CIBC FirstCaribbean promotes workplace wellness

Webinars to help improve awareness of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) is one of three pillars in an overall wellness programme being designed for employees of CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank by the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC).

This was revealed as the HCC and CIBC FirstCaribbean signed another three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) recently. The renewal which will run until 2023, includes other pillars that will encompass a strengthening of the bank’s workplace wellness programme and a community volunteer initiative.

The HCC has identified workplace wellness as a priority area and has taken steps to sensitise the Caribbean private sector about the importance of implementing cost-effective workplace wellness programmes in collaboration with civil society and the public sector.

The Wellness programme does not only involve things like regulating the nutrition environment and encouraging a reduction in the use of the snack machine and regularising blood pressure and blood sugar checks, but it also includes ensuring good mental health for employees.

Employees, who are able to, will be invited to volunteer their services to assist HCC member businesses with skills like updating their strategic plans and assisting with accounting services.

In explaining elements of the upcoming programme Executive Director of the HCC, Maisha Hutton said that they would be using webinars and other virtual methods to reach staff regionally.

Chief Executive Officer of CIBC FirstCaribbean and Chair of the bank’s charitable arm the FirstCaribbean Comtrust Foundation, Colette Delaney, acknowledged, “Covid has changed the dynamics of the workplace and we have to be even more mindful of health in the workplace which has now been extended to the home in some cases. Even the concept of using the elevators and the dynamics of working with people will change the long-term dynamics of how we work.

“We are delighted to work with the Healthy Caribbean Coalition again as we seek to get further participation and more benefits for our employees,” Ms. Delaney added.

President of the HCC, Sir Trevor Hassell in acknowledging the support of the bank stressed, “The worksite presents an opportunity to contribute to the health of the employees and especially so now with Covid-19. I want to emphasise the importance of this relationship and this effort to improve the wellness of people in the Caribbean and would urge more companies to get involved in a workplace wellness programme.”

The HCC is a non-profit organisation that is the only regional alliance of civil society organisations focused on addressing NCD prevention and control in the Caribbean. The organisation was formed in 2008, in response to the 2007 Port-of-Spain Declaration of Heads of Government of CARICOM “Uniting to Stop the Epidemic of Chronic Non communicable Diseases”.

Its mission is to harness the power of civil society, in collaboration with government, private enterprise, academia, and international partners, as appropriate, in the development and implementation of plans for the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among Caribbean people.