Prioritising a healthy working environment in this time of uncertainty

As we have started the return back to our offices around the world, what we are now calling the ‘new normal’ is becoming our new way of life. Needless to say, new processes and health and safety practices take some adjusting to, but I have been blown away by the agility and resilience of my colleagues. The return to our workplaces has been smooth and, at Majid Al Futtaim, the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees remains a top priority not only in the midst of the pandemic, but so that we can also emerge stronger and more resilient than before.

During the past few months, we worked hard to understand how best to continue supporting our employees’ health, wellbeing and productivity in these new and challenging times. Every year, we host Majid Al Futtaim’s Wellness Week, which includes awareness talks, health assessments, workout sessions, financial advice and mental health sessions, to name a few, and plays a large part of our wellbeing commitment.

With the COVID-19 crisis at its peak, we needed to swiftly transition Wellness Week to a virtual event. Holding our largest annual company-wide event online created a challenge for our sustainability team but also presented an opportunity to extend the reach and make it an even bigger success than previous years. The team worked incredibly hard to develop a programme of sessions that was engaging and diverse, to be held remotely from the comfort and safety of our homes.

I am extremely proud of how successful and inspiring it was, with some sessions engaging more than 200 participants and overall reaching more than 10,000 employees throughout the week. We held ‘LapTalks’ focusing on mental health, sessions covering various aspects of wellness, including healthy eating, exercise and mindfulness, and also held virtual yoga sessions with Lululemon. Some of this year’s innovative activities included the ‘1 million calorie burn’ challenge (the teams collectively burnt around 1,250,000 calories together in one month!); private sessions with dermatologists, psychologists and financial advisors; healthy cooking sessions; live workout sessions; and company-wide workshops on first aid and workplace incident reporting.   

As a follow-up to Wellness Week, and with the aim to continue to improve the experience of each one of our employees, every year we conduct a Healthy Workplaces survey to better understand the ways that we can enhance our wellbeing offerings and employee support services. This was, of course, particularly important this year as our circumstances had changed dramatically. Employees from across all of our operating companies took part to have their say. We identified that the top three priorities for MAFers are prioritising a healthy diet, being financially stable and ensuring they get enough sleep each night. 49% of our employees said that their top priority for ‘health’ was mental health, above physical and financial health.

Understanding our employees’ needs through this survey is a vital way for us to prioritise and develop ways to better support them. Following the results of last year’s survey, we have now brought a doctor and psychologist in-house, available to all our employees. We are also working on providing healthy food options and are working with food and beverage providers near to our workplaces to help them tailor their menus to provide healthier options. Our current priority is to ensure a safe return to work, especially as we reopen our malls and cinemas.

Now more than ever, wellbeing and mental health are key challenges as we transition to some semblance of normality in our daily lives. The health and safety of our employees is a crucial priority for us at Majid Al Futtaim, demonstrated through our ongoing commitment to providing for our employees’ wellness and conducting two-way dialogues to better understand their needs. I continue to be inspired by the enthusiasm in which MAFers have taken part in our wellbeing agenda, and the positivity and spirit they have shown in their ongoing support of those around them.

If you would like to find out more about 2020’s Wellness Highlights…

·       Wellness week in numbers: https://twitter.com/I_AlZubi/status/1277898720835764225

·       Reusable masks: https://twitter.com/I_AlZubi/status/1285855249232728064

1 million calorie burn challenge: https://twitter.com/I_AlZubi/status/1293804401027670016