A majority (81%) of India Inc. employers sensitized their workforce on mental and emotional well-being to help them cope up with COVID-19 induced anxiety, reveals a new survey done by TimesJobs. Around 25% of HR managers said that 30-40% of their employees were availing the well-being measures introduced by their respective organizations.

The survey titled ‘Employee well-being amid COVID-19’ captured the sentiments of 834 HR managers. The survey highlights how companies are addressing the agenda of employees’ mental and emotional well-being owing to the COVID-19 work from home situation.

The key trends in the employee well-being space amid COVID-19 lockdown: 

• A majority (31%) of HR managers said that their employee well-being programs were ‘effective’ as compared to other industry players.
• The HR managers working across diverse industry verticals rated their employee well-being program ‘5’ on the scale of 1-10
• As many as 59% of HR managers plan to set up a crisis management team to address employees’ well-being issues effectively.  

“The COVID-19 pandemic introduced remote work ecosystem en-mass, which was new to many in the workforce. Employers around the world are concerned about the well-being challenges presented by the present situation. In such extraordinary times, organizations must keep a tab on what their employees are going through mentally and emotionally. The current pandemic situation has led to faster adoption of #Workfromhome culture among employees and employers. This change that has come in the last six months would have taken 15 years without the COVID situation,” Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig.

Other notable insights from this survey were -

Staff mentoring, virtual mindfulness workshops helping companies to ensure employee well-being amid lockdown

Around 35% of professionals stated that they had introduced policies such as one on one counseling, staff mentoring, etc. Next 29% of respondents said that they had started free health and fitness consultation for employees to tackle the current lockdown. While 20% of them said to help their workforce, they have implemented virtual mindfulness workshops as a part of their employee well-being programs.

Designing customized benefits for the workforce emerges as one of the top challenges for HR leaders.

A majority (38%) of the managers acknowledged failing to cater to maximum issues faced by employees. As many as 22% of the professionals recognize designing customized benefits for employees amid lockdown as one of the primary challenges. While 20% of the individuals find meeting the employees’ expectations in these uncertain times as the biggest roadblock.