Redefining the Purpose of Wellness Programs- Chennai Roundtable 6 Feb 2020- Taj Coromondal

People Matters – Sanofi Roundtable was held at Taj Coromandel Chennai on 6th Feb on the topic “Redefining the purpose of wellness programs to address productivity goal”.  Twentyfive HR leaders from different organizations participated into the insightful discussion. Here’s a roundup of the conversations.
The concept of employee wellness has hence been around for a while now and so has its impact on organizational productivity. The traces of its can also be found back in the days when Henry Ford realized the importance of work-life balance and introduced 5-day work week. 
Mrugesh Dholakia, Head - Bien-etre, Sanofi, initiated the session by sharing insights on – Connecting the dots between wellness and productivity, Mrugesh also rolled out the first ever recommendations from HR leaders on “Role of preventive wellness in fostering workplace productivity”

The opening session was followed by a case study on ‘Organizational Employee Wellness Strategy’ presented by Uma Rao, Vice President - Human Resources, Ashok Leyland. 
Uma highlighted that back in the days and for some firms even today, employee wellness means catering to the employees’ challenges as and when they come. Whether it is in terms of their physical health or mental wellbeing. It is only when employers notice low engagement scores or high attrition rates or low employee productivity that they realize something is wrong. But as it is said, “It's no use crying over spilled milk.” 

Session Insights 

“For many decades now the way employers look at corporate wellness programs has been reactive. But now it is time for business and talent leaders to redefine the purpose of Wellness Programs to address the productivity goal. As the World Economic Forum also highlights, Higher employee wellbeing is associated with higher productivity and company’s performance.” 

Mrugesh Dholakia, Head- Bien-etre, Sanofi Pasteur 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  Shifting the approach towards corporate wellness from being reactive to proactive is a continuous journey filled with many challenges of its own. For Ashok Leyland as well, there were some challenges to be dealt with initially. It is a manufacturing company, with employees of all range from one end to another, in terms of age, qualification, awareness and knowledge. We had a diverse and geographically spread workforce to cater to. With our moto From Illness to Wellness we approached employee wellness both proactively and holistically. 

“To ensure that employee wellness is approached proactively and holistically, introducing employee assistance programs is not enough. It has to be brought into conversations and there should often be dialogues around it.”  

 

Uma Rao, Vice President - Human Resources, Ashok Leyland 

Expert Discussion 

 

Taking the discussion further on how can organizations focus on preventive healthcare for wellness, Hema Rengaswamy, Vice President-HRBP, Standard Chartered Global Business Services threw the floor open to delegates to share their insights on what wellness means for them and how do they measure optimum productivity that finally impacts the bottom line.  

During discussion Hema also stressed the importance of flexible working and how it is proving to be beneficial for many companies. It is not just a nice to have benefit but a tool to help employees maintain their work-life balance, irrespective of the stage of lifecycle they are in. 

 

“People leaders create the experience for each person working in their team. While at the organizational level we can have an overarching culture supporting the workforce, but the onus of creating a great experience for the employee lies with the people leader”. 

 “Corporate wellness programs often lack consistency and are done in a piecemeal fashion. Increasingly the world of work, including banks are now slowly moving towards designing and implementing sustainable employee wellness strategies.” 

Hema Rengaswamy, Vice President-HRBP, Europe & Americas, Standard Chartered Global Business Services 

Going beyond the employees and addressing the wellness of their families as well has worked for us. We extended EAP to dependents of the employees and the service can be availed even after the employee leaves the organization. 

Jayanti Shivakumar, Associate Director – HR, Cognizant 

When all the elements around employee wellness are addressed proactively, employees are more engaged. The business case of the direct link between employee wellness and productivity doesn’t have to constantly be reiterated. There is a clear correlation and that is the pitch we need to go forward with. 

Gayathri Ramamurthy, Senior Director, Capgemini 

To face Industry 4.0, we introduced Workforce 4.0, where we connect with associates and ensure that wellness is taken care of at the work spot. Then, we have a fit for life program, where employees dedicate certain hours of their work on their physical fitness. For mental wellness, we introduced listening posts, in addition to face to face counsellors, we have made available professional trained counsellors for the employees to share their challenges and discuss their concerns.  Kenneth J, AVP HR, TCS 

 

 Employee wellness has to be addressed at the ground level because individual productivity matters for team or organizational productivity at large. Umasree Raghunath, Global Account Portfolio Manager, IBM 

 

Focusing of specific cohorts and developing specific programs for these groups helped us to improve productivity by 31 percent. 

Renu Jethani, HRBP Head, Sutherland Global Services 

Making wellness a KPI for people manager would help in driving wellness religiously. S.A Lakshminarayanan, Director HR, DXC Technologies 

Inculcating the believe that health is for me and not for anyone else will bring a cultural change. 

Usha Giridharan, Consultant HR, Verizon 

Involving family members in our wellness programs has worked for us. Along with employees we send communication to family members as well. It influences others to participate.  

N S Deepak, Regional HR Operations Head, Dalmia Cement Bharat Limited 

Each one’s need is different based on the what stage of life they are. So, we leave it open for the employees to pick and choose and we extend it to the family members.  

 Sopna Devi J, Group Manager HR, OFSS