People Work And Employment

There is no gain stating the fact that any private organization works with the ulterior motive of profit maximization. However, it is noteworthy here that employee health is a major factor that ultimately leads to organizational wealth. Hence, an organization must ensure that each of its employees is physically as well as mentally healthy enough to execute the tasks responsible for taking the organization ahead. In case the issue of workforce well-being is overlooked by the organization, it may eventually lead to absenteeism, reduced employee engagement and loss of productivity. Hence, as it can be understood from the case study, the management authority of an organization must respond to the employee health risks, if it is willing to sustain its business n the long run (Larson 2015).

A healthy, engaged workforce will always lead to organizational success, through increased rate of employee productivity and employee retention. As it can be understood from the case study, the HIV disease was not only affecting the well-being of the employees, but was also a huge loss for the South African economy, as a result of absenteeism and loss of productivity. Hence, John Standish White, the then General Manager of Goedehoop realized the importance of undertaking sustainability initiatives, if the organization was willing to retain its position in the coming years. As more and more young and middle aged youths, especially the semi-skilled employees started getting affected by HIV disease, it became absolutely imperative to promote and maintain the health of the employees so that they could work with greater efficiency and enthusiasm in future (Robbins et al. 2012).

As HIV emerged as a huge threat to the life, health, well-being of the employee as well as the profitability of the organization, Standish White realized that such lifestyle diseases usually have a negative, lasting impact on the employee and the organizational performance (Merrill et al. 2013). However, in order to discover a solution, Standish White had to gain an insight into the root of the problem. Hence, the organization follows the initiatives, through a 3 step procedure:

• Research about the problem
• Communicate the problem
• Introduction of health programs (Østbye et al. 2015)

For the successful implementation of any sustainability initiative, a thorough research into the problem is required. Hence, Standish White visited a sex worker, got himself informed about the local sex industry that was leading to the spread of the epidemic in South Africa, and accordingly decided to undertake the initiatives needed to heal the disease. Standish White knew the change in lifestyle was primarily required to control the further spread of the disease, and consequently the organization started arranging meetings and interactive sessions that would help the employees become aware of the way their unhealthy sexual habits were taking a toll on their lives. Further, he realized that without an organized and systematic approach to the problem, the situation could not be brought under control. Keeping this in mind Standish White understood that convincing and persuading the employees about the need of maintaining healthy lifestyle could be possible with the formation of a strong team, and hence a team was formed that not only constituted senior managers, but also health professionals such as medical staffs and workplace health educators. Next, regular health check up became an integral part of the well-being program goals, and hence oral tests and other tests were also being arranged to ensure that the health of the employees is being examined, assessed and properly taken care of. Further, the authority also ensured that if the health report showed positive results, the employees were being motivated, and encouraged, and was being sent for further treatment. It is pointless to assume that the employees would be able to take care of their health issues on their own, hence offering financial assistance to the employees, and the introduction of free antiretroviral therapy was an impressive step taken by the organization (Bor et al. 2012).

The initiatives undertake were absolutely authentic. The organization did not approach the problem on a random basis, but instead adopted an effective, organized method. John Standish-White formulated new staffing policy in the organization. He made it mandatory for the jobseekers to take on overall medical checkup before joining services of the firm. This ploy would help the firm to screen out the infected incumbents from the process and aboard only those who are tested with no symptoms if HIV/AIDS. This would help the firm to check contamination of the disease among the existing workforce and the recruitment team had made it obligatory to divulge about any AIDS symptoms while applying for a defined role (Ilies et al. 2016).

Goedehoop exercised a huge impact on the lives of its employees, by the effective adoption of the health programs. The sustainability initiatives adopted by the organization not only assisted the employees in restoring their physical health, but also provided them the moral support necessary to combat a fatal disease (Ganster and Rosen 2013). By employing smooth, effective communication with the employees, the organization succeeded in creating awareness among the employees regarding the cause, symptoms as well as the preventive measures of the disease. Usually, with the spread of an infectious disease, the employees usually start getting panic-stricken apprehending the possibility of their termination, but things were different with Goedehoop. One of the most important impacts of the initiative was that the management has already been able to streamline the infected workers from the large pool of resources. They understood that it might not be a viable idea for the management to discharge them from services since doing so, would attract ire from various quarters. Goedehoop invested in treatment and care facilities for the infected employees, and this employee oriented approach to the problem certainly increases the motivation of the employees. Usually, people tend to have a negative and slightly pessimistic attitude towards sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV AIDS, which are often discarded and scorned as “the poor man’s disease”. Consequently, this often leads to stark indifference that makes an employee remain ignorant of the cause of the disease, and hence get victimized by the same in future. Hence, Goedehoop organized campaigns and health programs that helped in creating greater awareness among the employees, while at the same changing the negative and contemptuous attitude of the society towards the victims suffering from the disease. This helped in increasing greater social acceptance, and hence encouraged the employees to come up with the HIV issue with less awkwardness, that in turn quickened the treatment procedure. However, confidentiality was not being always maintained, and those affected with the disease, might not always feel comfortable to discuss about the issues publicly (Goetzel et al. 2012).

