A survey conducted during the Public Service Health and Wellness Indaba revealed the challenges many public servants face in caring for themselves and serving citizens despite the immense pressures they face in their personal and professional lives. The survey outcomes, shared on the last day of the two-day Indaba, on Friday, 29 September 2023, also marked the close of the month-long Integrated Public Service Month. The survey showed that many public servants face stress, burnout, and difficulty balancing work and life due to inadequate resources and support systems.

Carried out among the 150 delegates who physically participated in the Indaba, the survey had a 61,3 % response rate, or 92 responses, according to the presentation by Mr Tumelo Seema and Mr Prince Mohale from the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) graduates programme.

Attended by officials responsible for employee health and wellness (EHW) and human resources (HR) as well as health risks service providers, the objective of the Indaba was to gather inputs for reviewing the approach to implementing the Public Service Health and Wellness Programme, focusing on government employees’ often neglected mental well-being.

The Policy and Procedure on Incapacity Leave and Ill-Health Retirement (PILIR) is a framework for managing health and wellness in the Public Service. In this regard, the survey showed that 82% of public servants responsible for PILIR did not face challenges while administering the policy in their workplaces. However, 18% of respondents responded negatively, suggesting the need to integrate the PILIR process with the Employee Health and Wellness function.

Currently, the administration of employee leave applications, including long-term sick leave, is primarily handled by departmental HR units in departments.

Although carried out at the start of the Health and Wellness Indaba, the survey’s results provided a valuable framework for the substantive discussions and inputs expected to contribute to reviewing the Public Service Health and Wellness framework, including focusing on mental health aspects in the administration of the policy.

Along with the engagement among Government EHW and HR practitioners and the health risk service providers who support them, organisational psychology and workplace transformation experts provided insightful inputs to reviewing the Public Service Health and Wellness strategy and approach.

Dr Odette Volmink, Occupational Medicine Specialist at the National Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH), and Dr Frank Magwegwe of the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) at the University of Pretoria, respectively spoke on the Return to Work – Reintegration Programme and Building Resilience in the Workplace.

Dr Volmink stated that mental health conditions significantly affect people’s health, well-being, and productivity. She said that while there are no figures for South Africa, those from the United Kingdom indicated that 17% of that country’s population suffered from mental health conditions. Dr Volmink reported that the cost to the UK economy is 70 billion pounds due to about 70 million working days lost in a year from the nearly 15 million sick leave applications related to stress, depression, and anxiety.

Available data on South Africa, drawn from a 2016 study on the determinants of long-term incapacity leave approvals among healthcare professionals in the Gauteng Department of Health, showed that there were more than 1,000 cases of approved incapacity leave, and 41% of these were from nurses. She reported that the main reasons for the incapacity leave applications were mental health-related, followed by physical ill-health.

“We know that even in the South African setting, mental ill-health is a substantial problem that we need to tackle,” said Dr Volmink.

According to Dr Volmink, the reintegration of employees back into the workplace should ideally be part of the healing process, which is often very slow. For this reason, employers should play a critical role in setting up policies and systems that successfully nurse recovering employees back into the workplace.

“Good work is good for us, and working has quite a few benefits. It minimises the physical, mental, and social effects of sickness absence because work is also therapeutic and is part of rehabilitation,” Dr Volmink explained.

Dr Magwegwe, from GIBS, unpacked the context of the word “resilience” and provided everyday examples of individual resilience and how organisations should complement and build upon it.

“You can have high levels of resilience as an individual, but that is not going to take you far if the team you are part of takes away your resilience,” said Dr Magwegwe.

Dr Magwegwe underscored the importance of an organisation’s role in fostering employees’ collective resilience. He suggested that managers representing the organisation should continually assess their leadership styles to enhance their employees’ resilience, as leaders can make or break an individual’s resilience.

Two breakaway sessions discussed recommendations on the role of HR in EHW operations; PILIR implementation; mental health importance in the workplace; fatigue management; chronic disease management; and the risk of an ageing workforce. The recommendations, which echoed the survey, will inform the review of the approach to implementing PILIR, focusing on mental health.

As the finale to the packed activities of the IPSM, the Director-General of the Mpumalanga Provincial Government, Mr Makhukhu Mampuru, led the pledge to the Public Service Charter. The pledge was followed by remarks on the way forward, presented by DPSA Director-General, Ms Yoliswa Makhasi, who proposed the establishment of a steering committee that would carry out the recommendations of the Indaba.