The first week of July is Corporate Wellness Week - an opportunity to raise awareness of the need to create a healthy work environment. In an unhealthy work environment, there is decreased productivity, higher absenteeism and presenteeism, poor work ethic and lower safety in the workplace.

The WHO proposes that “A healthy workplace is one in which workers and managers collaborate to use a continual improvement process to protect and promote the health, safety and well-being of all workers and the sustainability of the workplace."

Let us look at two health and wellness concerns in the workplace.

Mental Health

The South African Federation for Mental Health is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) seeking to uphold and protect the rights of people with mental illnesses. The call is for employers to facilitate mechanisms to achieve the objective of achieving a healthy workplace.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the average person spends a third of their adult life at work. It is thus important that the workplace is somewhere that employees can potentially function at their peak.

The WHO defines mental health as:

“…a state of wellbeing in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community."

In today's fast-paced society, employees experience stress in the workplace daily. Work stress, combined with other mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, impact on the productivity of employees and in turn also on the performance of companies and organisations in South Africa. It is therefore important that employers pay increased attention to their employees' wellness, especially with regards to mental health.

In general, employees do not feel comfortable in addressing their mental health issues with their employers. A survey by the South African Depression and Anxiety Group in 2017 showed that only 1 in 6 employees who had a mental illness indicated that they would be comfortable disclosing this to their manager. This is due to actual or perceived stigma. Stigma is pervasive throughout society, but can be increasingly malicious in the workplace, where employees fear retaliations for what they perceive to be weakness. This is because mental illness tends to be 'invisible' compared to those with a physical illness. Workplace bullying causes unseen damage to individuals, therefore awareness and educational programmes to all managers and their employees is of vital importance.

Employee responsibilities for self-care include:

• adequate sleep and exercise
• ensure appropriate socialisation and spiritual expression
• ask for help and access services when necessary

Ergonomics

This is the study or measurement of work. In this context, the term work signifies purposeful human function; it extends beyond the more restricted concept of work as labour for monetary gain, to incorporate all activities whereby a rational human operator systematically pursues an objective. Thus it includes sports and other leisure activities, domestic work such as child care and home maintenance, education and training, health and social service, and either controlling engineered systems or adapting to them, for example, as a passenger in a vehicle.

More specifically, ergonomics is the science of designing the job to fit the worker.

In all situations, activities and tasks, the focus is the person or persons involved. It is assumed that the structure, the engineering and any other technology is there to serve the operator, and not the other way round.

An ergonomics programme is a systematic process for identifying, analysing, and controlling workplace risk factors, often for reducing overuse musculoskeletal disorders. Together, employers, workers, and other parties with an understanding of ergonomics can design effective programmes to prevent and minimize work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

What are the advantages of good ergonomics?

• Increased savings: fewer injuries, more productive employees, fewer workman's compensation claims
• Fewer employees experiencing pain: ergonomics reduces the risk factors that lead to discomfort
• Increased productivity: more efficient, productive, and greater job satisfaction
• Increased morale: employees feel valued because their workplace is safer
• Reduced absenteeism: healthy and pain-free workers
  
   

Read more around ergonomics here.

Stellenbosch University wants to take care of its employees!

Did you know that Campus Health Service (CHS) has an Occupational Health (OH) team, comprising a fulltime OH Nursing Practitioner and a part time OH Medical Doctor.

CHS also performs health risk assessments in the workplace, to identify any medical, physical or psychological risks. An ergonomic risk assessment is a programme to determine health risks from exposure to ergonomic risk factors associated with the workplace, in order to identify the steps that need to be taken to remove, reduce or control such a hazard.

From a mental health risk viewpoint, we are able to assess, evaluate and identify those potentially relevant risk factors, which predispose individuals to mental disorders.

To make an appointment with the Occupational Health team, please contact Sr Anneke van Heerden (CHS – OH Nursing Practitioner) at 021 808 3494/96 or, if based at Tygerberg campus, call 021 938 9590.