Workplace Wellbeing As A Business Strategy By OYINKAN TALABI

ON average, Nigerians, especially those living in
Lagos, spend more than one-third of their day,
five days a week at the office and 83 per cent of
this number spend their time sedentary at their
desks.
This is also coupled with the fact that almost
another third of the daily time is spent in traffic
getting to and from work, most individuals are
physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted
and out of balance.
The cost of this lifestyle has contributed to the
increase in the occurrences of high blood
pressure, obesity and diabetes in Nigeria.
Nearly two-thirds of Nigerians are overweight or
obese, which doubles the risk of heart disease
and stroke.
This poor lifestyle is costing both the Nigerian
employees and organisations directly and
indirectly. Annual healthcare costs spent on
employees with aliments like high blood
pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, all
consequences of an unbalanced lifestyle coupled
with health-related productivity losses, can add
up to a lot of billion naira per year.
What can we do about it? The most feasible
solution is to bring wellness programmes into the
workplace.
For any organisation, your employees are your
greatest resource, so there is great value in
investing in their wellbeing, this goes deeper than
HMO subscriptions (though this is well
appreciated), which usually kicks in when
employees fall ill and thus too late, workplace
wellness strategies and programmes, educate and
equip the employees on how to stay well and find
balance in their body and mind, especially with
the pressures of work.
Look at it this way, it is always more cost
effective to service a car regularly than to repair
it when it breaks down. Same with the body; it is
more cost effective (financially, physically,
mentally and emotionally) to service and
maintain your body than to treat and recover
from illness.
This regular servicing and maintenance should be
a joint effort by both employers and employees
and like every joint effort, joint benefits are
reaped
Some of the potential benefits of a successful
workplace wellness programme are:
For Employers:
• Lower health care costs.
• Enhanced employee productivity.
• Reduced employee absenteeism and
presenteeism.
• Decreased rates of illness and injuries.
• Enhanced corporate image.
• Improved employee morale.
• Improved employee recruitment and retention.
• Increased organisational commitment and
creation of a culture of health.
For Employees:
• Increased wellbeing, self-image and self-esteem.
• Improved coping skills with stress or other
factors affecting health.
• Improved health status, lower costs for acute
health issues.
• Lower out of pocket costs for health care
services (e.g. reduced premiums, deductibles, co-
payments),
• Increased access to health promotion resources
and social support.
• Improved job satisfaction.
• Safer and more supportive work environment.
As the year draws to a close, let us plan to do
things differently in our workplace. Let us invest
in the people that make it happen. Lets love our
bodies…
(info@bodyworksnigeria.com)