Best Practices Of Wellbeing Policies In Corporates

Can wellness be incorporated in the DNA of an organization? How to make a happy and inclusive organization? Wellbeing is an important aspect of an enterprise for it is the driven individuals who build the very formation and value system of a company. Deliberating on the need for incorporating wellbeing initiatives to boost engagement and productivity in organizations, a panel of distinguished guests came together at BW Wellbeing Summit 2018 organized by BW Businessworld today in New Delhi.

Highlighting the importance of people driven initiatives, Murali Sivaraman, Chairman, Philips Lighting India Ltd (Chair) affirmed, “Enterprises of any kind are of the people, for the people and by the people. You may talk about the concepts of vision and leadership but if people are happy, the organizations blossom. We exist for our people. A leader is not someone who is at the top but has a humongous responsibility on his shoulders. Wellbeing and happiness engage people. Gratitude and praising people are important. Everyone is special in an organization and every citizen of an organization should feel good and motivated to contribute towards its greater good.”

Talking about inclusiveness, Rajiv Bajaj, Founder & Visionary, Ojas Way expressed, “Love is the essence of organizations. Care builds the foundation for organizations. In today’s digital age, we need the right person for the right job, enablement of the people and just letting them be. Our culture code is ‘Enrich’ and E here denotes entrepreneurship where we give our employees the whole and sole responsibility without meddling in their work. Our business runs solely on the principle of happy clients and only happy employees can ensure happy clients.”

Emphasizing on how to bring the very essence of wellbeing in an organization, Gopi Krishnaswamy, Google SIYLI Certified teacher, Mindfulness & Life Coach stated, “There is slight difference between wellness and wellbeing. Wellness has a slightly more health and physical skew to it, whereas, wellbeing is all of wellness with an element of happiness and aliveness. So, wellbeing is wellness with an icing on it which is happiness which comes from within. Thinking on the same lines, there are different kinds of wellbeing- physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and may be related to your profession etc. but the question is how we create an environment and then practices which allow people to discover their point of wellbeing and then sustain that, which in turn helps in creating cultural wellbeing, which can help companies make money. Hence, this has to be thought of holistically.”

Geetanjali Shivdasani, VP & Head HR, EnelGreen Power too focused on the concept of inner acceptance, “Wellbeing starts from within and then you use your organization to accentuate that wellbeing and succeed because when it comes to organizations there is an unspoken differentiation between how wellbeing is viewed inside an organization and how it is outside in our personal lives. You have to first build inner acceptance and courage to overcome any kind of loss, be it personal or professional and then you can start thinking clearly and move on. So, wellbeing is a personal responsibility and the ownership has to come from within.”

She further elaborated, “From an organizational lens, our focus is to create a mindful worker, professional and leader who is instrumental in bringing about a cultural revolution slowly and steadily across the organization thereby creating a mindful organization.

“If I were to briefly draw up a mental visual of what a sound wellbeing model looks like, it would have four tenets, the first one being physical wellness which is the movement of your body, your diet pattern, sleep pattern etc., the second one is mental and emotional wellbeing which is the ability to create strong and trusting relationships at work. It also means being able to focus on your tasks, think critically and being creative at work. The third tenet which is often overlooked but is a very important aspect is one’s financial wellbeing. The fourth tenet which ties and binds it all is spiritual wellbeing, it is the energy which aspires you to be alive.”

Summarizing the panel discussion Rajiv very wonderfully concluded, “An organization is a trinity of culture, process and policies and we have come to a hard realization that care itself is not enough, genuine care is to have courageous conversations with people. Set the right expectation delivery culture because ultimately the largest value creating organizations in the world are the corporates. An organization is an energy field of people that have come together to create value and wealth.”