NHRDN Chennai Chapter – October 17, 2014 Wellness @ Work
NHRDN Chennai Chapter – October 17, 2014
Wellness @ Work
Inaugural Session
Sriram Rajagopal – NHRD Chennai Chapter President and VP HR Cognizant Technology Solutions
Senthil Nathan – Conference Director – NHRDN and Head – Employee Relations of Citigroup India
Vasantha Krishnan – Director – United India Insurance – Presidential Address
Dr. J.S. Rajkumar – Chairman, Life line Group of Hospitals – Inaugural Address
Today while a usual response of wellness is just the common knowledge of health insurance or basic well being care, this conference is aimed at awareness among both employers and employees on wellness strategies as well as how imbibing the concept into the organizational framework can turn into positive forces driving talent management and organizational citizenship behaviour. This topic also throws upon global perspectives on how wellness is integrated in different organizations.
The presidential address threw open a major fact that we are more into reducing the financial risks of not maintaining wellness but not much into promoting positive well being of employees and that is a major eye opener for Corporates.
The Inaugural address was a fast paced hit and run of health facts and ill health effects. Dr. Rajkumar could very easily pinpoint how and where the organization is actually getting affected by not concentrating on employee health wellness. His final messages included abolishing all fast food counters from the company canteens and to make the women staff to come in single shifts.
Health Promotions Investments by Terry Stephen – Regional Director, Aon Hewitt Singapore
The Business Case for Employee Well Being
The driving force behind Health Investments is basically driving employee engagement initiatives that answer a lot of angles – health, common benefit systems, less admin costs, enriching the employee experience, in spite of being competitive in the market.
The direct implication is the bottom line with the ROI being improved by the following :
- Reduction in absenteeism
- Reduction in health benefit administration & costs
- Improved Productivity
The case also proves the direct correlation between employee engagement and employee wellbeing. The statistics for employees between 30 to 50 years of age suffering from non communicable diseases is going up year by year and we may end up with a high mortality in the employees under that age band. The criticality of the day is to make our work culture that reflects the organizational importance of health and wellbeing.
Emotional Wellness @ Work – Round Table
Dr. Sangeetha Madhu – Clinical Psychologist
Soma Valliappan – Author and Speaker
Satish Jayaraman – Head HR, APAC – CTS , Moderator of the session
It is often said that how you feel at work is responsible for how you do at work. Emotional wellbeing is often seen as a root to keep you well balanced during stressful times – something that occurs more often than not.
Emerging slowly are dictates like Open minds give a healthy organization. For it to be a reality, we need to change the way we look and interpret events and thoughts and identify deviant behaviours at the start.
Holistic Approach to Physical Wellness – Dr. Kannan Pughazhendi, Sports Medicine Specialist
People have somehow lost the will to live stress-free and disease-free and rather have come to accept it as our race’s fate. The need to be aware and be fit is very high and still unrealized. Health and longevity are not genetics but more an outcome of our behaviour only. Importance of work-side fitness centres to help employees keep up their discipline. A 60 minute exercise is very essential to ensure that we hit the daily ups and lows with the same approach.
Sharing Best Practices on Wellness
Dr. Balaji Lakshmipuram – Health Promotion Specialist – IBM
Bhuvaneshwar Naik – Head HR, SAP India
Thomas Simon – VP HR, TCS
D Vijayalakshmi – Head Corporate Communications, Murugappa Group
Ashley D Silva – Sr. VP, Aon Global, Moderator of Session
The various industry experts have all mentioned a few key attributes of engagement that include health promotions as an intrinsic part. Innovatively communicating the importance of health and wellness, takes the message across in the millennial workforce. Top Management also slowly understands the need for even a basic level health concentric culture. A clear link was established between conscious employees and medi-claim ratios. Top down approach is pushing health awareness across for better participation. Assess metric at every stage and adapt.
Integrated approach to Wellness – Round Table
Dr. Karpagam Raghunathan – Chief Physical Therapist, Mi Therapy Clinic
Ravi Krishnan – CEO, Stepathlon
Sandeep Patel – CEO Cigna TTK
Sriram Rajagopal – Moderator of the Session, NHRDN Chapter President
Importance of Multi-level leadership to wellness programs, accessibility to be included, thorough communication, having a supportive environment, seeing wellness as a fun aspect and not a unnecessary one, having organizational relevance are all factors that lead to the programs getting accepted and integrated into the organizational culture. When the average employee doesn’t love or even like to exercise, doesn’t like the process of becoming fit, how are we going to adopt systems to ensure the desired results are achieved???
Wellness is no more a nice to have activity; it’s a need to have activity.
Vote of Thanks – by Mr.Sujithkumar – Secretary – NHRDN Chennai Chapter