Business leaders in the country have called on firms to prioritise improved employee wellness as part of measures to boost the productivity and performance of the workforce.
These stakeholders stated this on Wednesday during the Employee Assistance Programme Summit 2026 organised by Sages and Scribes Consultants and held at Ikeja, Lagos.
Speaking at the event themed, “Employee Wellness: Our Employees are Our Assets,” the Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Mr Olaniyi Yusuf, highlighted eight areas that wellness should cover to improve workplace productivity.
Yusuf said, “Wellness goes beyond the provision of free snacks, tokenism or posters on workplace safety. Wellness needs to be intentional, structural and it needs to cover eight dimensions.
“These dimensions of wellness in the workplace are the financial, social, physical, spiritual, environmental, occupational, emotional and intellectual areas.
“Research has shown that when employee wellness is not prioritised, there is usually an increase in absenteeism and turnover rates while productivity and work quality decrease.”
Also speaking at the event, the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Leye Kupoluyi, cited statistics, noting that lack of employee wellness has caused only 20 per cent of employees to be engaged globally.
“Wellness is no longer a ‘soft’ Human Resources topic. It is an important aspect of the workplace. There is a need to seek feedback from employees, track absenteeism, examine staff turnover and train managers to deliver on wellness,” Kupoluyi said.
On his part, the convener of the event and Managing Consultant of Sages and Scribes Consultant, Ven Adelowo Adesina, said, “Every successful organisation is built on creativity, commitment, resilience and wellbeing of its people. When employees flourish physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and financially, organisations prosper, families become stronger and our nation benefits.”
In her presentation, People Transformation Consultant, Adebola David, urged firms to monitor burnout and disengagement, among others, in employees as these signal that their well-being is poor.
“Companies need to adopt future-focused measures that put mental health support, counselling services, stress management and substance abuse support, among others, into place to help employees,” she noted