Employee health and wellness for a productive workforce: a case study of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development

Abstract

The work-related stress is a growing concern within the KZN-DSD that affects not only the health and wellbeing of employees, but also the productivity of employees within the workplace. The limited resources in human and finance is unable to respond to the unlimited needs of the KZN-DSD employees. The work stress is caused by work demands which supersedes the employees’ capacity because the KZN-DSD is not adequately staffed. The employees of the KZN-DSD are under immense pressure because of the work demands that are greater than they can comfortably manage. The employee health and wellness program does not feature prominently in the KZNDSD’s executive management meetings and the unit is not well structured. The impact and significance of employee health and wellness program within the KZN-DSD must not be underestimated. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to provide effective health and wellness interventions to the employees of the DSD. The study used a specific set of research method such as a questionnaire to elicit information from the recipients of a health and wellness program. The participants were asked to answer research questions on employee health and wellness. Therefore, the qualitative research method was employed to seeks answers to questions on the implementation of health and wellness program. The most significant findings of the study were, employees cannot be productive at work if stress management, work-life balance, commitment to employee health and wellness are overlooked. The employee health and wellness program cannot be effectively implemented if the unit on health and wellness is not structured and human and financial resources are not adequately provided. The failure of the KZN-DSD in implementing health and wellness programs was largely attributed to the lack of commitment by the top management who fails to consider health and wellness as a significant program to optimise employees’ performance in the workplace. The primary contribution of the study is, it generates new knowledge which seeks to improve the practical implementation of health and wellness program, reduce the impact of stress and increase productivity of employees at work.