Volkswagen Group South Africa has been recognised by the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber at its annual Health and Wellness Awards.
The awards, which were held at a gala event at the Feather Market, saw Volkswagen taking the Health and Wellness Award for a Large Enterprise.
“Volkswagen’s health and wellness programme looks at employees’ health from a holistic perspective. Apart from a biannual check-up for all employees, on site medical facilities as well as employee assistance services, consultation also includes HIV/Aids prevention,” said Thomas Schaefer VWSA Managing Director.
The Volkswagen Wellness Centre was awarded for work done with the health check-ups, HIV counselling and testing, chronic conditions clinics, rehabilitation programme at the PeoplePavillion Gym which is administered by an onsite biokineticist, Peer Educator programme and the Weight Loss Challenge.
“A healthy body as well as a healthy mind makes for happier and thus productive employees. We have managed to reduce the impact of chronic diseases in our employees and this has ensured that our absentee rate is below our internal targets. This is essential for building quality cars to customer expectation,” said Dr Siki Gwanya-Mdletye, VWSA Doctor.
“At VWSA, the 1-hour check-up comprises of six different tests focusing on HIV, Tuberculosis, Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, Blood Cholesterol, resting ECG prevention and treatment; we focus on these chronic diseases whilst delivering a single service together with our other suite of offerings, ” added Dr Gwanya-Mdletye.
“Initiatives like the Peer Educator programme and the Weight Loss Challenge (adapted from the hit-series The Biggest Loser) now in its third year, have assisted in ensuring that employees in the Uitenhage plant have optimum health and well-being,” concluded Dr Gwanya-Mdletye.
VWSA has partnered with Careways to priovide its employees and dependants with health and well-being support such as free counselling, legal advice, financial advice, on-site counselling and referrals and access to the online health portal.
This marks the second time the Wellness Centre has received this award, another notable accolade was being recognised by the Global Business Coalition on Health (GBC Health) for the pioneering work in the field of HIV prevention.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber is the largest business association in the Eastern Cape.
Alan Straton
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