Health Services Manager at Goldfields Ghana Limited has advised employers to introduce an employee wellness programme to manage stress at the workplace.

An employee wellness programme is a programme undertaken by an employer in order to improve employee health and also to help individual employees overcome particular health-related problems. 

Dr. Ishmael Kwasi Sackey listed a number of factors that cause stress in the workplace as; work overload, lack of control over work, machine-paced work, lack of support, job insecurity- fear of losing one’s job, commuting to work, etc.

He said because stress management is a process, the employer should take note of the factors that contribute to employee stress when implementing the employee wellness programme.

This, Dr. Sackey said, is because the factors that cause stress may vary at workplaces.

“What is very critical in managing stress is that every workplace must have an employee wellness programme," he said while contributing to the topic “how to manage stress at the workplace” on Asempa FM's Ekosiisen on Friday.

According to the health expert, once the factors are noted down, the employer should take steps to rectify the causes of stress.

“You register these factors and then you assign responsibilities – who is to resolve what and then you give it timelines to solve the problem because it is a process, so if you start and you do not finish anything, you might not achieve anything,” he added.

He further stated that it is the employer’s moral responsibility to ensure employees are fit mentally and physically to enhance productivity at the workplace.

“A happy workplace is a productive workplace,” he said.

He urged employees to take advantage of the programme when implemented,