Northrop Grumman Health and Wellness Initiatives
Northrop Grumman is a global security company engaged in a number of projects across the world. It was rated as the fifth largest defense contractor worldwide in 2015. The company’s business is divided into Aerospace systems, mission systems and technology services (Strack, Fudem, Kuss and Marsh, 2013). This paper will examine the health, wellness and communication aspects of the company in relation to the company’s mission and objectives.
Part 1: Northrop Grumman health and wellness initiatives, programs, and policies
Northrop Grumman has developed a program to promote the use of mobile applications and technology in the information provided to enable faster intervention in medical situations. Under this aspect, the firm is partnering with customers to deliver innovative solutions, finding promising technologies and facilitating the next generation towards health and science (Siegel and Gold, 2015). The company seeks opportunities in geographical information systems, research and demonstration centers, innovative systems development and mobile health facilities under the advanced health and science solutions segment. Northrop Grumman also advances benefit systems solutions by leveraging on technology to streamline processes to deliver improved service at minimal cost to the users. Under this program, the company provides a critical suite of applications maintenance and network infrastructure in IT support services. Northrop Grumman also promotes the enterprise solutions for health and human services as well as a central data repository for electronic health records incentive program (Siegel and Gold, 2015). Fraud prevention solution for the firm is designed to ensure the viability and integrity of benefit services with specific attention to the sick, elderly and disadvantaged citizens. They aim at reducing fraud, waste, and abuse right from the screening stage to enforcement. This initiative supports federal fraud prevention systems development, integration and maintenance and integrated fraud prevention solutions within federal and state programs.
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Under the Global Health and Disease Surveillance Reporting and Analysis program, Northrop Grumman does surveillance of the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data related to health that is required for planning, implementation and evaluation of public health practice for onward timely dissemination to agencies that deal with prevention and control (Siegel and Gold, 2015). These among other programs and policies make Northrop Grumman a leading global security company. There is extensive use of technology in this company that boasts of worldwide spread. There are emerging diseases in the world today some which take acute proportions and kill scores of people before medical specialized medical personnel can intervene. Through the surveillance mechanisms, the effects of such ailments can be cut in the bud.
The company espouses the values of ethical integrity and trust, and these are fairly reflected in the health-related programs they offer. Technology is integrated into most of these programs which is a key ingredient in delivering timely health interventions. They have a particular focus on the sick and elderly which aligns with their ethical mandate; these categories of persons inspire public sympathy, and Northrop Grumman does its part to contribute to their basic need. In their social corporate responsibility, the company is committed to providing protection to the environment and their employees, customers and the communities in which they operate (Siegel and Gold, 2015). Based on the thematic areas of environment, health and safety this program seeks to provide a safe and productive work environment ensure environmental compliance and infuse environmental sustainability into their style of doing business. The choice of health as a sector for Corporate Social Responsibility for the firm is a significant acknowledgment of the importance that the company attaches to health matters in society. Health is pivotal to community progress and efforts should be extended beyond treatment to prevention and awareness creation. Workers who participate in health campaigns will ensure that they maintain their own health as they strive for healthier communities (Siegel and Gold, 2015).
However, there is a glaring gap in addressing specifics of HIV/AIDS as a global pandemic. The havoc that this disease wreaks on the social and economic sectors of society is immense, and it is expected that an organization of Northrop Grumman’s magnitude should incorporate its management in its programs. Although leading health organizations in the world have specific programs for various aspects of HIV/AIDS, there is still a lot of ground that is yet uncovered in the containment of this disease (Schneider et al., 2016). Northrop Grumman can greatly contribute to the global HIV/AIDS campaign by sponsoring research into treatment and prevention. The company is endowed with cutting-edge technology and highly skilled human resource that can deliver great results in the HIV/AIDS war. There are also no express programs dealing with prevention of the most prevalent global diseases like Malaria and cancer. Prevention has been proposed as the most efficient way of management of communicable diseases; mitigation efforts not only ensure a healthy population but also save the country a lot of revenue that could have been spent on treatment and other forms of disease management (Schneider et al., 2016).
The health policy at Northrop Grumman has success at the workplace based on the awards the company has received in this regard. The company received a Preferred Business Award in 2013 in recognition of its outstanding contribution to the recycling, recovery, and re-use of materials. These processes ensure that the work environment is free from unwanted litter leading to the general health and well-being of the employees. In addition, the company was awarded Pollution Prevention Award for pollution management that resulted in 50 percent savings in wastewater and chemical use and a 45 percent reduction in energy usage. The reuse of wastewater contributes to prevention of waterborne diseases that are transmitted through such vectors as mosquitoes that could affect employees. A healthy worker produces to optimum limits, and when they work in hygienic workstations, their level of satisfaction increases substantially.
