Creating a Healthy Work Environment

  Introduction 

Several management approaches exist in the modern world, including the healthy high-performance workplace as well as the healthy organization. The study will focus on the benefit of the development and application of the healthy organization model in the human resource management (HRM). It is imperative to acknowledge that most organizations attempt to adopt suitable models that will enable their businesses to remain lucrative and profitable within the industries in which they operate. 

A healthy organization can be defined as one that can meet its strategic mission and objectives and simultaneously enables the workforce to learn and grow as they enjoy personal development. According to Lowe (2010), a healthy organization is a complete, inclusive, and long-term management strategy. Within the method, three management practices are integrated, such as workplace health enhancement, social responsibility, and performance management or organizational performance (Hewitt, 2009). When an organization focuses on performance, people, and community, it stands in a better position of becoming sustainable in the future. Hence, the inclusion of workplace health promotion, social responsibility, and performance management in defining the concept of a healthy organization is imperative in the realization of the outlined strategic mission or strategic objective of a particular organization. 

Impacts of Creating a Healthy Work Environment 

Creating a healthy work environment is imperative in the realization of the future sustainability regarding a particular organization. The achievement of this desired mission is mainly possible through the integration of people community in which the organization operates, and performance ( Solkhe & Chaudhary, 2011) . The three building blocks work simultaneously with the organization for the latter to succeed in its long-term goals. Within these constituents that are deemed desirable for a healthy work environment, the major building block is considered the vibrant workplace. Essentially, a vibrant workplace is perceived as the environment that engages all the stakeholders, specifically employees. The concept of a vibrant workplace tends to extend beyond health as well as safety from a mental, physical, and emotional perspective. Its products include several elements such as the organization’s commitment, the nature of work environment, the nature of relationships, and job features (Lowe, 2010). It emphasizes the commitment to see employees grow and develop in their respective assignment. The goal is to improve the experience of the workers as well as promote their performance capability. The enhancement of a vibrant organization is crucial because the development of a healthy work environment is likely to help the organization realize sustainability. 

The development of a healthy work environment is likely to influence the organizational culture in some positive way. It encourages companies to embrace a positive culture of embracing inclusive leadership approaches, implying that employees from different levels are fully engaged and their views are incorporated in the decision making processes (Hewitt, 2009). The contribution of the company’s stakeholders is factored carefully as they are deemed valuable for the success of the organization. The influence of company culture towards embracing the viewpoints of all the stakeholders does not operate in solitary, but it overlaps with other building blocks that drive the success of any organization. It also promotes the observance of the practice of corporate social responsibility for the benefit of the community in which the organization operatives. The social responsibility agenda is perceived as a way of giving back to the community, which may come in the form of sponsorships or building of community infrastructure that benefits the locals. The element of social responsibility is not a building block but constitutes a key ingredient to the realization of organizational sustainability ( Solkhe & Chaudhary, 2011) . The assumption rests on the premise that the inclusion of social and ethical environmental practices is important in promoting the organizational sustainability. Hence, the consideration of the social responsibility agenda and stakeholders’ contributions, irrespective of their levels or positions in a given company, complements a positive culture that strengthens organizational sustainability. 

A healthy workplace environment focuses more on the human aspects since people constitute the principal building elements of every organization. Therefore, the effect of creating a healthy workplace environment requires organizations to manage their people by considering the human aspects, that is, they are compelled to manage their employees in human terms (Lowe, 2010). It implies that the humanistic technique should be utilized in the implementation, leadership, management, and revival of organizations to facilitate the prosperity of the workplace as the employees are engaged fully in all the fundamental processes. The impact of this approach is desirable because it gives the well-being of the employees the first priority. The technique of managing workers can be seen as a way of motivating them to work diligently on their assigned tasks and produce quality output. For example, when an organization extends some flexible hours for its employees to use in attending to their family responsibilities or some other non-work related initiatives, it explores the practice of a humanistic approach that is widely praised among most employees around the world ( Solkhe & Chaudhary, 2011) . Nevertheless, this practice of perceiving the employees as a human system contradicts substantially the other management techniques based on bureaucratic tendencies, which views the workforce as a mere market commodity that is tradable, interchangeable, as well as dispensable (Hewitt, 2009). The approach considers the interest of the workforce as the vibrant job place building block promotes, implying that the views of both the organization and employees are considered equally. Moreover, observing that the healthy workplace framework is based on the people, the system applies terms that explain healthy people as agile, resilient or fit to deliver productive results. 

Creating a healthy work environment has been deemed desirable in integrating employees and their managers to embrace a continuous improvement and development process to preserve and enhance the health, well-being, and safety of the employees, as well as the sustainability of their place of work. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) has embraced a healthy work environment model and played a significant role in encouraging workplaces to utilize the framework and apply it for the benefit of the workers and their organizations ( Solkhe & Chaudhary, 2011) . By leveraging on the framework, WHO has outlined the engagement of a healthy workplace model to include safety and health issues surrounding the physical environment of the workplace, safety, health, and wellbeing issues regarding the psychosocial attributes of work environment comprising the nature of the organization environment and its culture (Lowe, 2010). The elements also include the resources touching on personal health that are available in the workplace. The essentials also comprise different ways of engaging in the community initiatives to promote the health status of employees, their families, as well as the individual members of the community. By focusing on the health, wellbeing, and safety of employees (both the subordinates and managers), their families, and individual members of the community, the establishment of a healthy work environment has paved the way for the realization of a continuous development process among the organizational stakeholders. 

Conclusion 

Creating a workplace environment has yielded positive outcomes in the growth and development of both employees and organizations. The approach to the management of the workforce has focused more on their health, safety, and wellbeing. The same has extended to the community in which organizations operating, and this has been evident in the promotion of social responsibility initiatives that benefit the community members. Moreover, organizations have benefited significantly from the development of a healthy work environment that encourages employees to pursue personal growth and development, skills they extend in enhancing productivity. Consequently, organization benefits from this initiative by generating higher profits and hence becoming sustainable ventures. 

References  

Hewitt, A. (2009). Managing Performance with Incentive Pay.  Journal of Personnel Management 7: 20-31. 

Lowe, G. (2010). Healthy Organizations: How vibrant workplaces inspire employees to achieve sustainable success. Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press. 

Solkhe, A. & Chaudhary, N. (2011).   HRD climate and job satisfaction: An empirical investigation. International Journal of Computing and Business Research 2: 1-20.