XAVIERS NEWS & FEATURES E-SERVICE (XNFES)
EMPLOYEE WELLBEING: CURRENT TRENDS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
The Abbé Faria Post Graduate Department of
Psychology, St. Xaviers College, Mapusa, Goa
organised a two day National Seminar on Employee
Well-Being: Current Trends and Future Prospects
on the 24th and 25th of September 2010, bringing
together 170 participants and delegates from Goa,
Gujarat, Mangalore, Mysore and many more.
The Chief Guest for the inaugural function was
Fr. Romualdo DSouza, a Padmashri Award Winner.
In his address, he opined that unless an employee
finds the work interesting and enjoyable one
cannot expect good performance from them. He
stressed the fact that it is critical for
employees to enjoy their work in order to
experience an intrinsic sense of wellbeing and to
keep work stress at bay. He also emphasized the
social dimensions of the job which is rendered towards welfare of the society.
The Guest of Honour was Dr. M.M Sangodkar,
Registrar, Goa University. He highlighted that
the motto of working today has changed and is
very different. Earning is one part and
developing ones traits is another. As long as
ones working environment is good, employee well-Being is taken care of.
The principal Dr (Fr) Walter de Sa addressed the
gathering and welcomed the guests and delegates
to the seminar. He stressed on the fact that
employee wellbeing will result from team work as
TEAM means that Together Everyone Achieves
More. As he introduced the dept and the
activities conducted to the participants, he
stressed the fact that material benefits were not
the everything that employees need to b concerned
with. Employee well being goes beyond salary, incentives and perks.
The seminar was introduced by the seminar student
coordinator, Ms. Danika Lobo who briefly touched
upon the need for employee wellbeing and the
various activities that would take place over the
course of the two days. The seminar proceedings
and the 2011 calendar were released at the hands
of the Chief Guest and Guest of Honour
respectively. Ms. Kshipra Vora, seminar teacher
coordinator, gave the vote of thanks where she
graciously thanked towards the members of the
dais and the delegates and participants.
The Key Note Speaker for the seminar was Dr.
Bhaskar Shezwal, HOD, Department of Psychology,
University of Pune. He spoke on employee
wellbeing: issues and implications for the HRM
and HRD. He highlighted on the concept of
employee wellbeing, employee participation at the
workplace, the role of the HR personnel in an
organisation, and the changes that are introduced
in organizations as a result of technological
upgradation, and world politics. He emphasized
that empowering employees and maintaining well
being require to take into account certain
factors as job and employee stress, job
satisfaction and productivity, work culture and
employees commitment, gender women health and
efficiency, women dual roles, research and HR
policies, HRM performance relationship and the
relevance of the psychological contract.
There were two scientific sessions chaired by Dr.
Ubaldina Noronha and Dr. Mahesh Pai respectively.
There was a line up of interesting, and
insightful papers in areas of employee
adjustment, employee mental health, work
environment, the work world of the mentally
disabled, emotional labour, effect of
organisational climate, emotional intelligence
and work related stress. The chairpersons
presented their comments and suggestions during their respective sessions.
Dr Lisa Aronson, FullBright Nehru Scholar,
chaired the poster presentation. There were 15
creative posters presented on various topics such
as issues and challenges of merchant marines,
work environment and employee wellbeing, work
life balance and its correlates, and adjustment
neuroticism of journalists in Goa. The
chairperson commended the efforts of the students
and faculty in choosing very interesting research
topics particularly because of its relation to
the employee and his/her work environment.
Four expert sessions were conducted by Dr.
Jagdish Kakodkar, Mr. Clifford DeSilva, Mr.
Guilman Fernandes and Ms Darshana Mehta. After
each session the floor was open to questions.
Dr Jagdish Kakodkar spoke on the topic of
Employee Mental Health. He got the audience to
think about the effects of mental health of an
individual by presenting simple case studies. He
stressed on promotion of good mental health and
emphasized that health promotion should start
from an early age. It was essential for all to eat healthy food and keep fit.
Mr Clifford Desilva addressed the issue of
promoting emotional intelligence. He linked it to
heredity and environment and said that people are
not aware of their emotions and these, in fact,
are the cause of distress and conflicts.
Individuals not only need to be self aware but
also be empathetic towards others and should
learn to manage their emotions to be effective
not only at the work place but in their personal lives too.
A lecture on Work Environment as a correlate of
employee wellbeing was delivered by Mr Guilman
Fernandes. He observed that good working
conditions coupled with caring employer leading
to employee wellbeing will result in
productivity, commitment, loyalty and competent
workforce to face any challenges in the organization.
The session on Home Environment was conducted by
Ms. Darshana Mehta. She gave a very detailed
presentation on how home environment affects
employee wellbeing. Presenting a theoretical
approach on home environment, the speaker focused
on practical examples that influence employee at the workplace.
The Academic - Industry Interface session was
chaired by Mr Blaise Costabir. The two speakers
on academic perspective were Dr Vijayalakshmi
Aminabhavi and Dr Shikha Sahai, while Mr. M.D
Phal and Mr. Pramod Johri represented the
industry perspective. There was a healthy
discussion across perspectives that followed
after every speaker presented their views. This
session concluded on the note for a collaborative
approach to Employee WellBeing.
A workshop was also organised for the
participants on promoting employee wellbeing.
This gave every participant an opportunity to
share their opinions and ideas on future trends in employee wellbeing.
The seminar ended with the valedictory function.
The chief guest for the same was Dr. G.V. Prabhu
Chief Medical Officer, Goa Shipyard ltd. He
commented on the importance of focusing a hundred
percent on the wellbeing, satisfaction and
potential of each employee. The report of the two
day seminar was ready by Ms. Tina DCunha,
seminar teacher coordinator, who highlighted the
various events. The vote of thanks was delivered
by Dr. Suhas Shetgovekar, course coordinator of
the Abbe Faria Post Graduate Department of
Psychology, gave the vote of thanks in which we
expressed her gratitude towards the sponsors, the
faculty and students of the department and the
various delegates and participants.