Part 2: Employee development commitment
Northrop Grumman takes staff development seriously, and in this respect, they provide a number of avenues to develop requisite skills for them. Based on the philosophy that leadership behavior defines the culture of the company, the firm introduced a leadership characteristics program that trains senior staff in a series of education, experience and exposure activities ( Noe, 2016) . New managers at the company have to attend a New Manager Program that provides information and tools to help the manager cope with the first 90 days in office. This program is helpful in creating a transition, building a network defining performance expectations and shaping strategic priorities and learning the business. In addition, managers enjoy weekly sessions where they learn about the business. The company also has the Executive Development program that identifies high potential employees and tracks them for the purpose of creating a pool of highly talented professionals as candidates for senior and middle management. Employees have a range of programs such as strategic leadership, executive leadership and women in leadership where they can attend ( Noe, 2016) . The company also provides an online portal that is equipped with tools, guidance, and courses for professional career development where employees and leaders can visit for self-development . This is done through the Professional and Technical Development program.
These conditions for employee empowerment have worked to motivate employee output as observed in their reviews. One of the interns was quoted as saying, “Very good work environment with lots of people to help out. Not too much of a heavy workload but you are constantly learning new things and meeting new people.” (Strack, Fudem, Kuss and Marsh, 2013).
A former employee said the following about the company,
“Northrop was a productive company to work for with a lot of experienced people in a lot of diverse backgrounds. As an individual, you could gain in knowledge and experience” (Strack, Fudem, Kuss and Marsh, 2013).
These testimonies give credence to the successes of the employee empowerment programs on employee productivity. People who are well trained have more confidence in discharging their duties and by extension, boosting the company’s profit margins. From the review of the former employee, there was sufficient level of employee engagement as colleagues were willing to assist.
Part 3: Employee input in decisions and strategy
Employee involvement in decision making and strategy is quite minimal and Northrop Grumman which gives much of the power to the board of directors of the company. It is the board of directors that make crucial decisions about policy and also give guidance to the management in matters regarding strategy. Employees are however fully engaged in the company’s CSR activities which are outside their job descriptions. The company does not provide for a formal system where employees can get involved in crucial decisions that affect the running of the company. In its governance document, Northrop Grumman has not provided for nominees from the staff to be incorporated. This means that the board and its affiliate organs solely take decisions about the company. Failure to engage the employees could lead to apathy at work and slow implementation of important decisions (Byrne, 2015). The lack of evidence of employee engagement in the company’s strategic objectives is glaring, and Northrop Grumman needs to evaluate its policy in this regard.
There are several factors that help create a culture of employee engagement at work. The organization must, first of all, provide them with the necessary resources that include training. Northrop Grumman has excelled in this area as it provides staff with myriad opportunities to sharpen their skills (Dove and Schindel, 2017) . Work stressors should also be managed; work flexibility, and family issues are some of the common stressors. Although stress management can be enhanced through training, employers should ensure that the working conditions are not overbearing on their workers. The leadership should also cultivate trust as this has a great implication on how employees perceive the duties they are assigned. Trust leads to mutual vulnerability and demonstrates the faith that both the administration and the staff have towards each other.
The performance of Northrop Grumman in Health and wellness is impressive despite the fact that this is not part of the core mandate of the company. This is to be commended because as a global company with employees across the world, the health of her staff is a determinant factor of the firm’s success.
References
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015). Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance , 2 (1), 7-35.
Dove, R., & Schindel, B. (2017, July). Case study: agile SE process for centralized SoS sustainment at Northrop Grumman. In INCOSE International Symposium (Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 115-135).
Jehanzeb, K., & Bashir, N. A. (2013). Training and development program and its benefits to employee and organization: A conceptual study. European Journal of business and management , 5 (2).
Schneider, M. T., Birger, M., Haakenstad, A., Singh, L., Hamavid, H., Chapin, A., ... & Dieleman, J. L. (2016). Tracking development assistance for HIV/AIDS: the international response to a global epidemic. AIDS (London, England) , 30(9), 1475-1479.
Siegel, N. G., Shekar, S. S., Jeffrey, C. Y., & Lefler, R. M. (2016). Learning health systems and methods . Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Strack, D., Fudem, H., Kuss, F., & Marsh, W. (2013). Northrop Grumman Corporation. Directions for the Next Generation of MMIC Devices and Systems , 105.
