Gov’t pushes workplace wellness in biz tour

The Labour Department is stepping up efforts to get more businesses on board with the National Workplace Wellness Policy, after revealing that many employers across Barbados still lack formal wellness frameworks to protect worker health and enhance productivity.

Officials raised the concern on Friday during a workplace wellness bus tour that included visits to businesses at Sheraton Mall, where they met with employees and management to discuss the implementation of the National Workplace Wellness Policy.

Professor Dwayne Devonish, a specialist in management and organisational behaviour and the creator of the policy, said the initiative was designed to address longstanding gaps in how organisations approach employee wellbeing.

“It has been a major concern for years for me, and that was one of the key reasons why we were able to develop the national workplace wellness policy,” Prof Devonish said.

“For Barbados, it is the only policy that exists in its kind for this country and in 2019, the Cabinet of Barbados approved this policy and what this policy does is that it provides education for staff, management, even customers about the importance of workplace wellness, in nine dimensions.”

Prof Devonish explained that despite the policy receiving Cabinet approval several years ago, many organisations still lack clear frameworks to guide workplace wellness initiatives.

“What we found over the years is that many organisations either do not have a policy or they do not understand how to implement workplace wellness programmes in their space, and that is part of our work on the National Workplace Wellness Committee under the Ministry of Labour, Social Security, and the Third Sector.”

The tour formed part of ongoing efforts by the committee to raise awareness and provide guidance to employers.

“Now, this is the second bus tour in the last two or three years, where we visit different establishments, meet with the employees, meet with the management to talk about workplace wellness, to talk about the needs, and of course, to give them some accessible information about the National Workplace Wellness Policy,” he said.

Prof Devonish urged employers and workers to access resources available online to better understand how the policy could be applied in their workplaces.

“We encourage all Barbadians to go online [workplacewellness.bb] to see this information, to access resources, to understand where your needs and the business needs rendezvous, because well this is not just for the organisation, it’s for all of us.”

According to Prof Devonish, the policy addresses multiple challenges facing workers across the country, including mental health pressures, physical health concerns, and workplace accessibility.

“One of the reasons why the policy is multi-dimensional, meaning that it touches across multiple dimensions of wellness, including physical, mental, environmental wellness, especially, is the fact that when you have been observing for many years, like me, the particular circumstances of workers, you’ve found that those circumstances are equally multi-dimensional,” he said.

“For example, there are workers who are going through significant mental health turmoil in the workplace, whether that is instigated by management, it could very well be an imbalance between work demands and personal demands. We’ve seen workers who are physically unhealthy at work and we also speak to persons with physical disabilities acclimated to the workplace, and of course, many workplaces are ill-fitted or ill equipped to accommodate these persons with disabilities.”

He added that the policy also supports national efforts to address chronic non-communicable diseases.

“So that’s one of the objectives of the policy, recognising that there is that NCD epidemic that we are confronting as a nation and one of the greatest devices that we have at our disposal is education,” Devonish said.

“In our first couple of years of awareness building, we have been pushing as much as possible education in many areas including NCD prevention and NCD management.”

“And I think that’s important because we can focus on prevention. That is a very important pillar, but we have to remember that there are people who already are suffering, who are already experiencing diabetes, hypertension, and they need support. So we also have to focus on the management of these conditions, not just at home, but in the workplace.”

Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Faye Prescod, said the government views workplace wellness as a critical component of national productivity.

“We deem the National Work is Wellness Policy as very important in Ministry of Labour because we think that wellness is important,” Prescod said.

“If you are not well in whatever area, then it could lead to lower productivity.”

Stops on the tour included businesses in Warrens, Sheraton Mall, Popular Supermarket and Kooyman in Kendal Hill, as well as several companies within Newton Plantation Yard and Newton Industrial Estate in Christ Church, including Caribbean Lighting Solutions, Keystone, Fiberpol and Barbados Steel Works.