Volkswagen receives international recognition for its Health and Wellness programme

Volkswagen receives international recognition for its Health and Wellness programme

Volkswagen Group South Africa has been recognised by the Global Business Coalition on Health (GBC Health) at its annual conference in New York for its outstanding work in the category - Workplace/Workforce Engagement with the designation “Commended Company”.

Volkswagen Group South Africa has previously received award at this conference for its pioneering work in the field of HIV prevention under the leadership of company Doctor Alex Govender.

“Volkswagen’s health and wellness programme looks at employees health from a holistic perspective. Apart from a biannual check-up for all employees, on site medical facilities as well as social services, consultation includes Aids prevention,” said Dr Govender. 

“A healthy body as well as a healthy mind makes for happier and thus productive employees. This ensures that our absentee rate is well below the target of 4%. This is a prerequisite for building quality cars to customer expectation,” added Dr Govender.

“We have managed to incorporate HIV and TB prevention and treatment into one programme, and we emphasise the need to focus on these two killer diseases whilst delivering a single service together with our other suite of offerings. Our programme is in line with Government’s HIV counseling and testing campaign. Ours was however introduced two yearsahead of National Department of Health.We are delighted with the recognition our department is receiving internationally,” concluded Govender.

Apart from attending the conference to receive the award on behalf of Volkswagen South Africa, Dr Govender has been further recognised by being asked to chair the session on Workplace Wellness and share Volkswagen’s success story in this sphere.

GBC Health represents over 200 private sector companies leading the business fight for improved Global Health. GBC Health has offices in New York, Beijing, Moscow, Nairobi and Johannesburg.