The health of employees is at a premium today. The bottomline of businesses is being increasingly determined by the preventive healthcare programmes that companies provide to their staff at the workplace.
It has not moved up the agenda only because healthcare conditions in the BPO sector are under scrutiny in India, but also due to the fact that workplace healthcare conditions are also taken into consideration by potential foreign business partners before striking deals with Indian businesses.
Says Mohan Kaul, director-general of London headquartered Commonwealth Business Council, “Our member companies follow corporate citizenship practices and are expected to maintain standards in India and other Commonwealth countries to the level of standards they practise in the country of origin in the western countries.”
Opinion leaders in the US couldn’t agree more. Says Purnima Voria, founder/CEO of the National US India Chamber of Commerce, “Indian industry will have to compete globally in all the areas, including providing adequate healthcare benefits to employees.”
Leading consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has sized up challenges facing businesses as a result of lifestyle diseases in its report, Working Towards Wellness: An Indian Perspective. Says Rajarshi Sengupta, partner, PwC India, “Indian companies are trying to drive such behaviour for their own benefit, for the benefit of the employees and that of the local communities through such programmes.”
He adds, “Many European firms have tied this with their corporate social responsibility, and we see Indian companies following suit.”
In fact its already happening. Says Bikramjit Maitra, senior vice-president and head, HR, Infosys Technologies Ltd, “When foreign businesses engage with Indian businesses, they also look at the kind of health and safety policies that are in place.”
The trend is not only picking up, but is also getting more institutionalised and stringent now. It’s a far cry from the day when business tycoon Anil Ambani was questioned about the state of his health by an investor in New York.
Seeing that Ambani was not visibly pleased, the investor explained that he would like to invest in a company only if the man at the helm of affairs is in good health. Ambani took the advice in the right spirit, retuned home to follow a stringent fitness programme, jogging even up to 100 km a day, and in turn shed 35 kg from his 105 kg.
Over the years, companies worldwide have internalised such concerns and taken steps to have healthy workforces. These range from providing healthcare facilities in campuses and offering incentives to healthier employees to penalising offending employees, who dont take enough care of their health.
For example, in the US, hospital group Clarian Health Partners is planning to ask employees, who don’t meet stipulated standards on body mass, cholesterol or blood pressure, to pay up to $30 every fortnight. Similarly, insurance company UnitedHealthcare is bringing down annual deductibles for those employees who are not obese as per American medical standards.
Clarian may seem an extreme example as on now, but the fact of the matter is that employees state of health is crucial for the employers bottomline. It was validated by a study released recently by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). The study, The Impact of Preventive Health Care on Indian Industry and Economy, reported the estimated loss in Indias national income due to heart diseases, stroke and diabetes in 2005 at $9 billion. Sickness causes loss of up to 14% annual working days in 25% of the companies, it added.
In fact, informed Indian companies are already running successful preventive healthcare programmes. A few enlightened companies from across industries run even wellness programmes.
Pune-based Kirloskar Pneumatic offers lifestyle modification workshops, in-house yoga training facility, Art of Living courses, diabetes management programmes and regular check ups for employees as well as their spouses and parents. Health data analysis has helped in identification of staffers suffering from elementary stages of life-threatening diseases, thereby prompting them to go for preventive treatment. The company strives not only to bring in attitudinal and behavioural changes in employees, but also to offer preventive as well as curative help.
“We have broken age-related as well as hierarchy barriers with preventive healthcare,” says Dr Suresh Mijar, a deputy general manager with Kirloskar Pneumatic.
Similarly Ankleshwar-based Gujarat Guardian Limited (of the Modiguard fame) runs Health Guard for enhancing the quality of life, including improving health, of its employees and their family members. The results have been encouraging.
“We have the lowest absentee rate in the industry. It is less than 0.03%,” says plant manager Dinesh Mukati. Recently, the companys global corporate office rated it as the best plant for its employee healthcare amongst 26 similar plants from all over the world.
Healthcare practitioners and observers are not surprised. Says Mumbai-based Dr Aniruddha Malpani, “Companies are realising that employees are a valuable asset. They know that taking care of their health is the best return on any investment.” He should know. Though an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) specialist, Malpani is also a director on the boards of healthcare BPO Inventurus and Yos Technologies.
Of course, corporatisation of the healthcare sector has also helped. “There has been a change in the mindset of corporates in keeping with the evolution of the healthcare sector,” says Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals. From pre-employment and annual health check-ups, companies are looking at employee healthcare as a strategic input in human resource, he adds.
Agreeing with him, Delhi-based fitness expert Kiran Sawhney says, “The awareness about preventive healthcare has not only increased among people, but even more and more companies are willing to foot the wellness bill.”
It applies to IT industry more than any other industry, though. IT industry is more people driven. Mumbai-headquartered vertical specialist enterprise Financial Technologies India conducts regular stress management programmes, including yoga and meditation classes, for its staff. Besides, the company stresses on executive health checks of its senior officials. “We have observed that healthier people not only take fewer days off, but are also more productive,” says Chandra Mauli Dwivedi, group president, Human Resource, Financial Technologies group of companies.
IT major Infosys runs a more rounded health initiative called HALE (Health Assessment and Lifestyle Enrichment Plan), which promotes a proactive approach towards health in Infoscions. Its an integrated programme to address issues related to safety, leisure, stress, fun@Work and team building.
For example, HALE Tool enables users evaluate their physical and mental health and, if needed, seek remedy. Similarly, a 24-hour free hotline counsels staff through their personal and professional problems. Besides, events are organised from time to time. We have a young and motivated workforce. Such programmes enhance the quality of their life, says Maitra.
While all these companies have programmes tailored to their specific requirements, PwC has made practical broader recommendations in its report for fostering and implemen- ting a culture of wellness. “PwC recommends a gold standard of such implementation covering leadership, culture, people and process. Such a multi-pronged approach is essential in delivering a wellness programme,” adds Sengupta of PwC.
Of course, it all begins with a will to have a wellness programme in the first place. More Indian companies need to wake up, particularly since public healthcare is not in the pink of health, say experts.
In case healthcare continue as of now, the ICRIER estimates the loss in Indias national income to add up to $200 billion between 2005 and 2015. Evidently health is wealth, and prevention is better than cure.
Source: The Financial Express
Published on 15 November 2007