Abstract
M.Comm.
Businesses are increasingly moving toward wellness management a means of controlling rapidly increasing healthcare costs. In pursuing that objective, they are also starting to realise the benefits of worksite wellness promotion in other areas such as improved employee morale, productivity and reduced absenteeism. Various surveys in the USA reveal that the majority of employers have introduced some form of wellness promotion in various forms. In South Africa however, that is not the case with other business priorities still taking preference. It is also a prevalent fact that in both the USA and South Africa, it is the larger employers that have adopted such wellness programs; in both cases employers with more than 1000 employees. The actual market size for wellness practitioners at this stage is unknown in both the USA as well as South Africa, but it is estimated at $10 billion in the USA and about R 2 billion in South Africa. Although the current workplace wellness programs vary from company to company, the most popular programs include health assessment, physical activity, nutrition, weight management, tobacco control and smoking
cessation, medical self-care, stress management and employee assistance. It was clear from the research that the following deductions could be made: more than 90% of chronic illness emanate from mental instability and stress from the workplace; more than 90% of stress conditions are caused through what is called Vocational misplacing (people in incorrect positions); more than 80% of South African employees are victims of vocational mismatching.