Good Health, Greater Productivity

The Willis Towers Watson 2015/16 Global Staying@Work survey indicates that employers in the Asia-Pacific region are committed to employee wellbeing, but, lack of strategy is undermining their wellness programmes, thus making them fragmented, and, creating a disconnect with the employees.

- R. Anandakrishnan

Employee wellness programmes have become the staple in many corporations as a way to attract top talent, keep them happy and productive, and limit attrition. It is a well acknowledged norm that companies that run robust health and wellness programmes enjoy far greater loyalties, and, their employees feel engaged and cared for. In today's day and age, an employee spends most of his/her productive and awake hours at the workplace, and, it makes utmost business sense for any organization to invest in wellness initiatives of their most important resource - the people. Various studies at the global as well as the APAC region support the fact that healthy and engaged employees perform better and linger around for a longer time-span. Not only does it affect the output of team members, it also makes them feel good in all areas of life including work.

However, health and wellness requirements may vary from one sector to another. For example, requirements in the manufacturing sector are fairly different from what is needed in a typical corporate office environment. It may be tempting to introduce novel and unique wellness initiatives in these environments, but, organizations that are most successful are those which concentrate on consistent effort and engagement rather than introducing newer initiatives at short intervals.

The lack of a fitting strategy