Wellness programmes are critical

Charles Parsons, CEO of wellness management company, Calibre Clinical Consultants, says South Africa is late on the uptake. “Companies no longer have an option but to improve the wellness of their employees. So much is invested in a senior level manager or executive in terms of training and hard costs that it simply doesn’t make business sense to allow him or her to be absent or resign entirely due to wellness issues.”

Stress illness costs

According to a recent study conducted among 60 employer groups, South Africa is losing an estimated R12 billion a year due to absenteeism. A significant proportion of the reasons for this are related to stress illness. Bouts of flu, feeling run-down and exacerbating existing conditions by over-working and neglecting wellness all contribute to this cost to business.

At the end of September 2006, The Council for Medical Schemes published its annual report, highlighting the financial movements in the medical schemes sector. R45.8billion was paid out in claims, which marked an increase of 12.2% paid out the previous year. From hospital services to payments to medical specialists and general practitioners, money paid out by medical schemes has continued to show high annual increases.

There are, however, greater costs that need to be considered, according to Calibre. When people are not present to do the work they are employed to perform, the work suffers. This affects revenue and lessens productivity, as well as placing added pressure on neighboring employees, which may in turn become absent due to the additional work they are required to perform. The knock-on effect in this scenario becomes apparent.

Direct correlation

Economists regard expenditure on education, training and medical care as investments in human capital because qualified and experienced employees are assets that aid in the productivity and profitability of the company. Ensuring that your employees are healthy, well-trained and educated logically has a direct correlation to how well they will perform in their working environments.

In fact, the surprisingly outstanding economic records of Japan, Taiwan and other Asian economies in recent decades offer a dramatic illustration to the importance of human capital growth.

Though they are often lacking in natural resources and face Western discrimination against their exports, their economies have continued to blossom, thanks to their well-trained and educated labor force. They have embraced modern technology and put it to work in their environments for their specific needs and have worked hard and conscientiously to contribute to their international success. This is according to renowned Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago and Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, Gary S Becker.

With these movements in business thinking globally, SA companies have seen a shift in paradigm. There has been an explosion of technology advancements and the need to keep up with the pace of implementing these systems into the business sector and training staff to efficiently use them. Now that this has stabilized, company managers and owners are looking towards improving and investing in the wellness of their staff to raise the standard in all aspects of their business, not least their profit margin.

Simple ways

Parsons concludes that there are simple ways to implement a cost efficient wellness program in a company of any size. “Looking after your employees motivates them to work better, smarter and harder. With a wellness program designed for the particular enterprise in place, staff turnover and absenteeism will drop substantially and the working environment will markedly raise productivity, efficiency and in turn, profit.”