Ideally, wellness oscillates around maintaining a healthy body, mind, spirit and mood. Focusing on the mind, there is Mental Health. World Health Organisation (WHO) defines Mental Health as a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with stressors of life, realise their abilities, learn well, work well, and contribute to their community.
Specifically, wellness revolves around taking good care of the mind and being keen on sources of mental input. You must have heard of GIGO—garbage in, Garbage out. It is a computer principle that states that any input equals output. What you feed the computer with through input devices like the keyboard is shown to you through output devices such as the monitor.
The mind works and wends that way. No wonder we are constantly reminded to guard the gates of the mind, which is simply what our eyes see, ears hear, and mouths say. In the Bible, 1 Peter 1:13 reminds us to gird the loins of our minds. Think about it. My dictionary defines “gird” as to “encircle” a person or part of the body with a belt or band.
Productivity
Delving deeper, wellness is about taking good care of the body by focusing on deep sleep to spur productivity. Wellness is being keen on what we eat or drink. Then, wellness is anchored on exercise and healthy relations. As well as breaking bad habits and dangerous addictions. Wellness is being in the right spirit and attaining a good mood. We achieve this important aspect by tapping more from sources of strength such as teachers, friends, family, music, inspiration, motivation, God’s word, meditation, prayers, exercise, art, hobbies, games, et cetera.
For the sake of wellness at the workplace, people in leadership and management must plan for wellness initiatives, as brought out by Bruce Tulgan in his heroic book Bridging the Soft Skills Gap. In December 2024, when I spared some time and pored over that page-turner, I ascertained that the putative author advises managers, directors, and principals – all and sundry – in puissant positions – to teach the missing basics to the new hybrid workforce. To attain wellness in the world of work, Heads of Institutions, as well as Captains of corporations, must prioritise what my pen christens as Human Capital Management Practices, which delves deep into matters of staffing strategy and hiring, on-boarding, ongoing training, up-to-speed training, performance management and talent development.
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In the grand scheme of things, there are multiple approaches to pragmatic wellness programmes, including a wide range of potential services and products. Therefore, permit me to write about some practical practices leaders and managers can adopt to help people attain wellness at the workplace.
Firstly, there must be best practices on wellness, which can be provided internally or externally. Leaders and managers can be deliberate about that in newsletters, messages, memos, articles, flyers, videos and websites. Likewise, awareness of wellness can take place in meetings and discussions. These deliberate efforts should focus on the most significant variables, such as the proper diet, exercise, sleep, substance use and dealing with common stressors, as well as warding off mental disorders, depression and death through suicide.
Reimbursement
Secondly, there should be some exercise programmes, either offered on-site or through reimbursement for those offered externally. More on exercise, there should be weight-loss programmes starting with on-site support groups. Then, it is imperative to set aside ample spaces for walking and stretching at the workplace. More importantly, it should provide an ergonomic workspace and furniture. We should think of game rooms offering games ranging from old-fashioned ping-pong to the latest video games. In developed democracies, there are even napping rooms, which double as meditation rooms. Massage and SPA-like services are also worth it. If possible, the working area should be environment-friendly to enable workers to explore eco-therapy.
Thirdly, there is the exigence of stressing on healthy eating habits. This means that it is important to share useful information on nutrition and good food. Fourthly, in the bid to assist people whose wellness can be affected by substance abuse and misuse, there should be well-thought-out initiatives on substance abuse and smoking cessation programmes for those who are addicted to such stuff. In addition, to cope with common stressors, it is important to focus on stress reduction and management programmes. This can also be propped up with anti-bullying programmes. Consequently, for the sake of body wellness, it is advisable to have some on-site health care services, ranging from periodic health risk screenings and full-scale on-site health care clinics complete with doctors, nurses, and many more.
Finally, lack of financial prudence leaves most workers broke and broken. Meaning, we should come up with puissant programmes to teach and train workers on wise use of money and financial literacy to save them from pecuniary embarrassment. It is also important to note.
Good and timely payment of salaries is worth it. Places of work should invest a lot in training focusing on work-life balance, as well as preparation for retirement. Most civil servants are worried about career progression, too much taxation of pay slips, and how things will pan out after retirement. No wonder training staff on how to “re-tyre” once they retire from active service is important.
By Victor Ochieng’
