Holistic integrated approach for wellness programs
The Issue
In the article, ‘ Worksite Wellness programmemes in South Africa’, Dr Japie Lubbe of Wellness Africa (Pty) Ltd, describes how organisations in South Africa are gradually moving from the traditional biomedical view of health and are moving towards a more holistic-wellness approach. Some employers are sceptical regarding the economic advantage of worksite wellness programmes using the holistic wellness approach, because of their range of content.
The Solution
A group wellness specialist from one of the top banks in South Africa discussed their different holistic, integrated health and wellness programmes and issues they had to confront.
The bank implements five types of employee-wellness programmes. These are: assessment services, counselling services, lifestyle management, absenteeism management and health and disease management. The first aspect, assessment services, includes the conducting of climate surveys and the evaluation of behavioural risks. It also involves targeted health surveys.
The counselling services provide for both reactive and proactive counselling. Proactive counselling is where specialists take note of behavioural changes in or role changes for employees and then give them the opportunity to attend counselling. An example of this is when an employee is demoted. Reactive counselling is where counsellors react to a traumatic incident, such as where an employee has witnessed a bank robbery or a family member has died.
The bank’s lifestyle-management programme guides employees in financial wellness and in some cases, financial rehabilitation. They also offer restructuring support programmes. This is relevant in a situation where a department is being restructured and job losses are predicted. A social plan is integrated to mitigate the negative impact. Employees are instructed in CV writing skills, interview skills, investments and entrepreneurial skills. They are also given career guidance and are assisted in their search for another job.
One of the issues the bank faced was in one of their call centres. The problem was of drug abuse amongst the youth in the call centre. The bank addressed this difficulty by referring some of their employees to rehabilitation centres and by conducting workshops to increase awareness, and as a preventative measure.
Physical wellness for employees has also been recognised as a priority by the South African bank which is why they have incorporated corporate gyms into some of their major branches and headquarters.
As a part of their health and disease management, the bank has built several wellness centres nationally, which are run by primary health care wellness practitioners and doctors. At these centres, employees undergo comprehensive medicals with in-depth reports and may consult optometrists, reflexologists and physiotherapists. The wellness centres manage chronic and benign diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
Similarly, Volkswagen South Africa, has also recognised the need for wellness programmes and uses the holistic approach. In the article ‘Health’, on the Volkswagen website, it states that, “Volkswagen Group South Africa acknowledges that the management of employees’ wellbeing has emerged as a priority due to increasing recognition that the health and wellness of employees directly impacts on the productivity of the entire organisation.” Their HIV/AIDS programme tackles the epidemic with various tactics such as education and awareness campaigns, complete health care, risk regulation, community contribution and thorough evaluations. The company has spent over R6 million since the programme’s launch in 2001. Its holistic, integrated approach has been recognised internationally as a great success, even receiving an award for Business Excellence in the Workplace from the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.
Dr Japie Lubbe stated in his article, ‘Improving workers’ health’, that:
“Some organisations such as Eskom, Discovery and Vodacom are leading the way and have established programmes with meaningful benefits to their beneficiaries”. He went on to say how one programme by Eskom, which offered high-risk employees a comprehensive health and wellness programme for two years, achieved an improvement of 22.9% which saved more than R10 million in costs.
Conclusion
It is clear that organisations have raised the standards for employee wellness. By integrating a systematic and holistic approach with the objective of establishing a wellness culture for their stakeholders rather than once-off programmes, organisations are benefitting financially and are reaching higher levels of employee productivity.
Frew Murdoch is the assistant editor of HR Pulse. She is currently completing the last semester of her BA degree in Communications and English. "I stumbled across your review of our Ethics Guide published 28 June 2012 and wish to thank you for the positive and complimentary comments made – this was a lovely surprise and most rewarding. I will certainly pass this on to all co-authors of the Guide."
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