The coordinators of a revised 2019 National Workplace Wellness Policy (NWWP) for Barbados are in the process of embarking on an island-wide sensitization programme designed to equip employers on the most effective ways of implementing the plan.
This has been disclosed by Professor Dwayne Devonish, who jointly authored the policy with attorney at law, Maya L. Kellman.
“The next step for the coordinators is to engage in a series of public awareness-building programmes. These are to assist employers and communities in understanding wellness and how to develop wellness programmes within their spaces,” Devonish who is Professor of Management and Organisational Behaviour at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus told Barbados TODAY.
“The key thing here now is a bit of hand-holding of the employers and communities in terms of how they could actually prepare wellness programmes and actually execute them because I don’t think we are doing a good job when it comes to developing wellness programmes. This would be like a kind of educational drive to those stakeholders,” Professor Devonish added.
The policy is being revived as one answer to reducing the financial burden on the government’s healthcare purse which now contends with the worrying surge in non-communicable diseases.
The authors of the workplace wellness plan have noted that this is the first time it is being promoted at the national level. They said that given the “dynamic” nature of the 2019 policy with its nine-dimensional framework, it is clear that wellness goes beyond a marketing term or time-sensitive fad.
Professor Devonish and Kellman said the framework for the NWWP which was inspired by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2015 model, was specially modified to suit the unique needs of the Barbadian society and workplaces.
The two researchers outlined the multiple dimensions of the blueprint which they told Barbados TODAY was concerned with making the best and most effective use of the full potential of an individual’s physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and economic lives. According to the framework, the dimensions extended from physical, psychological and environmental wellness to social, occupational and financial wellness.
The research contended that while a healthy physical state relates to the maintenance of a healthy body, good physical health habits, good nutrition, and exercise, psychological/mental wellness, addresses an individual’s mental or psychological state of wellbeing including attitudes, emotions, thoughts and ability to understand behaviors in various environments or contexts. Professor Devonish and Kellman explained that social wellness had to do with an individual’s ability to form and sustain healthy social relationships, networks, and support systems which can contribute positively to one’s community and society, while intellectual wellness deals with a person’s skill and desire to learn new things as well as engage in intellectually-stimulating discussions. The management and organisational behavioural specialists also listed occupational wellness which they submit represents an individual’s personal fulfillment and satisfaction in their jobs and careers while spiritual wellness treats to the ability to establish and sustain peace and harmony in one’s existence when employed at work.
Financial wellness, concerns an individual’s means and willingness to manage their finances in effective and efficient ways to enhance their overall personal financial development.
“Investing in your employees’ wellness yields tremendous rewards to thrive and succeed as a productive and fulfilling team. “There is real value in considering workplace wellness and beyond in your personal and professional spaces. Gone are the days of thinking a fruit in the lunchroom and subsidised gym membership solely amount to “wellness”. After all, your company isn’t simply the products and services you make, but your company is the people.
“Investing in your employees’ wellness yields tremendous rewards to thrive and succeed as a productive and fulfilling team,” declared the researchers
They observed that the genesis of the concept of workplace wellness began decades ago with retired trade unionist Orlando Gabby Scott and was fuelled most recently by the growing concern for the significant non-communicable diseases and related deaths in Barbados.
“This has clearly been illustrated by the wide propagation of empirical evidence, our national health status, and its resultant burden on the key resources of the country,” they concluded.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
