Over 52% employees say no wellness prog by firms: Survey

More than half of corporate employees in India said their company does not run any wellness programme for them, a survey by Assocham said.
Adoption of corporate wellness programme can save India Inc income up to USD 20 billion by 2018 through a reduction in absenteeism rate by 1 per cent, the survey conducted across sectors such as FMCG, media, IT/ITeS and real estate, among others, said.
About 52 per cent of corporate employees revealed that their company does not run any wellness program for them, while 62 per cent of the remaining said the present wellness programme run by their organisation needs improvement, the survey report said.

Wellness programmes can improve chronic and lifestyle diseases of corporates and employees, according to the Assocham's latest paper 'Corporate Wellness Programme Benefits to Organisation and Economy'.
"On an average for every rupee being spent on employee wellness programme, employers get Rs 132.33 as a saving on absenteeism cost and Rs 6.62 back as reduced health care costs," the report said.
It further said while 83 per cent of sample population were willing to contribute part of their salary in company sponsored wellness programme, 17 per cent do not intend to participate.

The paper noted that among IT/ITeS employees, 93 per cent feel that company sponsored wellness programme act as motivating factor.

In case of FMCG, while 75 per cent of employees feel that it acts as a motivating factor, 25 per cent consider it as a depressing factor, the survey noted.
However, the chamber noticed that despite availability of preventive health care benefits through medical plans, most of the respondents do not take advantage for getting routine health care examination as some are not aware about benefits that exist and some hesitate to ask.
In its earlier survey, Assocham said a workplace wellness programme increases employees loyalty, improves work performance, boosts productivity and reduces attrition rate.