Health and Workforce Studies

Ensuring healthy, happy and empowered employees is essential for maximizing the productivity of the workforce and the overall competitiveness of any organization. It is also a prerequisite for offering exceptional customer experience across the various sectors of the economy. Unfortunately, many organizations provide their employees suboptimal physical, psychological and professional work environments, which jeopardizes employee safety, retention and productivity. A plethora of investigations (globally and in the UAE) have uncovered various degrees of stress, burnout, exposure to occupational hazards, as well as a team and work-life conflicts. The Covid-19 pandemic further exacerbated the centrality of this line of investigation with the exposure of the workforce to unprecedented degrees of uncertainty, occupational risk and work-related stress. If such issues are not properly investigated and addressed, they would lead to absenteeism, poor productivity, occupational conflicts and eventually to turnover. The pandemic also has demonstrated the importance of adequate, stable, and resilient workforce (especially healthcare workforce) to ensuring business continuity, as well as employees' health and productivity. Given the importance of the issues mentioned earlier, we propose the establishment of the "Health and Workforce Studies" Research Group that aims to investigate health and workforce issues systematically. In addition, we will focus on action oriented-research aiming at making a sustainable difference in the work environment of various organizations in the UAE, especially in the Emirate of Sharjah. The importance of this research group is further supported by the nature of workforce in the UAE, which emanates from various cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds and in educational preparation and experience. This complex nature leads to similar complexity in managing, maintaining and building a healthy work environment for this workforce. This requires an evidence based approach and the proposed research group is set to contribute to this task.

The United Arab Emirates have indicated in all of its strategy documents the support of leadership for establishing a healthy, happy and productive economy. For example, two out of the ten principles outlined in the “principles for the next fifty of the UAE", specifically the fourth principle related to building, attracting and retaining skills within state institutions, and the sixth principle, which aims to raise the reputation of the UAE by building institutions with international standards are served by the proposed research group. At the Emirate of Sharjah, establishing a healthy and supportive work environment is a key priority for multiple agencies. For example, the Sharjah Supreme Council for Family Affairs is proposing a strategic partnership with the Colleges of Health Sciences at the University of Sharjah to establish an implement the “Wazn" program which aims at catalyzing and improving a healthy work environment in the Emirate.

The “Health and Workforce Studies Research Group" aims at investigating three key questions:

1. What is the current state of the physical, psychological and professional wellness in various sectors of the economy in the UAE, with a focus on the Emirate or Sharjah? What is the effect of COVID-19 on the wellbeing of individuals and organization?
2. Which evidence based policy and practice recommendations/interventions would be necessary for the establishment of a work environment supportive of the physical, psychological and professional well-being of employees?
3. How to effectively implement such interventions to make a swift and sustainable positive difference in the work environment?

The scope of work environment investigations is wide and generally fall under three main areas:

1. The physical health/environment: ergonomics of the workplace, the absence of pollutants, air quality, sleeping patterns, nutrition and healthy eating habits, physical activity, smoking cessation programs, regular checkups, etc.
2. The psychological environment: Anxiety, stress, burnout, depression, work-life balance, resilience, etc.
3. The professional environment/supportive systems: leadership, programs, systems, strategies, policies and procedures, evaluation framework/KPIs, incentive schemes, pandemic preparedness and infection control, etc. 

1. Assess and investigate the safety, physical, psychological and professional health and wellbeing of the workforce across the various sectors of UAE economy with a particular focus on the Emirate of Sharjah.
2. Assess the gap between the current healthy work environment and practices and the best international practices.
3. Recommend evidence based policy and practice recommendations and interventions taking a gender and sustainability lens into account to help bridge the gap and improve the health and wellbeing of employees. 
4. Work with policy makers and stakeholders to support the swift translation of research evidence into sustainable improvements across the work environment.
5. Utilize system and sustainability thinking to enhance the appropriateness of recommendations and maximize their successful endorsement (this can be further reinforced and fleshed out by adopting a gender and sustainability lens).
6. Capitalize on the interdisciplinary approach of the group to design, implement and evaluate innovative interventions that would serve the goals of the group (e.g. using wearable technology to monitor heart rate, physical activity, back health and sleeping patterns at the workplace).
7. Generating robust research evidence that would be presented in prestigious international forums and publishes in leading journals in the field

1. The integration of technology for improving the healthy habits in the workplace.
2. The gamification of healthy workplace programs and their relationship to productivity and health outcomes.
3. The means to support and enhance the resilience of the workforce and its relationship to job retention.
4. Sleeping patterns and their relationship with the general health status and productivity at work.
5. The level of anxiety, stress, burnout and depression and their relationship with productivity, absenteeism and turnover intentions.
6. The role of incentives and motivations in improving the healthy habits in the workplace (eating, exercise and movements, etc.)
7. The work-life balance across the various sectors, how to measure it in a contextual manner and the way to improve it.
8. Explore the opportunities and challenges that arise from the diversity of the workforce in UAE.