Decoding True Essence Of Wellbeing

Post Covid-19 pandemic, several employers around the globe are facing numerous sources of uncertainty and volatility such as inflation, fears of a recession and workforce erosion. With those challenges, it would be reasonable to think that employee wellbeing could decrease in importance and priority.

However, the opposite is happening. According to Aon’s 2022-2023 global wellbeing survey, organisations are increasingly investing in the wellbeing of their employees, and wellbeing continues to be a focus.

While 87 per cent of organisations have at least one wellbeing initiative, 83 per cent have a wellbeing strategy, an increase of 25 per cent points since 2020 when many companies were scrambling to take care of employee wellbeing in the early stages of the pandemic. 

Just as importantly, 41 per cent of organisations said they had a wellbeing strategy that was fully integrated into their overall business strategy, according to the survey.

While speaking on 'wellbeing as a cornerstone to ESG strategy- intent versus impact’ at BW Businessworld's Sustainable World Conclave 2023, experts said that there is a need to realise that emotional wellbeing is also a major factor in determining overall wellness apart from physical, mental, spiritual and financial wellbeing.

Vidit Jain, Co-founder and Vice President- Strategy and Operations, kindlife said, “We at kindlife have wellbeing as our ethos and we are creating a wellbeing ecosystem. As part of it, there are many initiatives currently being worked on and being positively implemented. The brands we create are toxin free and organic.” 

Jain also mentioned that as a new organisation, they are trying to create a good environment for the employees out of which 60 per cent are women.  

Niti Mittal, Head Compliance and Sustainability, Bharti Airtel said, “Impact is what the positive movement is because of diversity inclusion. Having one female in the sales team force allows a broader perception of creating an impact. Measuring turnover you will see that it will be clearly visible that, there will be better awareness levels also and fresh ideas to achieve the goals in mind, due to having both the gender’s views.” 

This kind of technique will produce tremendously positive results, Mittal added confidently.

Shashi Kumar, Co-founder and CEO, Akshayakalpa Organic said, “One of the biggest impacts and initiatives that we have created is to make the consumers our partners. Consumer engagement enables interaction with our employees and partners. In the last year, we have had more than 10,000 consumers who showed extreme empathy to our workers and farmers and interact with the employees.” 

Kumar stated that this is one kind of engagement that has taken place in their farms which are approximately 900 in number.   

Venkatesh R, Managing Director and Director Energy Business, Wartsila, India explained, “Wellbeing is at the core of every business and it is the cornerstone which will help us to build a better present and future. It is an inclusive subject of multiple dimensions. We include a bigger ecosystem such as the governmental dimension and the private sector and of course our own directions.” 

He added that education will also be the most important aspect as India already has people with knowledge and competence. People or employee dimensions are also key to success. There will have to be a joint ecosystem which will function for the good of all.  

Bipin Odhekar, Head- Sustainability, Marico said, “Every individual has certain deliverables in any organisation. In order to make them more productive, we need to talk to them and get feedback for any hurdles which they face and how they can overcome them with our guidance.”

Odhekar asserted that there is enthusiasm around sustainability but the literacy of it has got to be increased in order to convert the enthusiasm into action.