Helen Joseph hosts wellness day
WESTDENE– Helen Joseph Hospital management believes the success of any company depends very heavily on the productivity and work performance of its employees. The ability to function and perform at a high level consistently is greatly aided by employee wellness programmes.
Helen Joseph Hospital held a wellness day for all employees on 5 November.
“We want to promote wellness among our employees. As human resources we realised that most of our employees are not informed in areas of financial wealth, and some of them physical health,” said Mokgaetse Phasha, Helen Joseph’s employee wellness coordinator .
Numerous companies attended the event and spoke to employees about useful products.
“We invited a lot of companies, for example Old Mutual, to talk about funeral covers and some of their products because we noticed that when a family member dies, for instance, some of our families will not have money for burial,” she said.
Felicity Bolowana is one of the many employees that were happy about this opportunity.
“These people that came here today helped us, because I got to understand how to budget well, which will relieve a lot of stress from my life,” she said.
The hospital has 1 820 employees who had a chance to get their physical and financial health evaluated.
Assisting them with financial wellness was Old Mutual.
“We are giving the employees free advice on funeral covers, retirement plans, educational plans and any other information they may need,” said Old Mutual’s Nthabiseng Aphane.
Mulalo Lundalo said “we are also trying to help people who are in debt to make plans on how to get the debt cleared and manage their finances better.”
The employees had an opportunity to also donate blood to the South African National Blood Services (SANBS).
“We are collecting blood that will be given to patients who need it. We take 5ml from each donor,” said Jacquiline Moagie of SANBS.
“Before we collect the blood, we are checking if the donors are physically fit, blood pressure and iron, and also ask questions about their sexual lifestyle. If we find that there is anything wrong with the blood, the donor will be contacted.”
Asked why companies should host wellness days, some Helen Joseph staff members said because it helps them in numerous ways.
Some of the positive impacts of such programmes mentioned are:
- Decreased health-care costs
- Increase work-place morale
- Reduced absenteeism if they are healthy
- Increased productivity at work and improved work performance
- Increased responsibility on their physical and financial health
- Increased company loyalty which means reduced costs in terms of recruitment and turnover. This also makes for a more harmonious working environment
- Reduced sick leave
