FEATURE
CORPORATE
WELLNESS
PROGRAMS; WHAT,
WHY AND HOW?
Kiran Kalakuntla
Founder and CEO,
ekincare
I
n your mind, a happy workplace brings an
image of smiling employees working together.
What we tend to miss is that these employees
are also healthy! In today’s workplaces, heavy
work schedules, tight timelines lead to a stressful
and sedentary lifestyle. Yet, not many corporates
choose to actively address the challenge of
‘Employee Wellness’.
Corporates today are looking beyond health
insurance and earmark a budget per employee
towards health and wellness activities. India Inc.
believes that a well-structured workplace wellness
program can benefi t the business by improving
employees’ health (36%); increasing employee
engagement (23%); and escalating productivity
(17%). Among the ongoing employee wellness
initiatives, Mediclaim/Health insurance (94%);
Health Camps and Screenings (60%); and On-
site programs like Gym, Zumba, etc. (49%) were
popular among organizations. We also found that
technology, though slow, is gearing up in the space
with 19 percent of organizations opting for web
portals and phone apps to manage the employees’
health and wellness.
Top health & wellness initiative among India Inc.
Most companies today think beyond just
health insurance, when it comes to managing
employee health. There is a direct impact of
corporate health on the top and bottom line of
the business. According to a study*, corporate
wellness programs can save India Inc. ~$20 billion
through 1% reduction in absenteeism. The same
study concluded that Rs.1 spent on corporate
wellness programs can reduce health care costs
by Rs.6.6.
While most Indian organizations provide their
employees with some kind of insurance policies,
there is still a scope of improvement in offering
insurance policies as organizations rated the
satisfaction with the insurance policies as 3.5/5.
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| Vol. 10 Issue 3 • MARCH 2019, Delhi NCR
Source: ekincare’s Eff ec veness of Corporate wellness programs report,
released with People Ma ers, January 2019