The National Corporate Wellness Status

In the year 2000 ,when Apollo Hospitals compiled the Health Status of Corporate India from details taken from the Executive Checks of over 15,000  Executives from about 100 Corporate organizations located in the 6 Metros ,the findings were dismal. Over 56.05% of employees were categorized as having multiple Cardiac risk factors; over 30.31% had multi factor Cancer risk, 70.89 % were overweight, 54.80 % were physically unfit, 83.71 had psychosomatic ailments and 30.31% used daily medication.

With a view to change this scenario in May ’08, the Apollo Hospitals Group & the Apollo DKV Insurance company along with the CII instituted the annual CII corporate Wellness awards, in order to felicitate & recognize corporate organizations that achieve excellent standards in corporate health promotion each year.

The reasons for embarking on the scheme were several. The scheme would establish the wellness status of corporateIndia each year, & would thereby establish relevant ways to plan improvement at a National level. At the corporate level, each of the organizations would undergo a Health Audit ;to enable them to plan their own health Improvement strategies ,since healthy employees are not only more productive per shift ,but also costs less on Insurance ,hospitalization and medicare costs .At the individual employee level, each participant would undergo a health and Wellness evaluation ,receive an individualized Wellness prescription ,and get personalized Telecounselling on all aspects of Lifestyle change including ,diet, exercise ,stress management, quit smoking ,alcohol management ,safe behaviour and also management of Chronic diseases including HBP, Diabetes, Obesity etc as required.

The Apollo- CII Corporate Wellness Survey’s over 2008,09.10 covered over 600 Corporate Organizations touching the lives of  0ver 250 000 employees from over 32 cities and towns .The participants reads like a Corporates Who’s who ,covering both the manufacturing and Services Sector.Tata Steel ,SAIL ,Hindustan Motors ,L & T ,Pepsico etc were amongst the 200 Companies that participated from the Manufacturing sector.HCL ,NTPC ,Tata Consultancy ,Tata Tele services , Several banks ,Wipro ,Infosys etc formed a part the 300 plus services group.

A Comparison of the changes that have taken place during the last decade contains good news as well as bad news. Marked improvement is discernable in Physical Fitness and eating habits. As a consequence overall health also seems to have improved and there is a much Lower utilization of medications .However the Economic slow down, seems to reflect in the  much higher levels of Stress at work and as a consequence, home stress is also up/So also is smoking and alcohol consumption

Fitness and Nutrition

The current Fitness and body beautiful boom, that saturates our TV and magazines; has had the desired impact on Corporate India .In 2000, 70.98 % of employees were overweight, this has dropped to 35.52% in the 2008 -2010 Survey’s .In 2000, 54.80% of employees were physically unfit, this stands at 48.46% in 2008 -2010 .Relevant Fitness and Nutrition details follow.

Improved Health

The benefits of Physical Fitness, weight loss, and improved diet, has had a beneficial effect on Corporate Health. In 2000 ,30.31% Executives were on daily medication ,In 2008 -2010 ,this has dropped to 15.00 % .In 2000 ,83.71% employees had several degenerative and chronic ailments ,in 2008 -2010 ,less than 48. 24 % of employees suffered with theses ailments .Details include:

Stress and Tension

The era when countries could insulate themselves against the events in other countries seems to have passed. The current global melt down seems to have a turbulent effect on the Stress in Corporates .The problem does not seem to be financial compensation, in 2000 ,there was a 44.10% dissatisfaction ,whereas in 2008 -2010 ,less than 23.00 % of employees are unhappy with their compensation .The problem is certainly not work overload. Earlier 45.26 % employees felt overworked ,this number has fallen below 31.00% in the 2008 -2010 Survey .However there are marked increases else where as follows:-

The immediate impact of Stress is Behaviour change, as seems to be reflected in an increase in Stress at Home .Other increase include:-

Benefits of Corporate Wellness:-

Several Research studies have eulogized the benefits of Corporate Wellness and most recently the ICRIER India study has quantified the benefits of Corporate Wellness programs as follows in organizations that implemented such programs.

• Absenteeism was found to have  reduced by 27.00 %
• Productivity improved by 14.00%
• Medicare cost were reduced by 26.00%
• Employees retention improved by 32.00 %
• Corporate Caring image improved by 82.00%

With this in mind, it seems to make sense for Corporates to include the following Corporate Wellness systems into their organizations. The 2008 -2010 survey, indicated that only a small minority of Corporates promoted Wellness in their organisations as follows.

• 30.00% of organizations provided medical checks to their employees
• 20.00 % provided fruit and health foods in their Canteens
• 16.00 % made available Gym facilities
• 18.00 % encouraged age related intra Department Sports within the Company
• 22.00% made available Health related talks to their employees

The Apollo study  revealed that 70% of Organizations in India  do not make available any Corporate Wellness Facilities .It is here, that the major changes can be made to enable Indian Corporate to have a fitter and healthier workforce –and consequently to be more productive and profitable.

Written by:-

Prof. Adrian Kennedy