'Having healthy staff translates into healthy business'
May 31, 2009
By Wiseman Khuzwayo
It's not about costs. It's an investment in a good health and wellness programme, says Peter Philip, head of corporate health at Standard Bank Group.
"If you don't have a healthy staff, you don't have a healthy business. You have got to look after your staff and grow them," he said.
Philip was speaking to Business Report at the Eden Campus, in rural Karatara, near Knysna in the Western Cape, where more than 160 Standard Bank employees were attending its Health and Wellness Africa Champion of Champions gathering. These champions were from a network of 715 volunteers from Standard Bank's presence in 17 African countries, including South Africa.
The venue, Eden Campus, a no-fee rural eco-business school for entrepreneurs, is one of Standard Bank's social partners.
Although its health and wellness programme is not just about HIV/Aids, the banking group was awarded the Global Business Coalition (GBC) Award for Business Excellence for its HIV/Aids workplace programme in 2008.
The bank joined the New York-based GBC in 2006, an alliance of more than 220 companies dedicated to combating the HIV pandemic, as well as TB and malaria at local, national and international levels.
Standard Bank also won the 2008 Afri.Com.Net Annual for Excellence in HIV and Aids Communication in Africa.
Each year, the bank spends about R60 million on its health and wellness programme. It has its own official medical aid, Bankmed, to which more than 80 percent of its South African employees belong.
Philip said the company ran a clinic in Standard Bank's head office, in Johannesburg, and two others in Durban and Cape Town.
The clinics do vaccinations for yellow fever, malaria and cholera as well as undertake education on overseas travel. They also do annual health check-ups on the bank's travelling employees.
Further, the clinics undertake Standard Bank's health and wellness programme, including personal health assessment on cholesterol, diet, stress, depression and lifestyle.
Philip said it was difficult to say how much the programme had saved the bank so far.
"It is difficult because one can't measure productivity. But on estimate, people who are overweight cost 10 percent to 25 percent higher in medical aid claims. By intuition, you know that people with lower health risks have lower health claims. I am busy developing the data together with Bankmed," he said.
Wellness champions at Standard Bank are volunteer peer educators who are passionate about fighting the scourge of HIV/Aids and building a culture of health and well-being in the bank and the broader community.
"We encourage them to go to the communities. This is part of our values to become socially relevant and putting back into the communities," said Philip.
About a year ago, Standard Bank awarded a contract to Liberty Health Blue for its medical health provision for the rest of Africa.
Although Standard Bank is the parent company to Liberty, Daniel Kotton, the head of Liberty Health Blue, said that his company's services had been selected through a competitive tender.
He said Liberty Health Blue had already launched in Uganda and Kenya, would launch in Mozambique in June and in Nigeria in July.
Kotton said his company was required to do Pan African roaming with regards to medical treatment. If a member from Uganda fell ill while in Mozambique, they would still be able to access treatment.
"Our mandate, where necessary, is also to carry out emergency evacuations to bring the member to the nearest appropriate centre of care," said Kotton.
"Our disease management programme covers HIV/Aids, TB, malaria, cancer, asthma and diabetes, and we cover both in-patient and out-patient treatment. We hope that at least 50 000 people will benefit by mid 2010."
He said the product was for multinational companies and NGOs.
Liberty Health is the health-care business of the wealth management group, Liberty Holdings.
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