Abstract
Public service transformation has been at the heart of government since 1994. Therefore, to ensure that transformation takes place at different government departments, a number of programmes were introduced. One of such programmes is Employee Health and Wellness programme. The main focus of this programme is to bring about changes in the wellbeing and the working environment in the departments so that service delivery, employees’ health and productivity can be accelerated and improved. Thus, the Limpopo Department of Agriculture started the implementation of an Employee Health and Wellness program in 2001 in response to the government mandate which was brought about by the birth of new democracy. Since every important programme has to be evaluated, therefore this article reports on the evaluation that was conducted on the success of wellness programmes in combating absenteeism in the Limpopo Department of Agriculture. Absenteeism in most government departments is a serious problem that negatively affects the delivery of services. There are many cases of absenteeism which have varied causes. However, the focus of this article is on the effectiveness of wellness management programme on combating absenteeism, and addressing the challenges of absenteeism due to substance abuse in the public service. The findings indicated that absenteeism negatively affects service delivery in the public sector and that participants on these programmes are offered limited support by their supervisors. Supervisors tend to show negative tendencies towards the wellness management participants who show little progress in recovery. This article therefore recommends that wellness programmes have to be fully supported by the management of various organizations so that they can be successful. Departments should also develop strategies that can curb substance abuse amongst the employees. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p1286
Highlights
Wellness programmes (WPs) are intervention strategies intended to promote the well-being of employees
Since every important programme has to be evaluated, this article reports on the evaluation that was conducted on the success of wellness programmes in combating absenteeism in the Limpopo Department of Agriculture
The focus of this article is on the effectiveness of wellness management programme on combating absenteeism, and addressing the challenges of absenteeism due to substance abuse in the public service
Summary
Wellness programmes (WPs) are intervention strategies intended to promote the well-being of employees. The purpose of introducing a wellness programme in an organisation is to create an awareness of wellness issues, to facilitate personal change and health management and to promote a healthy and supportive workplace (Sieberhagen, Pienaar and Els, 2011:2). For any organisation to achieve global competitiveness, healthy employees are vital and an Employee Health and Wellness programme can play an important role by enabling employees to deal effectively with the changes and challenges in the personal and work life (Bessinger, 2006:1). The benefit of health promotion programmes is to increase participants’ health, and to decrease the cost to the company through fewer instances of absenteeism (Anderson et al, 2009; Mills et al, 2007). Programmes to address absenteeism are in place; substance dependency cases seem to have a lot more effect on absenteeism than other work related problems.
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