Employee wellness as a clinching factor

Fourteen companies adjudged “Healthy Workplaces” in the latest edition of a corporate evaluation programme run by a health NGO

December 22, 2021 08:26 am | Updated December 23, 2021 06:58 pm IST

Photo used for representational purpose only

Photo used for representational purpose only

From usually being just a parameter in ascertaining “Best Places to Work”, well-being is increasingly being seen as a whole category in itself while marking companies for employee-friendliness.

Contributing to this trend is ‘Healthy Workplaces’, an exercise initiated in 2012 by a non-profit to rate companies on how well they weave concern for employee wellness — both of the body and the mind — into workaday business concerns.

Arogya World, a voluntary organisation promoting health education, puts out a list of 14 companies that convincingly tipped the balance in favour of wellness, in the latest edition of this programme.

They are: Optum, Bayer, Nexusmalls, JLL, Conneqt Business Solutions, Roche, WNS, BIAL, Xiaomi, DanskeIT, Jaipur Rugs, SMEC, ABP and redBus. They stood out in a fray of 31 companies.

This initiative recognises companies for quantitatively tracking employee health and showing improvements in health metrics over time, a press release states.

The release explains that employers were judged through a virtual interview round by a panel of experts from the industry. Efforts promoting tobacco cessation among employees; how well the company helped employees watch their plate; and an audit of the cafeteria were part of the assessment.

Platinum level

P&G and Cummins were awarded “2021 Platinum Healthy Workplaces” for attaining the Platinum level, the highest level in the programme, says the press release. Companies can get Gold, Silver and Bronze ratings as well.

Thanks to the pandemic, in 2020, mental health took centre stage in the evaluation. Shekhar Saxena and Vikram Patel, mental health experts and professors at Harvard University, are credited with developing the criteria for mental health.

The non-profit has also launched a COVID-19 compendium that discusses inimitable employee wellness programmes chalked up by companies in response to the pandemic.

Anandabazar Patrika (ABP), Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL), Aurus Tech, Bayer India, Bosch, Bangalore International Airport, Conneqt Business Solutions Ltd, Dalmia, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Gokaldas Exports Ltd., HSBC, Indegene, India Steel, JLL, Juniper L&T, Nexus Malls, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Nuvoco, P&G India , Reliance Industries Ltd., Red Bus, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Motors, Texas Instruments and Wipro are the companies featured in the COVID compendium.

For details on how to take part in the next edition of this event, visit https://bit.ly/3JbP5xV

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