Article: The healthy ray of hope

Life @ Work

The healthy ray of hope

The outlook of organizations towards health and wellness has evolved from being a cost burden to a meaningful investment
The healthy ray of hope
 

The health and wellness service provider also plays a very crucial role in ensuring that the program delivers the expected outcome

 

From considering health and wellness for employees as an added expense to making it an integral part of the organization, the outlook has evolved tremendously in the past few years. The approach towards health and wellness has become more holistic, involving even the interest of the senior leadership and human resources. The overall seriousness and commitment towards the purpose has increased and this is all a very positive sign not just for the budding health and wellness service providers but for the larger working community. The proof of the pudding is seen in various day-to-day initiatives that organizations have introduced apart from the expansive health and wellness plans. Organizations are looking at embedding wellness in the lifestyle of their people making it a cultural aspect starting from the workplace.

Workplace wellness trends

As a first step towards good health, a lot of organizations have started serving only healthy food to people at work. Various group or peer activities are organized to allow people to break free from the usual physically inactive routines to involve in short and quick exercise regimes. Multinationals in India are the early adopters of innovative health and wellness programs, while Indian organizations are also not far behind. A majority of the health and wellness programs in Indian organizations is in the initial phase, but the good news here is that the number of organizations executing such plans is increasing tremendously. Companies are not only executing such initiatives for their employees but extending the benefits even to their families. Such efforts make the employee feel valued and cared for and also ensure sustained productivity and satisfaction as even the family’s health impacts an individual’s professional performance. Moreover, extending the benefit to the family ensures better employee participation and commitment to the program.

Organizations are increasingly realizing that a healthy employee is a great asset and investing in the same would result in better employee engagement, health, happiness and greater productivity leading to overall business success. The result of an effective employee wellness program surely reflects in the bottom line and top line revenues in the longer run. This is why organizations are passing on the benefits to even the shop floor employees, who get their health screening done at regular intervals. In addition to these, employees are incentivized for achieving specific health goals over a period of time.

The sustainable approach

Organizations are not only positioning the health and wellness programs as an engagement tool but also looking at them as an investment more than a cost. This approach is what makes a wellness plan meaningful and sustainable. Needless to say, the support of the senior leadership and HR is also essential to drive the program. However, the health and wellness service provider also plays a very crucial role in ensuring that the program delivers the expected outcome. This is primarily why it is important for an organization to be careful while deciding on a health and wellness service partner.

An efficient health and wellness service provider is one who has the capability and the right intention to bring about a change in the health quotient of an organization. The partner should be able to foresee a long-term, sustainable relationship with the organization as a health and wellness plan cannot be a one-off initiative but has to be an on-going journey wherein the organization and the service provider contribute equally. Lastly, it is the ability of the wellness partner to take ownership, be accountable for the outcome of the program and effectively collaborate with the leaders and internal stakeholders for ensuring holistic returns. To conclude, there is still a lot of curiosity around new and innovative wellness measures and that is why there is a lot of scope for executing more and more unique health and wellness plans.

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Topics: Life @ Work, Employee Relations

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