I meet this team from a big Indian Tyre Manufacturing Company every month. I am helping this team to improve their Leadership Qualities. They are making very good progress. One of the members of this team is a Body Builder!! He is devoting a lot of time to exercising, lifting weights, running and so on. He is an absolutely fit guy!! He is real motivation to everyone around him. 

 

But, I should say that this is an exception than rule among Employees of Indian Manufacturing. Even among youngsters, the percentage of people who are actively taking care of their health is very small. In any group of employees, I have not seen more than 20% who exercise regularly. Most of these people who exercise are just walking. May be 1% or 2% probably go to the Gym. 

 

In any company it is the Mid to Senior Level Employees who take important decisions that affect more people in the Company, and these are the Leaders who give a Direction to the whole Company. I have seen that in most of the Companies this Leadership Team is not very healthy physically!! Again, there are always exceptions. There are some Leaders who are avid Marathon runners! Some Leaders who play sports and go to Gym regularly. But, as I said before this category is Very Very small! 

 

Leaders need to be healthy Physically, Mentally, Emotionally and Spiritually. These are the Four types of Energies that are available to all of us. Many of us may not be aware of the four types of Energies. 

 

What are the ill effects of ‘Unhealthy / Not very healthy Leadership / Employee Team’??

 

Handling Pressures: Today the Business environment is becoming more volatile than ever. The teams need to be contributing actively. The pressures are increasing continuously. The suicide of VG Siddhartha of Coffee Day is a case in point. I do not know about his Physical health at the time of Suicide. But, from what I read in the News Papers it is very clear that he was under tremendous stress mentally. Continuously working on Mental health could have helped him?

 

Growth Orientation: A Team that is healthy physically and mentally will be much more Growth oriented than a team that is not very healthy. Many Companies have the problem of their Employees not pushing for improvements. The Employees are quite busy in the routine and do not look at improvements at all. Taking care of Physical and Mental Health will help in enhancing the Capacity of the individual to handle more and look for improvement possibilities. 

 

Execution capability: A Team of unhealthy Employees cannot be very good at Execution. They will keep missing the targets frequently and there will be generally frustration around. As the Targets are being missed, the Company will keep revising the targets downwards. This adds to the generally despondent environment around. 

 

Productivity will suffer:The People Productivity will be an obvious victim. The team will not have much of inclination for working on improving Productivity as they will be feeling that they are already stretched a lot. 

 

There can be many more ill effects of ‘Not very healthy’ Employees. 

 

How to promote Wellness in a Company?

 

There are many ways in promoting the Wellness of Employees. I am capturing some of them below. I have been fortunate to be part of many such initiatives. Hence these are Initiatives that are working in Companies. Not theory.

 

You can start various initiatives to promote wellness in your Company:

 

a.     Conduct a Yoga course. Repeat it every year. Encourage more and more employees to participate and learn.

b.     Yoga weekly practice. Have a Wellness Centre in your company and encourage your employees to get together to practice Yoga and Meditation periodically.

c.     Zumba Practiceweekly

d.     Promote Sportsthroughout the year. Encourage employees to take leadership for individual Sports like Cricket, Basketball and so on. 

e.     Encourage your Employees to participate in Marathons. Encourage a Core group.

f.      Encourage your employees to Walk at work every dayas part of their work. Let the office / Factory be designed accordingly. Eg. Let there be a walk involved for getting coffee / food etc.

g.     Have an App for Health monitoringand motivate employees to Volunteer to get on to it. 

h.     Organize for ‘Health Talks’ on various Health related topics by Physicians. 

i.      Organize for ‘Healthy food habits’Consultation.

j.      Promote Employees learning Meditationand practice it regularly.

k.     Conduct a Course on ‘Mental health’and encourage employees to join it. Many Yoga institutes conduct this type of Courses. 

l.      Encourage employees to participate in Social Initiatives. This gives them Spiritual Energy.

m.   Give help to Employees who need Counsellingfor problems at work or for problems at Home. 

 

There can be many more initiatives. 

 

Volunteer Groups

 

It is important to encourage employees to take lead in the above Initiatives voluntarily. Wellness cannot be promoted by the Company unilaterally. It gains energy if you can find a group of Volunteers who will run many of these initiatives. 

 

Company can be supportive to these Groups.

 

Use of Technology

 

Technology can be used for promoting the Health concept in a very active manner. One way is to have your own App for your Company. You may collaborate with any of the Health Apps that are already there and customize the app for your Company needs. 

 

You can link the Medical tests of employees that you may be doing annually to the Health Apps and encourage the employees to address the Health issues proactively. 

 

Wide variety of Initiatives 

 

Companies should introduce many initiatives in this area. Employees may have their own priorities in the area of Health. Everyone may not be interested in the same initiative. Some may be interested in Yoga. While some others may be interested in Zumba. Similarly their interests in Sports also may vary. A Company should have a Target of engaging 100% of employees thru one Health initiative or the other. 

 

What can be the Metrics for the Health of Employees?

 

It is very important to measure your efforts towards the Health of employees. There can be two types Metrics. 

 

a)     Process Metrics

b)    Result Metrics

 

Process Metrics 

 

You need to measure the Process by which you are trying to promote the Health of Employees.

 

-      Number of Participants in each of the Initiative.

-      Regularity of Participation.

-      Number of Initiatives introduced vs Initiatives Successful

-      Number of activities planned vs executed in each of the Initiatives. 

-      Number of Volunteers in this area.

 

Result Metrics

 

Results can be measured in a few different ways.

-      Number of Employees in Good health.

-      Number of Employees who improved their Health. 

-      Number of KPIs of employees in which there is improvement

 

 

Each company can devise their own way of measurement. But, measurement is important to ensure you know where you are going with the initiative. 

 

Many companies do not have this type of focus on Health. Their reasons would be that they do not have time for this. But, if you are able to encourage a group of employees to take lead, then the Collective effort of the employees can push this focus forward. 

 

Do you have focus on your Employees’ health?