An Evaluation of the Impact of a Life Skills Programme in the Workplace

Abstract

TO THE INDIVIDUALTO THE EMPLOYER empowerment and self-actualisation optimises the performance of the workforce better sense of pride/self/dignity employees are trained beyond their "production roles" ability to plan and think ahead workers will work better with others more life satisfaction better communication greater individual stability less frustration more comfortable with life better problem solving a better home life more creative thinking able to deal with children effectively more commitment to the job command respect from friends and family more job satisfaction improved self-confidence people are more responsiveThe demands of modern life are extremely strenuous. To meet these demands and attain success in life, it is important to possess the necessary knowledge and skills. Research by Taute (1992) proved that the social functioning of people is hampered by too much frustration, too little satisfaction and insufficient contentment with life which can lead to companies having a high sick leave record and staff turnover. It is therefore essential that an employee with ideals, who wishes to deliver service of a high standard, should be willing to remain a student. Continuous study enables the employee to achieve constant professional development, to utilise his/her potential to the full and to take the best advantage of the opportunities available to him/her.While the importance of formal training can never be emphasised enough, it is nevertheless equally important to note that there are other aspects of the total functioning of a person which are not necessarily addressed by formal training -the growth of interpersonal skills and the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. "Developing your interpersonal skills is not only beneficial in helping you satisfy the demands of the employer. It can also greatly reduce work stress, increase your productivity and ultimately enhance your reputation, perhaps your position within the firm" (Messmer, 2001:28).By being exposed to a Life Skills programme, an employee has the opportunity to invest in him/herself, learn to handle frustration, enhance satisfaction regardless of circumstances, and experience increased contentment with life. If one takes the opportunity to enrich oneself through a Life Skills programme, productivity may increase, and others such as family, colleagues and employers may also benefit from the programme. Training in Life Skills enables employees to utilise their newly acquired knowledge and skills to make responsible choices and to enhance their well-being and social functioning throughout their lives. This means that training and development are central to Life Skills.Nelson-Jones (1993:10) stated that Life Skills entail a range of attitudes, knowledge and skills that enable people to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield (1995:399) asserted that employee education is used to describe basic skills training programmes, whereas general training programmes focus on training in which employees gain...

Workplace-Based Interventions for Mental Health in Africa: A Scoping Review

“…A variety of study designs were represented, including randomised controlled trials (n = 3) [21][22][23], quasi-experimental studies with two groups and no randomisation (n = 2) [27,39] and pre-experimental single group studies with a pre-test, post-test design (n = 6) [24,26,27,31,34,38]. There were also several qualitative studies (n = 7) [24,34,35,44] and mixed-methods designs (n = 4) [24,36,41], as well as cross-sectional quantitative studies (n = 2) [18,20] and a longitudinal descriptive study (n = 1) [42].…”

“…The majority of titles related to hospitals and clinics (n = 8) [17,20,25,28,36,37,40,42,44], as well as corporate environments (n = 8) [19,23,32,[39][40][41][42]. These were followed by manufacturing and industrial workplaces (n = 4) [22][23][24]29,35], schools and universities (n = 4) [25,26,38,41] and a municipality (n = 1) [28]. The remaining two studies were conducted in various workplaces [32,43].…”

“…Limited long-term follow ups of outcomes after the programmes was another barrier [34,37,39,41,43]. Reported barriers to research on workplace-based interventions for mental health included small sample sizes, study design and limited generalisability [21,22,24,[26][27][28]31,32,[34][35][36]38,39,[41][42][43]. Authors also named outcome measure limitations as a barrier.…”

“…Accessibility to participants was another facilitator, as interventions were all based in the workplace [17,21]. Research facilitators included multiple research designs in mixed-methods studies, large sample sizes and previously validated outcome measures [10,20,26,33,38,46].…”

“…Service user experiences and perspectives were overwhelmingly positive across the studies. Participants reported reaping benefits and enjoyment from the interventions [17,[24][25][26][27]31,32,38,[42][43][44]. Several studies reported that participants were motivated to engage in and continue with interventions, and they were satisfied with outcomes [23,35,36,45].…”