other than ‘work’ combined with abundance of potential employees (no incentive to incentivize since they have the people anyways) 3) in difficult economic conditions combined with the management myopia (focusing on the next quarter) the social programme is viewed as a ‘perk’ and ‘non-essential business expense’ and is typically the first funding to be cut. Or if they do invest, it is done only superficially (for example healthy nutritional banners in canteens without an appropriate follow up).

These reasons can and must be driven out of the minds of leaders as Corporate Wellness is actually the quickest and easiest way to boost the energy and productivity of employees. Increasing the subjective wellbeing of the employees leads to higher engagement which leads to improved financial performance. In addition, governmental health care policies also provide incentives and tax breaks to companies that implement a corporate wellness programme due to the overall reduction in cost to society. The will to succeed and the need to fulfil one’s potential is a common thread to personal excellence that the management can influence, thereby creating the best culture which will lead to the right strategies because everyone is striving for the best of the company.