The comments/recommendations by participants addressed various issues, some of which were positive, while others were negative.
Subcategory: Renovation of the workplace
One of the employees, the secretary to the Administrative division and a female from South West Nigeria (with 11 years’ experience at the study location), acknowledged the constraints caused by the renovation. She hoped that it would be business as usual for the work environment on the completion of the renovation of the office building:
Things have appeared to be unstable for about the last year due to the construction or renovation of the main headquarters. It is hoped that things will go back to normal when the construction is completed, or better than it was. (AP16)
Subcategory: Lift trapping
Lift trapping is a serious health and safety concern, and trappings were frequently happening with renovations and repairs going on at the main building of organisation ‘A’. The security secretary (a female from South West Nigeria with
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10 years’ service at the study location) stated the need to replace the lifts after a series of trappings and following several repairs:
They need to properly service the lifts, for example, or replace the lifts with a new one. I have seen them repairing the lifts many times, yet they’re still trapping people from time to time, so they are due for a change. (AP11) Subcategory: Inspection, risk assessment and follow-up
Some of the participants highlighted the need for prompt hazard identification through regular workplace monitoring and follow-up on risk assessments.
Examples are the head of the Finance division (a male from North West Nigeria with two years’ service at the study location) and the secretary to the Audit division (a male from the South West zone) with five years’ service at the study location. For instance, AP5 stated that
I will not fail to say that the HSE team still need to improve their services, particularly as related to office inspections to identify potential hazards among workers. This needs to be on a regular basis and not one-off risk assessments, as you may call it, without follow-up. (AP5)
This participant called for regular and sustainable workplace hazard identification and risk management plan in order for these exercises to achieve the desired results. Similarly, the secretary to the Audit division noted:
That department they call occupational health or HSE is trying. But they need to do more things for us. When you look around at our main office, things are not good there. We are just lucky that we are here in this building and you can see that too many people are in this office, very tight together with no free space … (AP10)
Subcategory: Management support and conducive work environment
The secretary to the Human Resources division (a female from South West Nigeria with seven years’ service at the organisation of study) expressed the need for more support for the occupational health team that is directly responsible for the preventive or proactive health programmes at organisation ‘A’:
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The occupational health officers give lots of sensitisations but the ‘A’
management needs to put in place a conducive work environment that supports this …The HSE team has tried to provide support, but due to inadequate structural facilities their efforts are not pronounced as they ought to be. (AP7)
Also, the secretary to the Administrative division (a female from the South West region with 11 years’ service at the study location) highlighted the need for more staffing, training and financial support to assist the occupational health team to effectively discharge its responsibilities. She remarked as follows:
What I have to say is for more management support in terms of resources like finance and training and staffing to be able to have more of these programmes…(AP16)
Subcategory: WHPPs – continuity, increased frequency, and male-gender-specific programmes
Some of the participants noted the need for programme sustainability and increased frequency of health checks, as the existing schedule was considered inadequate. For example, the Marine secretary (a female from North Central Nigeria with nine years’ service at the study location) declared:
What I have to say is that they should continue to assist us to better take care of our health because we are all too busy to seek health services elsewhere because of the job and the traffic situation in Lagos. Also, it will be good if management can help to create a mini gym at work, it will greatly help us to establish regular exercise. (AP19)
In corroboration, the head of the Human Resources division (a male from North East Nigeria with 14 years’ service at the study location) acknowledged the need to increase the frequency of health checks (for the employees) to four times a year instead of them being an annual event:
The challenge I have heard people talk about is the inadequate frequency of some of these programmes…for example, the health screening
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exercise that is only done once a year needs to be quarterly in order to improve the wellbeing of staff. (AP4)
Similarly, one of the participants opined that more sensitisation programmes are required in order to achieve maximum benefits. The secretary to the Security division (a female from the South West region with 10 years’ service at the study location) said:
They are all okay but they are not doing enough, you know! We need more of those sensitisations. After all, we all wish to work and retire to collect our pension… (AP11)
Overall, these participants advocate for sustainability of the WHPP and other relevant HWS programmes.
Subcategory: HSE team, employees and identified risks
Some of the participants expressed the need to know the outcome of risk assessments or inspections carried out by the HSE team following reports to the management staff. For example, the secretary to the Business division (a male from South South Nigeria with six years’ service at the study location) stated that
“When they see bad things like that and report them to management, they need to let us know what the management is doing about it (exclaimed)” (AP2). In corroboration, the secretary to Human Resources (a female from the South West region with seven years’ service at the study location) acknowledged that “they have done many risk assessments but we have yet to know the outcome and are hardly seeing any further action” (AP7).
Subcategory: ITNs and use
Some of the participants, for example the head of the Human Resources division (a male from North East Nigeria with 14 years’ service at the study location), acknowledged not sleeping under the ITN due to non-conducive temperatures.
He stated that:
I was around when they organised a malaria prevention programme (Roll Back Malaria), they gave us mosquito nets (ITNs), but to be honest I don’t like sleeping under it because of the heat. I only use it sometimes if the
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light (electricity) is steady and I can put on the AC/fan to assist in cooling down the temperature. (AP4)
Subcategory: Support from management staff
The head of the Marine division (a male from South South Nigeria with six years’
service) would like all management staff to grant full support at all times to WHPPs:
…they need to be supported and encouraged with the necessary resources and adequate funding because prevention is better than cure!
(AP9)
Subcategory: Specific needs
Some of the participants opined that “one size should not fit all”. In view of this, efforts should also be directed at identifying and attending to the specific needs of each department/division at organisation ‘A’. Currently, the attention given to addressing the health and wellbeing needs of various departments/divisions is non-specific. For example, the secretary to the Pension Service division (a female from the South South zone with four years’ service at the study location) listed the areas that need management’s attention:
…well, there is a need to address the specific needs of departments like ours with congestion of staff in offices, stacked bags of documents and indiscriminate fumigations, and review the effects of chemicals with a view to using human-friendly chemicals. (AP22)
Subcategory: Enforcement power and the HSE team in critical HSW situations Some participants highlighted the need to empower the HSE team to promptly address issues that are detrimental to the wellbeing of stakeholders in the workplace. In accordance with this notion, the head of the Pension Service division (a male from the North Central region with 10 years’ service at the study location) noted that:
I feel the HSE team has not been empowered enough to take urgent and immediate action where necessary. (AP21)