PUB, the national water agency, was recently conferred the Mental Wellbeing Award at the 2008 Singapore HEALTH Award ceremony, in recognition of its exemplary efforts  in looking after its employees’ mental wellbeing. At PUB, staff wellbeing is an integral part of its HR and business strategy-a strategy that seeks to improve the organisational climate so as to ensure a motivated and healthy workforce and to attract and retain its share of talent. To this end, PUB undertakes a holistic approach, guided by an Integrated Staff Wellbeing framework, to look into the physical, social and economic welfare of its staff. Programme initiatives are developed along these lines, at both organisational and individual level.

To help shape a conducive work environment, a number of surveys are conducted to assess employee needs. These include the Employee Opinion, Lifestyle & Health Practices and Work-Life Harmony Survey. The Staff Welfare Committee responds to the findings by organising a myriad of activities and programmes to best meet these needs. For instance, PUB introduced HPB’s Treasure Your Mind (TYM) Programme to equip its staff with the skills needed to optimise their mental wellbeing. In 2007, the Workplace Emotional Health Programme was implemented to provide round -the -clock counselling to staff, seven days a week. To date, PUB has also trained 74 officers to provide support to employees and their families, who could suffer from traumatic stress in an emergency. 

PUB’s HR director, Mr Lawrence Tan, who shared the company’s success story at the ‘Leading with Mental Wellbeing in Mind’ Seminar on 19th November 2008, stressed that “A healthy workforce is one that is mentally resilient, productive, creative, engaged and feels good about their work and enjoys being at work.”

We couldn’t agree more. Congratulations to PUB! We certainly look forward to having more workplaces share their good practices with us at the next HEALTH Award ceremony.