Mhangwani, Chrisen Eddie2024-10-012024-10-012021Mhangwani, Chrisen Eddie. (2021). Assessing the effectiveness of the employee health and wellness programme in Gauteng department of education [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/41246A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in the field of Governance to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023Employee Health and Wellness Programmes (EHWPs) were initiated in the public service since 2009 following the Department of Public Service Employee Health and Wellness Strategic Framework 2008 which was later reviewed in 2019 with the idea to proactively enhance the productivity of employees by providing health enhancing preventive strategies which if not provided, may contribute to ill-health absenteeism which have been identified as having significant direct and indirect costs to organisations. Therefore this study sought to assess the effectiveness of the Employee Health and Wellness Programme (EHWP) in Gauteng Department of Education Head Office by exploring the perceptions of GDE employees towards the programme in averting ill-health absenteeism behaviour. The study adopted the qualitative case study to collect data using investigative in-depth qualitative survey targeting hundred (100) GDE employees to explore and understand their perceptions as described by their responses towards the programme. The sample consisted of participants who had experience in utilising the services provided by the employer sponsored EHWP. The idea of using qualitative survey interviews were informed by its strength to collect rich and dense information from multiple sources which in the context of this study were fifteen GDE Districts and Head Office. As theoretical saturation of information is the guiding principle in collecting qualitative data, the researcher ended up interviewing forty (40) participants as there were no divergent views from the survey interview responses. This was done to ensure the reliability of the study by ensuring that the variability of the responses is maintained. The findings of the study reveal the varying perceptions towards the EHWP in averting ill-health absenteeism behaviour showed that it is good in advancing employees’ health and productivity while others hold the view that its implementation is not tractable. Moreover, the lack of employing monitoring and evaluation strategies in implementation and the ethical dilemmas in the provision of this service, have been cited as hindering the effectiveness of the programmeen© 2021 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Ill-health absenteeismEHWPPerceptionsProductivityUCTDSDG-8: Decent work and economic growthDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg