STAFF WELLNESS! WHAT WELLNESS?

The world over, organizations are ablaze with adopting a wellness program, implementing wellness initiatives at the workplace and getting staff to be conscious of the fact that their health status matters. Whilst ‘WELLNESS’ has become the new HR buzz word with organizations investing seriously in same, getting staff trained on:

• WHAT IS WELLNESS,
• WHY WELLNESS,
• WHEN WELLNESS,
• WHICH WELLNESS AND
• WHO WELLNESS!

All sounds so calming, so sensible and so right!  The benefits, if implemented properly, cannot be under estimated. However, whilst training has tried to answer to all the questions above covering physical, medical, sexual and reproductive wellness, social, spiritual and financial wellness, there are 3 main wellness areas that determine the wellness levels of all the afore mentioned areas. These are: PSYCHOLOGICAL/EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL WELLNESS as well as OCCUPATIONAL & ENVIRONMENTAL WELLNESS!

After going through all that training, and investing so seriously in this noble cause, the BIG question is……WHAT PERCENTAGE OF OUR STAFF ARE TRULY WELL AT WORK?  ARE ORGANIZATIONS MANAGING PEOPLE WELL TO ENSURE THEIR OPTMAL LEVELS OF WELLNESS? As business leaders and HR practitioners, have we ever paused to think of this crucial question? If the response is in the affirmative, what measures have we put in place to ensure we maintain the optimal levels of staff wellness?

It is fact that most staff members dread coming to work because of the psychological trauma caused by an immediate superior who is clueless on proper and conducive people management skills. People management skills are often under rated. The workplace has become a real threat to staff wellness.

Most managers are:

• Micro-managers,
• Slave drivers, very hard and difficult, unapproachable
• Bullies,
• Practice sexual harassment
• Disrespectful and mean to staff
• Shot of empathy

The list goes on and on. All these are terrible vices and very undesirable. Due to lack of essential people management skills and competences, most managers treat staff unfairly, as objects without feelings and very disrespectfully. They see the position occupied by the individual first before they see the person holding the position. The lower the position, the less the respect. They forget that the same cleaner/sweeper/clerk etc, they are supervising so badly and inhumanly at the work place based on their low job level, qualifications and experience they possess, are, once they leave the organization, leaders in their own right i.e. hold very senior responsible positions within their families, communities and even religious set ups. Such bullying and ill-treatment results in nothing but a very psychologically, emotionally and mentally traumatised staff member, hence very stressed and so very UNWELL! Training on its own will certainly not work under such circumstances!

Organizations are so preoccupied with meeting profit targets at the expense of getting emotional connectedness level of their most important asset aligned to the high profit targets they set for themselves. Yes, staff engagement surveys are indeed conducted, but the main objective of the surveys is in most cases, to assess the level of the ‘employee’s perception of the employer as an employer of choice’, but not to assess psychological health of the individual staff members. As a result, the majority of the staff are emotionally drained, there is an alarming disconnect between the manager and the subordinate. The interpersonal relations are unwell and it is impossible to claim a working wellness program. Most of the staff members walk the corridors of the office building heavily loaded with deep feelings of pain and agony and have no known avenues to let it all out.

Further the general office ergonomics are critical to ensure a physically fit employee.  The most critical point to note here is that whilst many organizations speak of diversity and inclusivity, it is critical that the physical make-up of the workplace speaks to that diversity. It is however alarming to note that in most developing economies, facilities are not conducive with lack of basic amenities suitable for e.g. physically disabled people. The shelf life of basic furniture like office chairs for example is not a priority. Some organization do not even have ablution facilities suitable for physically handicapped people resulting in risks of infections.

In a nutshell, whilst efforts are being made to train staff on WELLNESS, the work place is far from offering a conducive environment to ensure the wellness of staff. If anything the leadership style combined with the physical environment all exacerbate instead of improve staff wellness. Organizations have to work up to this reality and do something to ensure effectiveness of wellness programs.