After interviewing 30 managers/owners of small business in Johannesburg, respondents felt strongly that health and wellness of both themselves as well as that of their employees was of vital importance to the success of their business, however the small size of their business, together with a lack of resources, prevented proactive intervention in improvement and maintenance of good health of employees. Firstly, the critical need for every single staff member to perform optimally every day is shown to be a vital element to the successful running of a small business. Key roles are cherished and absenteeism of these key roles becomes a high risk factor. This is evident in the following excerpts from the interviews:
“We are a small business, everybody plays a critical role. Everybody is also specialised in their own area. So, if one person is absent then everyone else has to do double work to cover for that staff member” [CP-Employee roles].
“Competition is high, therefore should an employee be absent, clients can always go
somewhere else as part of the job is also to deliver products” [CP-Employee roles].
“It’s imperative, because we have a shift system, and we operate on skeleton staff, and if anyone is missing even for a couple of hours, it creates [sic] a major impact on the business. And because we are dealing with food stuffs, the second you are dealing with illness, it can take that person away from food preparation” [CP-Employee roles].
“Everyone plays a key role. As an example, one of our drivers was ill, he has a stomach condition, which has been diagnosed as ulcers. We battle when he is ill as he operates our earth removing machinery. So when he is off work, we have to find alternatives, yes there are other people who can drive, but he is used to the routes, he is used to the suppliers, it just
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makes things even more difficult, it increases mistakes, as others are not used to fulfilling that role” [CP-Employee roles].
This emphasis on the reliance of managers on their few staff members is a theme that was found to be present throughout the interview process. Small business supplying services that often have to adhere to strict service level agreements with limited resources, small business are under pressure to perform consistently at high quality levels.
“Employee health is very important because everybody has specific things that they need to
do in the business, and if one person falls out [sic] then it affects everybody else” [CP-
Employee roles].
Absenteeism is linked to loss of income for the business itself, with the added potential of losing contracts to multinational corporations, who demand consistent, impeccable service, or the contract is lost.
“The health of my employees is important, because in my circumstances, every day that your
technician does not work, you are costing money [sic], you have the financial implication, you are losing money; and money loss today you can’t catch it up, money loss today is lost. And then it affects your service, you know, we work on a service level agreement (SLA), you know the SLA with a large corporate mainly been [sic] our main contractor, or our main customer. So it is important that we maintain that SLA, otherwise at the end of the day, they just go to the opposition, so whoever works quicker faster cheaper gets the work. So it’s vital that you have your whole team there every day, Monday to Friday, and Saturday. Because we work on a six and a half day week cycle, and you need your whole team to be there” [CP-
Employee roles].
Having established the critical need for every team member to perform at optimal levels every day, further investigation was conducted into the extent of employee well-being programmes on offer in the small business. The overwhelming response to this question was that managers and owners all aspire to do more for the health of their employees and themselves, however the constant constraint of limited resources prevents any of these interventions. Any employee health intervention is considered a ‘nice to have’ or a luxury.
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“I do feel that small business should play a part in employee health, however a small/micro
business such as ours does not see enough profit annually at this stage to even entertain these nice to haves” [CP-Employee well-being and safety policies].
Employee well-being programmes, or any kind of proactive health intervention, is not entertained or seen as an effective method to increase or maintain productivity. The focus seems to be on service delivery and profits. Illness and absenteeism is addressed as it arises every day.
“Yes, I think so, but as you are highlighting these questions, you are highlighting things I have
never thought of before. It is vitally important. For myself, definitely, and for the people around us. I have let them work it out for themselves. If you want to stay healthy- you stay healthy, but yes, there probably should be more of a push from our side to make sure that people we employ stay healthy” [CP-Employee well-being and safety policies].
“I have not thought of it, knowing that we don’t deal with things like that, we deal with it as it
comes along. It’s quite reactive. The disadvantage of a small company is dealing with bringing in money knowing that if something goes wrong, you have to deal with it, if everything is running smoothly, you just run with it. Keep going” [CP-Employee well-being and safety
policies].
“I believe the well-being of an employee should be the individual’s responsibility. They can
decide what programme to take on and how to take it, etcetera. I do not believe that it is something the business or government need to implement” [CP-Employee well-being and
safety policies].
The lack of formal employee well-being initiatives is perhaps supplemented by close relationships that exist between employer and employee in a small business. Managers of small businesses appear to be more aware of the personal circumstances of their employees in a small business, and because of this, may be more understanding when employees or their dependents become ill.
The advantage of small business, it seems, [is] that the relationships are so much more intimate?
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We become personally involved in a small business; but I think in small business it is personal, you will know what is happening, and why” [CP-Number of employees].
“It’s interesting dealing with a small business, because you become intimately involved with each one of your staff members, so you know their own specific situations, and you become aware of their lifestyles. So, I have one specific staff member who is a health nightmare, but largely because of lifestyle issues. It’s a case of trying to address that. Trying to make sure that she eats two square meals a day, trying to address that. Trying to make sure that she has enough energy to fight off bugs and that. Nothing beyond the fairly basic health requirements. But yes, talking requirements, I do talk to the staff, make sure, obviously hygiene is important. This is the food business, so I make sure that hygiene at the office and at home is front of mind. But nothing formal in terms of ‘laid down’ [sic] company wellness plan” [CP-Number of
employees].
“…because we are a small company we are automatically more in touch with our employees. I
take a special interest in every employee that works for me” [CP-Number of employees].