ACADEMIA Letters The safety and well-being of employees in the face of COVID-19 in a private university Promise Zvavahera, Africa University This paper focuses on the safety and well-being of employees in universities in the face of COVID-19. The paper employed a case study approach focusing at a private university operating in Zimbabwe. The rationale is that it is the only university that had its essential staff reporting for duty physically in the midst of the deadly pandemic. The essential staff comprised kitchen staff, fleet and facilities and administration. COVID-19 has changed the dynamics of the work environment and the role of management in dealing with safety and wellness of the workforce. As COVID-19 continues to ravage most economies across the globe, employees’ safety and well-being has become a major concern in universities since some employees continue to work in unsafe environments. The pandemic has long lasting effects on the mental, health, well-being and productivity in institutions of higher learning. The closure of most institutions of higher learning and failure to find immediate solutions to the plight of students, parents, staff and other stakeholders has signalled the extent of the challenge. In view of the pandemic, employees anticipate better emotional responses to cope with the crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has redefined the world’s higher education sector (Rumbley, 2020). This has exposed leadership in universities across the globe in dealing with safety and well-being of the workforce. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that some employees are still working from home and communication is imprecise as a result of lockdown restrictions. There is a perception that employee safety and wellness determines the effectiveness and productivity of the institution since there is a direct relationship between productivity and the well-being of the workforce. Employee well-being is concerned with everything in working life; such as how workers feel about their work, the quality and safety of the physical environment, climate at work and work organisation. It is important to make sure that individuals engaged are safe, satisfied and healthy. The safety and health of employAcademia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Promise Zvavahera, promisezvavahera59@gmail.com Citation: Zvavahera, P. (2021). The safety and well-being of employees in the face of COVID-19 in a private university. Academia Letters, Article 1828. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1828. 1 ees is concerned with moral, legal and psychological issues. The tackling of issues related to employee safety and well-being assists in addressing mental health disorders, stress, conflict, and drug and alcohol abuse among others. In order to achieve this, comprehensive wellness programmes, policy initiatives and implementation are of paramount importance (Lee, Blake, & Lloyd, 2010; Csiernik, 2011). Productive time can be lost when employees take days off as a result of anxiety, stress and depression. It is estimated that about 57% productive time is lost due to ill-health that is mostly caused by the stressful work environment. The reopening of some universities across the globe has led to the increase in COVID-19 cases (Lu et al., 2021). In view of this, strategies to support mental well-being and safety in organisations is important. Engaging health partners and providing timeous information in the face of COVID could go a long way in promoting the wellness of employees. Engaging online doctors, pharmacies and other related health services could assist in making sure that the wellness and safety of employees is maintained at acceptable levels especially during COVID-19 where social distancing has become important in reducing the spread of the pandemic. Besides COVID-19, literature shows that most inactive people add more weight and this has been found to be deadly too. A snap survey approach was used involving one female and one male employees who were purposively selected. The rationale for choosing one female and one male employees was to get a balanced view. Virtual interviews with the two respondents were conducted as social distancing and remote working had become necessary in reducing the spread of the pandemic. Seven employees were infected by the virus between December 2020 and April 2021 at the institution under discussion. The female employee was admitted and spent several weeks in hospital whilst the male employee was quarantined and recovered from home. In terms of the safety of the work environment, it was observed that there was no regular cleaning and disinfecting of facilities after confirmed COVID-19 exposures. This left most employees exposed to the virus. The University used buses to ferry essential staff to work and in some cases were full to capacity. This means that physical distancing of at least a meter was not being fully observed. Employees in the payroll office shared computers and related gadgets. Even though masks are a requirement, these were found to be in short supply and employees had to improvise. The University was doing well in providing hand sanitizers and hand-washing points. In addition, a sanitiser station was mounted at the most strategic point. The female employee indicated that when COVID-19 struck, the University did not offer support to her. The male employee also alluded to the same. When the pandemic struck, the university did not have a Counsellor and most of the infected and affected employees had to seek the service outside the University. The female employee had this to say “When I got infected, I did not receive any support from the University. Only a handful of my close friends called to check Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Promise Zvavahera, promisezvavahera59@gmail.com Citation: Zvavahera, P. (2021). The safety and well-being of employees in the face of COVID-19 in a private university. Academia Letters, Article 1828. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1828. 2 on me. I thought I was going to get counselling and financial support but nothing was offered. I had to foot the hospital bills by myself yet I was infected whilst on duty. I feel that the University is not doing enough to protect its employees from contracting the virus. Our safety and well-being is in danger.” What was encouraging was that the university had conducted Ministry of Health and Child Care to provide testing to staff on campus. The submission by the female employee concurs with Lu et al. (2021) who found that some employees continued to work in unsafe environments in the face of COVID-19 were cases continued to rise. The male employee had this to say “When I got sick, I had to use my own resources to get tested. Further to that I had to buy the medication. I went to the extent of applying for a loan from the University so that I could pay for my medical bills.” In view of the new normal, it is important for the University to offer online resources to help employees to cope with anxiety, stress, financial concerns, and other issues they are facing during the pandemic. The most worrisome development was that management was not sharing information on who were affected as they felt that this could cause despondence and panic since the University continued operating. However, creating awareness among staff on the intensity of the disease could assist employees in making sure that they received maximum protection in their areas of duty. It could mean that the infected and affected employees may feel neglected when they need support most. Even though the University set up the Rapid Response Team (RRT), responsible for coordinating all issues related to the pandemic, not much was being done due to lack of resources and support from management. For the employee who recovered from home, the story was the same. He indicated that when he got sick, the University through the Rapid Response Team did not even assist him with transport to go and get tested and receive treatment. He was sent home to seek for medical attention. He had this to say “When I fell sick, I did not even receive a phone call from my immediate supervisor. I have now discovered that we are still being treated as cheap labour. Our safety and wellbeing is at stake. As much as it is a big institution we have a visiting doctor who comes once a work. Further to that, there is no ambulance for emergencies. There is stigma that is attached when one gets positive.” This shows how the University is failing to do basic things in order to maintain the safety and wellbeing of its most critical resource, human capital in the face of COVID-19. The findings of this paper are in agreement with literature in that the universities are failing to put in place safety measures to protect their employees against COVID-19. It can therefore be concluded that the University is failing to observe the basic tenets of employee safety and well-being in the face of COVID-19. Infected employees faced stigma and they received little support from the institution. In view of this, employees’ safety and wellness was under serious threat as employees no longer had confidence in management. Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Promise Zvavahera, promisezvavahera59@gmail.com Citation: Zvavahera, P. (2021). The safety and well-being of employees in the face of COVID-19 in a private university. Academia Letters, Article 1828. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1828. 3 Management should assist infected and affected staff to cope up with the physical and psychological challenges associated with the pandemic. COVID-19 has taught everyone tough lessons on adaptability and resilience, compelling organisations and individuals to reckon with a deep, enduring crisis that threatens our lives and our livelihoods. If the practice of unsafe work environments continue unchecked, more employees could risk contracting COVID-19 compromising on quality and productivity. Further research can be conducted involving a larger population and sample and increase the number of research variables on the safety and well-being of staff with the view of assessing the levels of preparedness and compliance to World Health Organisation COVID-19 protocols. References Csiernik, R. (2011). The glass is filling: An examination of employee assistance program evaluations in the first decade of the new millennium. Journal of Workplace Behavioural Health, 26, 344-355. Workplace well-being chapter 12 employee health, safety and wellness https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html Jason S. Swayze MS & Lisa A. Burke PhD, SPHR (2013). Employee Wellness Program Outcomes: A Case Study, Journal of Workplace Behavioural Health, 28, (1), 46-61. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15555240.2013.755448 Lee, S., Blake, H., & Lloyd, S. (2010). The price is right: Making workplace wellness financially sustainable. International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 3, 5869. Lu, H., Weintz, C., Pace, J., Indana, D., Linka, K., & Kuhl, E. (2021). Are college campuses superspreaders? A data-driven modeling study. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering. DOI: 10.1080/10255842.2020.1869221 Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Promise Zvavahera, promisezvavahera59@gmail.com Citation: Zvavahera, P. (2021). The safety and well-being of employees in the face of COVID-19 in a private university. Academia Letters, Article 1828. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1828. 4