The adoption of these initiatives yielded huge benefit to Goedehoop, but it should be remembered that the implementation of the same initiatives in a different business situation or organization, might have different outcome. First of all, the organization in the cases study was financially strong enough to adopt the most effective strategy needed to help the employee stay aware, or get cured of the fatal disease. However, in case of many small scale organizations, the adoption of these cost-intensive initiatives, especially the health promotion campaigns would have implied a huge financial loss, that cannot be recovered easily, even if the complete health restoration of the employees was possible. It was being observed from the cases study that ART or Antiretroviral Therapy and nutritional supplements were provided to employees diagnosed with HIV at free of cost, however the organizations with less capital, would have incurred a huge loss because of the adoption of this procedure (Yun et al. 2016). Again, the public sector organizations at present are also implementing workplace programs for dealing with the problem of HIV AIDS at workplace. However, unlike the situation of the case study, the public sector organizations may fail to have an integrated and organized approach to the problem. The public sector organizations are likely to suffer from a lack of integration of HIV/ AIDS policies and programs, and it could have happened that instead of a joint effort to control the situation, the HIV/AIDS responsibility could be allocated to the junior staffs with limited skills and expertise, that may ultimately lead to the failure of the system. However, funding the medical expense would have been easier in case of the public sectors, and hence it might lead to greater success in terms of the dsease prevention and health promotion programs (Clemens and Cutler 2014).

The management of Goedehoop Colliery was vulnerable to the challenge posed by HIV and AIDS regarding value addition to the shareholders. It is bound by public opinion. No business operation is alienated from the community and the firm in question is also socially responsible and hence the adoption of the effective programs is highly commendable. The active engagement of the management authority in ensuring employee health and well-being not only motivates the employees, but also increases their loyalty and retention rate. 

Bor, J., Tanser, F., Newell, M.L. and Bärnighausen, T., 2012. In a study of a population cohort in South Africa, HIV patients on antiretrovirals had nearly full recovery of employment. Health Affairs, 31(7), pp.1459-1469.

Clemens, J. and Cutler, D.M., 2014. Who pays for public employee health costs?. Journal of health economics, 38, pp.65-76.

Ganster, D.C. and Rosen, C.C., 2013. Work stress and employee health A multidisciplinary review. Journal of Management, p.0149206313475815.

Goetzel, R.Z., Pei, X., Tabrizi, M.J., Henke, R.M., Kowlessar, N., Nelson, C.F. and Metz, R.D., 2012. Ten modifiable health risk factors are linked to more than one-fifth of employer-employee health care spending. Health Affairs, 31(11), pp.2474-2484.

Hancox, P.J., 2016. The Coalfields of South-Central Africa: A Current Perspective. Episodes, 39(2), pp.407-428

Ilies, R., Aw, S.S. and Lim, V.K., 2016. A Naturalistic Multilevel Framework for Studying Transient and Chronic Effects of Psychosocial Work Stressors on Employee Health and Well‐Being. Applied Psychology, 65(2), pp.223-258.

Larson, L.K., 2015. Employee Health–AIDS Discrimination (Vol. 10). Larson on Employment Discrimination.

Merrill, R.M., Aldana, S.G., Pope, J.E., Anderson, D.R., Coberley, C.R., Grossmeier, J.J. and Whitmer, R.W., 2013. Self-rated job performance and absenteeism according to employee engagement, health behaviors, and physical health. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 55(1), pp.10-18.

Mignano, J.L., Miner, L., Cafeo, C., Spencer, D.E., Gulati, M., Brown, T., Borkoski, R., Gibson-Magri, K., Canzoniero, J., Gottlieb, J.E. and Rowen, L., 2016. Routinization of HIV testing in an inpatient setting: a systematic process for organizational change. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 38(3), pp.e10-e18.

Østbye, T., Stroo, M., Brouwer, R.J., Peterson, B.L., Eisenstein, E.L., Fuemmeler, B.F., Joyner, J., Gulley, L. and Dement, J.M., 2015. Steps to health employee weight management randomized control trial: short-term follow-up results. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine,57(2), pp.188-195.

Robbins, J.M., Ford, M.T. and Tetrick, L.E., 2012. Perceived unfairness and employee health: a meta-analytic integration. Journal of Applied Psychology,97(2), p.235.

Yun, Y.H., Sim, J.A., Park, E.G., Park, J.D. and Noh, D.Y., 2016. Employee Health Behaviors, Self-Reported Health Status, and Association With Absenteeism: Comparison With the General Population. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 58(9), pp.932-939.