EDITORIAL: Make health and wellness a priority in the workplace

Promoting health and wellness in the workplace will not only benefit employees, but employers as well. Thus, they should see any inputs made into workplace wellness programmes, as well as efforts to reduce risks to employees’ health and wellness at work, as an investment.

Workplace wellness refers to any health and promotion activity or organisational policy that serves to support healthy behaviour in the workplace and to improve on health outcomes. Given the fact that we are seeing a rise in chronic non-communicable diseases, coupled with the known fact that those who are healthier can produce more, local workplaces should be doing their best to make health and wellness a priority at work.

There are too many reports of sick buildings in Barbados and even schools are coming under the radar for a host of environmental issues that do impact on human health. In some cases, poor maintenance is a factor and in other cases, there are external factors impacting on organisations in whatever form or fashion and this has a rippling effect on the health of those who occupy them. So whilst employees may be doing their best to remain healthy, they may have issues which surface at the organisation level, which can result in them not being as healthy as they desire to be. There may be issues with air quality, noise levels, exposure to health hazards, issues with the quality of the machinery and equipment employees have to use, etc. That said, both employers and employees must work together for the best outcomes.

Outside of the issue of sick buildings, if we go back to the whole concept of promoting health and wellness in the workplace, employers should work alongside employees to ensure that they engage in healthy practices whilst at work. The workplace should become an environment in which people are afforded the opportunity to learn what makes and keeps them healthy, have the experience of eating healthier foods and develop the habit of participating in physical exercise.

As noted prior, workplace wellness initiatives must be considered within the context of the changing health status of the population, since more and more Barbadians are coming down with a range of health issues, including diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease and some cancers. Certainly, what people eat, their access to the appropriate foods and opportunities for physical exercise, can all be influenced by policies and programmes in the workplace.

Across both the public and private sectors, we have seen local organisations introducing health fairs, at which employees and also customers can have testing and screenings done for various diseases or ailments. Others have gone a bit further by providing fitness facilities on-site and establishing policies on the type of food provided in their canteens, thereby helping workers to make healthier lifestyle choices.

Given that many workers spend numerous hours at work, what happens in the workplace can definitely affect their health. Employers should thus consider that having healthy employees is a plus for their organisation. Dollars spent on employee health programmes or on improving the facilities in which employers work, will likely result in lower absenteeism levels, reduced sick leave and lower job accident and incident rates. Thus, employers need to provide resources and support for their employees to lead healthier lives at the level of the workplace and also invest in making their organisations safer and healthier places to work.