By Michael Peter, The Sight News
Abuja: Ahead of the maiden edition of the Employee Medical Benefits Conference and Exhibition taking place in Abuja on Thursday, corporate organizations have been charged to give premium to issues bordering on the healthcare of their employees.
The Conference is organised by healthmeeting.org with the theme: “Health Creates Wealth”.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, the Convener of the event, Dr. Henri Onyemachi said that by investing in the health wellbeing of their employees, employers can save their companies huge financial losses, stressing that employees health is key to the productivity of any organization.
Dr. Onyemachi pointed out that the conference is being organized to raise awareness on the need for employers to ensure that their employees are healthy.
This he said, could be done by endeavoring to equip staff with the requisite knowledge on how to imbibe healthy culture within the organization.
“The focus of this conference is about the employees and their healthcare. There is a huge gap in terms of awareness and capacity to be able to manage healthcare for employees.
“The health of the employees is very crucial for any organization to perform.
“Employees that work in any organization across the country be it public or private, spend about a third of their lives in the work place.
“The habits developed during work hours could affect the employees health.
“This conference seeks to proffer ways to address this”, he said.
He hinted that the conference will come up with ways organizations can develop a proper strategy for the healthcare of their employees.
“There is a need for corporations to see how important it is for there to be more focus on investment in the healthcare of people who work in these places.
“So at the end of the conference, we want companies to be able to come up with policies that can increase the healthcare of their employees
“We want to see companies organise trainings, workshops for its staff to help them imbibe a culture that can prevent them from falling sick” he said.
Dr. Onyemachi disclosed that the event will bring together Administrative and Human Resources Managers of various companies to learn to manage employees healthcare benefits and create healthy work places.
While also disclosing that over 500 participants have so far registered for the conference, Dr Onyemachi noted that participants will also be afforded the opportunity to explore a variety of related solutions such as, work place wellness solutions, hospital schemes, health insurance plans amongst others.
