Enhancing employee engagement: Bupa Arabia

A sustained focus on employee engagement has been key in getting progressive people management practices firmly onto employers’ agendas. Employees who have good quality jobs and are managed well will not only be happier, healthier and more fulfilled, but are also more likely to drive productivity, better products or services, and innovation. This mutual gains view of motivation and people management lies at the heart of employee engagement.

Bupa Arabia, a leading health insurer in Saudia Arabia, looks to strengthen its focus on employee engagement through the development and implementation of a comprehensive employee engagement framework.

What is the challenge?
What are the objectives?
What did it do?
What outcomes have been achieved so far?
Key learnings

Established in 1997, Bupa Arabia is headquartered in Jeddah and part of the global Bupa network. It offers health insurance products and services that cater to the needs of Saudi Arabia’s corporations, government institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises and those they employ.

The organisation prides itself on its commitment to the wellbeing and development of its employees, providing them with the same standard of care, support and professionalism that it expects to be delivered to its customers.

What is the challenge?

The company has ambitions to build on its leadership position to be the greatest healthcare company in the Arab world. Its vision is a healthier and happier life for whoever the organisation reaches, whether a member, an employee or part of the community.

Bupa Arabia sought to strengthen its focus on employee engagement, on the view that an engaged employee would be more open towards development, more likely to stay, and would act as an ambassador to attract future talent.

Studies have shown that engaged employees drive higher business performance, increasing efficiency, innovation and enhancing customer service.

What are the objectives?

The overarching objective was to enable a performance-driven culture where people feel motivated, engaged and enthused to help the company achieve its goals. Bupa Arabia looked to energise the workforce and wider organisation by implementing its employee engagement framework and the associated suite of initiatives.

What did it do?

Bupa Arabia developed a clear and comprehensive employee engagement framework, following the Bupa Global model, that has been implementing since 2018. The framework has three main steps:

1. Listening

Giving employees the opportunity to share their opinion. Bupa Arabia launched a biannual pulse survey measuring different aspects of employee engagement:

E-sat: How happy are you working here?
Career opportunities: I have access to good career opportunities at Bupa.
Career conversations: My manager has meaningful conversations with me about my career development.
Speak Up: I am confident I can use Speak Up if I ever need to.
Diverse perspective: Diverse perspectives are valued at Bupa.
Manager – inspiration: My manager inspires me to do my best.
Values: People at Bupa live the company values.
Company prospects: I am excited about Bupa Arabia’s future.
Sustainability: Bupa Arabia is committed to the sustainability of the planet.
Customer focus: I believe the company delivers a great customer experience.
Challenge status quo: I feel free to challenge the way things are done.
Wellbeing: I feel supported to look after my health and wellbeing.
Collaboration: Teams at Bupa Arabia collaborate effectively to get things done.
Connection: I feel connected to my colleagues.

2. Understanding

Analysing the survey data received to understand what its people want and need, and identifying the trends that have both positive and negative impacts on employees’ journeys.

3. Acting

Aligning resources and implementing the resources and projects that will deliver the most positive results. This was done via a four-way approach:

Organisation-wide initiatives: one-size-fits-all projects that are inclusive of everyone working at Bupa Arabia.
Department-specific initiatives: those that are developed by business leaders and their teams to tackle the top three departmental challenges.
Region-specific initiatives: dedicated to the different needs of Saudi Arabia’s provinces.
Low-engaging leaders’ initiatives: to support business leaders who have low/inconsistent engagement scores.

Under these four categories, Bupa Arabia implemented over 35 initiatives, which included:

Employee benefits programme. Collaborating with suppliers to provide discounted rates to employees on products and services such as food, schools, flights and hotels.
The 1800. A virtual town-hall session to update all Bupa Arabia employees on the company’s future and new HR initiatives.
Savings programme. Contracting with several banks to provide favourable savings plan options to Bupa Arabia employees.
Years-of-service recognition. Celebrating and recognising employees who have completed 5,10,15, 20 and 25 years of service at Bupa Arabia.
Flexi-strategy. A suite of initiatives to give employees balance between their work life and their home/caring responsibilities.
Burnt-out services. To support employees and their families who are going through mental health challenges
People care programme. Assisting employees with medium-high chronic disease.
Health-and-fitness initiatives. Supporting the health and wellbeing of employees and their families by offering things like medical checks, free vaccinations, health awareness days, workout sessions and sports tournaments.
Enabling and mentoring inconsistent leaders. Tailoring specific KPIs and action plans for company managers receiving inconsistent engagement scores and mentoring them to support their transformation into high-engaging leaders.
HR Connect. Quarterly regional HR roadshow to support employees’ needs.
Parents insurance. Offering employees the chance to insure their parents under Bupa Arabia, by developing four benefits schemes to cater to all needs.
Sustainability assessment and education programme. Educating employees on how they and the wider community can contribute positively to sustainability.
Health lounge. A biannual campaign to take care of employees and their families health and wellbeing. It provides blood pressure and sugar check-ups, BMI check, optical, dental, general doctor consultations in addition to blood donation and flu/meningitis vaccine completely free of charge.
Health awareness sessions. Conducted on international days/months to create awareness on important medical aspects such as breast cancer, mental health, world pharmaceutical day, and smoking cessation. It includes consultations, workshops, and check-ups.

What outcomes have been achieved so far?

Having executed all of the over 35 initiatives in the span of a year, Bupa Arabia was able to achieve and in many cases exceed its employee engagement targets:

E-sat target vs 2023 achievement: 80% vs 88%
Company prospects target vs 2023 achievement: 84% vs 93%
Speak Up target vs 2023 achievement: 85% vs 85%
Sustainability target vs 2023 achievement: 86% vs 87%
Customer-focus target v. 2023 achievement: 82% vs 91%
Challenge status quo target vs 2023 achievement: 74% vs 88%
Wellbeing target vs 2023 achievement: 81% vs 90%
Manager – inspiration target vs 2023 achievement: 87% vs 87%
Collaboration target vs 2023 achievement: 72% vs 85%
Diverse perspective target vs 2023 achievement: 82% vs 84%
Values target vs 2023 achievement: 78% vs 88%
Career opportunities target vs 2023 achievement: 76% vs 80%
Career conversations target vs 2023 achievement: 79% vs 83%
Connection target vs 2023 achievement: 88% vs 88%

Bupa Arabia’s three-year aspiration from 2020–23 was to reach an overall employee engagement score of 83%, based on the Glint global benchmark score of organisations considered as ‘employer of choice’. It comfortably exceeded this ambition, achieving 88% by 2023.

Key learnings

Based on the learnings obtained from implementing the framework, Bupa Arabia aims to build on its success and continually look to improve and innovate to ensure its employees live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.

Find out what matters to your employees. Carry out regular engagement surveys and actively communicate the results to company leaders.
Utilise lessons learned. Review best practice, as well as what works well and what can be done better. This is invaluable in preparing an effective and carefully devised roadmap that creates true impact for employees and the wider organisation.
Be agile and responsive in introducing new ideas quickly. Agility can be enhanced through cross-functional efforts and working under one strategy.
Inspirational communication and greater transparency. These are the simplest and most immediate improvements a leader can make towards greater employee engagement.
Digital infrastructure is key. Being able to launch multiple initiatives through different digital platforms enables a bigger and more effective outreach to employees across the organisation.