Building a Company Culture that Promotes the Holistic Wellness of Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic

At Prudential Myanmar, our purpose is to help people get the most out of life by making healthcare affordable and accessible and by promoting financial inclusion. With that, we are committed to protecting the health and wealth of our customers while creating a workplace culture that looks after the mental, physical and financial wellness of our employees.?

I believe that workplace culture is an essential factor for employees' happiness and, in turn, the success or failure of a business. Workplace culture can be defined as the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions that people in a workplace share. Considering that most of us spend at least one-third of our lives doing work, workplace culture plays an incredibly significant role in our overall wellness.?

In pursuit of success, businesses risk losing sight of the big picture and developing cultures that contribute to poor employee well-being, either directly or indirectly. Common causes of a negative company culture include underappreciated employees, poor management styles, a lack of inclusivity and perhaps most damaging, a disregard for mental wellness. This almost always leads to low employee engagement and high rates of absenteeism and staff turnover.?

?How has COVID-19 affected employee wellness and company culture??

?Since last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit businesses hard, forcing many to shut down or significantly restrict operations. Others have had to make hard decisions about retrenchments and restructuring in response to evolving market conditions. Perhaps less widely discussed is the impact that work from home practices have had on workplace culture and employee well-being as we all adjust to the "new normal".?

?For example, remote working has blurred the boundaries between an employee's home and work life, and limited opportunities for the kinds of positive social engagement and workplace collaboration which we all thrive upon.?

?I believe that for forward-thinking organisations in Myanmar, the pandemic presents an opportunity for a fresh look at workplace culture and employee well-being. Creating a workplace culture that values the holistic wellness of employees does not

need to be costly. There is, in fact, plenty of low-hanging fruits that can bear rewards for employers and employees alike.?

?How was Prudential Myanmar able to attract, motivate and retain a pool of talented people during this challenging period?

?Inspired by Prudential's commitment of 'We DO Care', we placed the well-being of our employees front and centre in response to the crisis brought about by the pandemic. We sought to develop a localised approach to internal communications and employee engagement led by recommendations from employees themselves.

?Based on an employee survey conducted during the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, we found that employees were experiencing mental health strains, feelings of job insecurity as well as challenges with working from home and accessing food supplies.

?To tackle this challenge head-on we developed a comprehensive programme to address mental health and work challenges, encourage resilience, and ensure that our corporate culture could thrive even though we were all working remotely.?

?A holistic approach to employee wellness?

?Highlights included rolling out an extensive internal communications campaign to ensure consistent internal messaging and clarity in leadership. We also created an Employee Engagement Committee (EEC) composed of employees from across the company's various departments. Furthermore, an Incident Management Team was formed to empower employees to provide urgent assistance for safety and emergency issue, including cash requirements for incidents to their colleagues at the township level. We also provided safety training to all employees.

?We were able to ease the burden on employees' mental health by implementing an Employee Assistance Programme with the support of Prudential Corporation Asia (PCA). Also, we offer professional and confidential mental health support, including a 24/7 counselling service in collaboration with Pun Hlaing Hospitals.

?In addition, we put in place measures to support flexible work arrangements by installing broadband internet in employees' homes, offering salary advances, arranging for our employees to be able to withdraw the salary in cash and delivering care pack, ration pack regularly to all employees to provide food supplies and essential medical items.

?To further support our employees during the pandemic, we arranged free COVID-19 vaccinations and medical checkups for all employees in collaboration with Pun Hlaing Hospitals. Oxygen concentrators, essential medicines were also made available for employees in need.

?We also recognised that company culture was crucial to our success during this challenging period. With that in mind, we organised a series of virtual employee engagement activities, including well-being webinars, yoga, dance, art, environmental awareness activity and cooking class. We also empowered fitness activities such as 'Walk'tober Walking Challenge" to let our employees stay healthy and contribute the donation initiative by walking with step count back to the community and employee-led charitable volunteering.

?Final thoughts

?Businesses have an excellent opportunity to promote and support employee health and well-being. If the past two years have taught me anything, it is that both management and employees are collectively responsible for creating and sustaining a workplace culture that values holistic well-being. During an extremely challenging period, this approach helped us protect our employees' wellness, retain top talent, and deliver on our purpose of helping people get the most out of life.

?I'd love to hear your suggestions on how else organisations can build a culture that supports their employees' mental well-being!

Laura Cho?

Chief Human Resources Officer

Prudential Myanmar