HUMAN resources officers in the country have been encouraged to promote a healthier workplace to reduce the number of non-communicable diseases among the country’s workforce.

This was a request from Health Minister Jone Usamate who revealed that majority of the workforce population lost their lives to NCDs.

“When we look at the health figures people between the ages of 35 and 40 years old are dying from NCDs,” Mr Usamate said.

He said these were those still at their prime and still had a lot to offer their companies and work places.

“This should be a concern for our human resources people because they are losing good people to these diseases.”

This, he said, was the reason a much healthier work environment should be created for workers.

“People spend a large part of their time at the workplace.

“So human resource managers should create an environment that is healthy and encourage workers to stay and live a healthier lifestyle.

“Workers should be monitored and screened for NCDs and human resource managers should take the time to go through the health reports of their workers.

“If any employee has a particular NCD related illness then they should work to help that person get better.”

This, he said, was because a healthy person would be a productive one to the workplace.