How many hours of work vs. sleep do you have? A lot of the time, those of us who join the workforce have a standard reply of “I’m tired” when someone asks how we are.
It is sadly (but not surprisingly) pretty common for employees to face depression, stress, and sleep-deprivation. Health is extremely valuable, and not just physical health - many of us overlook mental health too.
This is the third year of AIA commissioning the Malaysia’s Healthiest Workplace survey, with as many as 230 organisations participating in it, amounting to a total of 17,595 employees. Among the conditions measured in the survey, employees’ mental and physical health, work engagement, along with the impacts towards workplace productivity. With the results, employers and companies will then be able to provide their staff with the knowledge and strategy to help improve the wellbeing of their employees.
Conducted by AIA Vitality 2019, it was found that 51% of employees suffer from at least one aspect of work-related stress. One contributor to underlying mental health issues is, as with many things, money. Ugh, now that’s one burden we definitely can’t escape from. As many as 22% of respondents reported that they had a lot of financial burdens.
When it came to our favourite topic, sleep, 53% of employees said they get less than 7 hours of sleep daily - even that sounds like a suspicious amount to us. On top of that, a huge majority of workers say they have shoulder and neck pains, with 84% suffering from one or more musculoskeletal condition.
Mental health problems also appear to be increasing, with 22% of employees saying they had a lot of financial burdens and another 20% saying they were affected by workplace bullying - yes, it happens at work too. 17% of employees reported being tired and fatigued every single day but 20% said they couldn’t decide when to take a break.
At the Malaysia’s Healthiest Workplace Summit 2019, YB Dr Lee Boon Chye, Deputy Health Minister of Malaysia, said, “The responsibility of driving Malaysia towards a nation of healthy individuals continues to be at the top of the agenda for the Ministry of Health as we face sobering statistics on the state of our health - both mentally and physically”.
At the Malaysia’s Healthiest Workforce Summit, the winners for Malaysia’s Healthiest Employees were found to be from Mindvalley, Agilent Technologies LDA Malaysia SDN BHD and Technip Geoproduction (M) SDN BHD. Meanwhile, Yayasan Pahang, International Medical University and Dell Global Business Center SDN BHD took the spots for Malaysia’s Healthiest Employer and Malaysia’s Healthiest Workplace. As for Malaysia’s Most Improved Workplace, Yayasan Pahang, KPJ Pasir Gudang Specialist Hospital and McDonald’s Malaysia were the winners.
So are you looking to get a job at these places yet? (McDonald’s maybe?)
By: Celestine Foo
