Articles
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One of the prime reasons to create a wellness support network made up of allies, ambassadors and champions is to ensure that your organisation’s wellness culture is actively driven not just by Human Resources, but by a cross-section of employees across the full...
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Whether you are facing a natural disaster or global health concerns, at some point your organisation is likely to be faced with the fallout from unforeseen and detrimental circumstances. It is not easy to keep the organisation running smoothly during these trying...
Resilience: Preparing Employees for Unforeseen Crisis
The way leaders of an organisation prepare and respond to unforeseen critical events can determine how well the organisation and its people will recover. It will determine the ability to survive and emerge as a stronger entity, prepared to face future crises....
The Case for Investing in Employee Wellbeing Beyond the Pandemic
Research has shown, beyond doubt, that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a surge in health and wellbeing challenges that cover a broad spectrum and will have an adverse impact for many people for years to come. Some individuals and industries have been more...
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What is psychological safety at work? Psychological safety is the belief that you will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions or concerns or for making a mistake. Collectively, it is a shared expectation held by members of a team that...
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Your job plays a significant role in maintaining your overall health and wellbeing. In addition to providing financial benefits, work can add meaning, structure, and purpose to your life. It can also provide you with a sense of identity, reinforce your self-esteem,...
The State of Mental Health in South Africa
Conservative research-based estimates show that as many as one quarter of South African employees will be diagnosed with depression during the course of their employment. However, only between 15% to 25% will seek and receive help. Mental disorders result in massive...
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The severity of long-COVID symptoms varies greatly. These symptoms can linger for a few weeks, or stretch to months and some instances people have been living with them for over two years. In a minority of cases, debilitating long-COVID symptoms occur and for others...
Why Personalisation Underpins Successful Corporate Wellness Strategies
Personalisation - from individualised marketing communication to customised products and services - drives success across nearly every industry. The more that products and services can be tailored to personal habits, goals or needs, the more successful a product or...
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Emotionally mature leaders are less self-oriented and more others-focused because they know that their success depends on their people. Their emotional maturity is based on knowing and managing their own emotions while at the same time practicing empathy, having the...
GBVH is not a decoration to hang in the hallway
This article was submitted by one of our readers and 2022 Eduweek speaker: Paula Quinsee If you would like to submit an article, please do so hereIn the past 3 months alone 989 women killed, and 13 000 women assaulted between July and Sept 2022. Certainly not...
EAP as an Integral Part of Workplace Health and Wellness
When diving into the definition of health and wellness, it becomes clear how these concepts are interrelated and how, practically speaking, they play a part in every single aspect of our lives. The two are so inextricably interwoven that it makes sense that any divide...
Innovative Approaches to the Delivery of Holistic Employee Wellness Services
The post-Covid employee wellness market is booming, driven, among other factors, by the prevalence of chronic lifestyle diseases and mental health problems caused by sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy lifestyle choices, as well as unrelenting stress and anxiety. When...
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Bullying at work has long been an issue, involving a wide spectrum of destructive behaviour and historically associated with an in-person workplace. And, cyberbullying has been around since the 90s, when personal computers became more affordable to have in the home....
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Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can manifest physically and in mental health problems that show up at work and in people’s personal lives. There are some common symptoms that can negatively impact the functioning of employees with PTSD, making...
Maintaining ethics in EAP
The Employee Assistance industry plays a pivotal role in assisting employees within organisations in the private and public sector in South Africa. In this light, the EAPASA compiled a Code of Ethics designed to provide a set of high standards for EAP practitioners...
Counselling Employees Who Are Victims of Domestic Violence
Employers may feel that issues of domestic violence are best left in employees’ personal lives as they have no bearing in the workplace. However, they need to understand that the workplace is not immune to the effects of domestic abuse and that they have a duty of...
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Does working for your current employer make you feel anxious, where going to the office feels more like a punishment than being a positive and rewarding experience? Do you have a boss who is hostile to you or do you face some form of regular harassment by colleagues?...
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When it comes to an employee suspected of being alcohol or substance dependent, it may be hard for an employer to evaluate where the boundaries lie as to how much of that employees’ personal life they should become involved with. It is important to remember that...
Enabling two-way communication in the workplace
Two-way communication takes place when an organisation enables their employees to freely share in “company conversations”, airing their ideas, thoughts and concerns. It is an intentional style of communication between two or more parties, where all participants are...
The role of managers in shaping employee wellbeing
More than ever before, managers are a vital link between the organisation and the employee, particularly with the shift to hybrid and work-from-home workplaces. There is pressure for managers to ensure their teams perform and, at the same time, employee mental health...
30 months into COVID-19: How has the workplace changed?
As technology advances, new businesses are being created and employees’ expectations shift, the workplace will naturally evolve. However, in the last 30 months, the world has witnessed unprecedented circumstances, where the COVID-19 pandemic has forced rapid change,...
There is a Need to Support Employees’ Mental Health
The global pandemic has left no person untouched, regardless of their nationality, status, race or gender. It has forced people to take stock of many aspects of their lives. Aside from its impact on physical health, many studies have been carried out looking into the...
Tackling the Taboo: Talking About Suicide in the Workplace
Suicide in the workplace is fairly uncommon, however South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SAGAD) reported in 2021 that there are 23 known cases of suicide in South Africa every day, and for every person that commits suicide, 10 have attempted it. Wherever a...
Wellness is a Game-Changer for the Post-COVID Workplace
The future has landed. In the last 30 months, workplaces have taken a quantum leap forward, compelling employees to re-evaluate their work and life purposes. As employees navigate the complexities of the ‘future of work’, thrust into ‘today’ by COVID-19, it is...
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Traditionally, face-to-face interaction has been widely believed to be one of the main drivers of organisational culture. Organisations assumed that the vast majority of their employees would gather in a physical workplace. This made it easy to hold meetings or...
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Employees today desire much more than an adequate job as a means to earn an acceptable income. They want to enjoy and be involved in their work, feel enthusiastic about the organisation they work for and have a sense of belonging. This emotional commitment is known as...
Widening the scope of EAP counselling approaches
EAP counselling is a core element of employee assistance programmes (EAPs) in which counselling sessions serve as support to assist employees who are facing challenges in their lives. EAP counselling ensures employees and their families have immediate and direct...
Social Wellness: Combating Harassment in the Workplace
Behaviour that makes an employee feel intimidated or offended is classified as workplace harassment. Harassment in the workplace is something real that happens on a daily basis. It can take many forms and it is important to learn how to recognise its signs as with it...
EAPS Role in Crisis and Trauma Debriefing
Looking back over the past 30 months since March 2020, in addition to any localised or organisation-specific critical incidents, South African employees have had to contend with the upheaval of COVID-19 contagion and lockdown, civil unrest in Gauteng and...