Minakshi shukla from B Functional with Mini, reasons the need for having a health for employees mindset
Incorporating regular and sustainable fitness programs at corporate level is still in its primitive form. In western world organizations promote and encourage wellness programs for its employees. But in India, where going to Gym is still a fashion statement the question is whether organizations look for physical fitness as part of their initiative which will not only be seen as a perk but will improve the productivity of the organization.
It would be far fetched to believe that employees will look for organization who provide such facilities. The real estate being an expensive value proposition in major metros..things could change in the post Covid scenario where organizations are encouraging work from home the question therefore how do we change the mindset.
Schools, colleges and educational institutions have massive sports culture, at least in the name of balanced schooling and many of them also run swanky gyms besides all other indoor and outdoor sports activities. What is the basic idea behind having them?
The question therefore is what is the idea behind not having them in corporates at large? Fitness is even more important for the working individuals considering the demanding work schedule, sedentary lifestyle and related stress leading to a burnout in a large number of cases.
Physical fitness and mental health are connected and is the most talked about affair these days across the globe and we all would unanimously agree to importance of the same. This thought needs to find its place across corporates and its management for the industry to benefit from it as a whole.
The urgency of having strategic fitness programs for every employee is as important a component as having a life insurance policy or may be a coffee vending machine on all floors. With stress levels soaring especially in the corporate sector, lifestyle diseases also soar high on charts and turn into chronic diseases later, It’s high time we took legit measures to inculcate regular and practical fitness regimes. Such is the demand for the health and wellness programs in corporate sectors at present. It is firmly believed that corporate physical and mental health and wellness has a cascading effect on the health of the business and ultimately the health of your customers and communities are directly or indirectly affected.
Physical and mental fitness not only enhances the overall well-being of the employee but it also improves the performance, lowers the health care costs and minimises absenteeism for the organisation thus improving the overall productivity and loss of man hours.
Wellness with fitness packages together should be part of overall health management for everyone. Let fitness and wellbeing not be restricted to a once in a year event, a tick in the box called “offsite team building”. Wellness programs should be implemented effectively, tracked, and incentivised. Wellness ideas that are properly communicated change lives by improving health and reducing health care costs for the organisation. Currently a popular idea in corporate wellness is to purchase and hand out wearable devices like Fitbit or Garmin to the employees, but usually, neither effective nor sustainable in most of the cases.
On the contrary they are passed on to other family members to get rid of the burden of tracking the so called health parameters for oneself. By making or introducing a few practical changes to the plan, this idea can actually provide meaningful ground level results for employees.
Let it be part of our daily corporate world may be before you begin your work or may be once you end your day. Let regular fitness be equally important as grabbing that chilled glass of beer after a long and hectic day at work or shopping for that perfect white shirt for an interview. Needless to say these days people spend a good number of hours in office premises and carry work home, they end up carrying stress with them, why not encourage them to take some part of health quotient with them and share the benefits with their families.
With an increasing number of mothers and expecting mothers choosing to be a part of corporates until the D-day, why not give them a gift of per-natal or postnatal sessions to pamper them and uplift the overall morale of our corporate culture and the society. “We want to continue to enforce the culture of holistic health and wellness programs and cater to corporates to lead healthier and stress free lives to cascade the positive health benefits further to their families and friends” says Mini from ‘B Functional with Mini.