SANAC hosts its Annual Employee Wellness Day
-Karabo Makgato
The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) held its annual Employee Wellness Day at its offices in Pretoria on 01 and 02 March 2023. Hosted under the theme “Staying Strong and Healthy”, and the taking from the successes of the inaugural wellness day programme that was held last year, the 2023 instalment aimed at providing programmes that could develop and maintain healthy, dedicated, responsive and productive employees.
To guarantee that employees got the most out of the experience, the wellness day was stretched over two days and had employees grouped accordingly. The Trust’s primary medical aid service provider Discovery dispatched a team of healthcare workers to provide a range of services to employees which included amongst others, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure screening and blood glucose test. Further services included TB screening and voluntary HIV testing and counselling. Ms Kathryn Dreyer, a dietician, provided a one-on-one professional consultation on weight loss, how to manage high blood pressure, diabetes, gastro-intestinal disorders (including but not limited to IBS, Crohn’s Disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticulosis/diverticulitis, constipation). Body assessments also included measurements of body fat, muscle, fluid, and metabolic rate.
Emotional wellness was another aspect which was covered on both days of the wellness programme, Ms. Denise Mokgoko, a Psychometrist, Career and Leadership Coach rendered an emotional wellness session with a focus on Resilience.
Employees were taken through a presentation and then divided into groups to complete a series of activities. Other activities included Financial Wellness which was provided by Ms. Mitzie Ginsburg who touched on the issue of Managing Debt with emphasis on the need for budgeting to avoid overspending.
During her presentation at both days of the wellness programme, the SANAC HR Manager Ms Nokuthula Ndlela said that SANAC always aimed at providing an inclusive culture that drove excellence by promoting and cultivating a conducive work environment, supporting talent, proper employee engagement, holistic wellness, and a good employee work experience.
According to Employee Wellness Coaches, employee wellness is paramount to an organisational success. It impacts a workplace’s culture, its resources and productivity and, ultimately, its bottom line. Traditionally, employees spend 40 hours or more every week at their place of work, employers are presented with a golden opportunity to boost productivity and effectiveness by offering benefits that lead to improvements in employee well-being.
Wellness covers physical and mental fitness, it focuses on helping employees influence their own health, quality of life, mental wellbeing and, consequently, their performance at work. As such, employee wellness looks not just at reducing absence from work through illness, but also at how to proactively encourage and promote healthier lifestyles and attitudes.
Acknowledging the significance of employee wellness, HR indicated that they were exploring possibilities of hosting the programme every six months to ensure that employees don’t relapse on their healthier lifestyle journey. The SANAC employees participated fully in all activities and services that were made available over the two-days and the highlight was arguably the aerobics session facilitated by Planet Fitness Gymnasium.