Dubai Holding, a leading investment holding company, won the Institute for Health and Productivity Management’s (IHPM) International Corporate Health and Productivity Management Award at the 15th Annual Global Health and Productivity Conference held in Dubai, UAE recently.

The award, presented by the US-based non-profit global enterprise, recognised Dubai Holding as the first UAE and the second regional company for its outstanding contributions to health and wellness at the workplace and at community level, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

The IHPM works with companies across the globe to help them establish the full value of employee health as a business asset and an investment in workplace productivity and corporate performance.

The institute has selected Dubai Holding’s Corporate Wellness Programme as their evidence-based business case of the year.

Cedric Betis, chairman of Dubai Holding Wellness Committee, won the President’s Award for demonstrating leadership in building and implementing a successful Health and Productivity Management model at Dubai Holding.

The award positions him as an example for others in companies in the Gulf region to emulate. Cedric joins an impressive fraternity of corporate wellness champions – these include Dr Catherine Baas, global director of Health Services for the Dow Chemical Company; Dr William Bunn, vice President of Health, Safety and Productivity for Navistar International; Dr Michael Drupp, director of the AOP Institute in Hannover, Germany and Samantha Horseman, wellcare administrator for Saudi Aramco.  

He took the opportunity to present Dubai Holding’s eight-year journey to building a culture of wellness across all its companies through the success of the Corporate Wellness Programme.

The genesis of the Programme, he explained, dates back to 2007 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He discussed how he, with Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Bin Byat’s support, developed a measurable action plan in light of chronic diseases prevalent in the region.

It was learned that a cohesive Wellness structure was achieved in two phases; in 2007, Wellness was placed under direct oversight of the Chief Operating Officer Fadel Al Ali as a supporting arm of the business along with Finance, HR and other divisions. Since 2013, a Wellness Committee has been designated to align the Programme across the Group. As part of the Wellness strategy, Dubai Holding sponsors some of UAE’s best sporting events such as Dubai Marathon, Vertical Marathon and Women’s Run in addition to blood donation drives, GX classes, Weight Loss Challenge and team building activities for employees.

Sean Sullivan, president and CEO of IHPM, said: “Dubai Holding joins an illustrious group of corporate leaders from around the world who have received IHPM’s Corporate Health and Productivity Management (CHPM) Award over the past 15 years — companies like Unilever, Dow Chemical, Intel and Saudi Aramco.

“The CHPM Award represents world-class achievement in making work force health a strategic investment in business performance, demonstrating leadership commitment to people as valuable “human capital” and to establishing a “culture of health” throughout the organisation that sets it in the top rank globally of the best companies to work and produce for in the future.” - TradeArabia News Service