BCL holds dull'Wellness Day'

CALISTUS KOLANTSHO
Correspondent | Tuesday November 30, 2010 00:00

The day started with a walk from General Complex to the hosting area.

'I have been told that there are more than 4 000 employees at BCL but what I see here today is not even half of that number. I expected the employees to have attended in large numbers with their families,' said the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Victor Rantshabeng.

He went on to say that the wellness day was being held at the right time as it provides opportunities for employees and their families to come together and to recognise the importance of being healthy.

He said that a healthy employee is an asset to the organisation and an unhealthy employee will be a liability. He mentioned that early efforts to promote healthy environments for employees concentrate much on the safety aspects of the workplaces to prevent injuries.

He explained that unhealthy and unsafe working conditions could lead to occurrence of accidents that may result in temporary or permanent disability of the employees if not the facilities.

'The loss of capacity to work will consequently lead to loss of revenue for the organization including income for individuals and their families and may result in poorer quality of life or even poverty to the affected,' he said.

Rantshabeng said employees working in healthy, safe and more supportive work environment become more committed to help the business keep a competitive edge. He noted that the event was the forth for BCL Mine and it is an indication that the mine management and leadership understands the connection between employees satisfaction and employees health and that workplace wellness is considered to be a business strategy. 

Employees of the organisation are recognised as a major determinant or organisational performance and a key competitive differential,' he said.

Rantshabeng commended BCL Mine for taking a positive approach by adopting an integrated model that recognises a combination of life at home and workplace environment, mainly because some health conditions of employees may not necessarily be work related, but have roots from some other aspects of life.

He noted that this year, the focus of BCL wellness day is on strengthening and promoting the psychosocial support services to the organisation's employees and their families.  The theme of the event was 'When life challenges become too much, we will be there for you'. Rantshabeng said the commitment of BCL to avail itself in times of need is reflection of the bond it has with its employees.

'It is an indication of an understanding of close relationship of close relationship between the employees and the collective aspects of social entity,' said Rantshabeng.