SA firms slow to adopt wellness trend
South African companies are behind the curve when it comes to wellness strategies for employees.
|||Cape Town - Alternative work environments, groundbreaking workplace perks and innovative employee wellness strategies are on the increase globally, but South African companies are still in two minds on how to best implement measures that will attract and retain top staff.
According to the latest Jack Hammer survey, this is despite 89 percent of South Africa’s biggest employers believing that the little extras, such as flexible working hours, telecommuting, and additional employee support services and perks really do make a difference to employee satisfaction and performance.
Debbie Goodman-Bhyat, Jack Hammer’s chief executive, says making employees feel that they are valued, respected and cared for beyond their monthly remuneration, has the potential to affect a company’s reputation and bottom line.
However, the mechanics of making this happen effectively are not set in stone, and the potential measures and programmes available are many and wide-ranging.
As a result, companies often implement ad hoc initiatives whose results are not clear, and few have followed in the well-publicised, ground-breaking footsteps of companies like Google and Virgin.
“Wellness and employee engagement programmes are an investment. They cost money and, like any other investment, need to show some kind of return – otherwise such programmes are merely an addition to the operating costs of the business,” says Goodman-Bhyat.
According to Jack Hammer’s local survey, which polled top employers in the FMCG, banking, industrial, leisure and mining sectors, just more than half of companies have implemented specific measures geared to increase employee happiness and satisfaction, despite most companies saying that introducing such measures are important and can improve performance.
Of the 44 percent of companies that had not introduced programmes, only one said it was considering doing so, with the rest saying it was not on the cards.
Initiatives implemented by companies that have started doing so include the ICAS global employee wellness programme, free banking, free gym use, and flexible working hours depending on company requirements at a given time.
“Few would disagree with the concept that happier employees who feel cared for by their companies are much more likely to experience a sense of well-being and goodwill towards their employers, and are therefore probably more likely to offer a higher level of loyalty and commitment in return,” says Goodman-Bhyat.
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