Healthy trend

 

 

Athira M. 

 

 

 

 

 

Health promotion at work places has become a norm and Technopark isn't lagging behind. The wellness programmes are, of course, meant to decrease healthcare costs, and increase productivity. 

Although the IT hub doesn't have many common health programmes, most companies on campus have their own wellness initiatives – yearly/monthly health check-ups, yoga and aerobic sessions, consultation with experts… 

There are many companies that have special wellness initiatives for their employees. For instance, Allianz Cornhill's lifestyle theme has innovative programmes such as Fruit Friday, wherein seasonal fruits sponsored by the company were made available for the staff, and ‘wellness fruit baskets' were distributed to employees. Salsa classes on weekends, sessions on self defence, ‘No lift day' to encourage employees to use the stairs and so on try to inculcate the fitness habit in their employees.

 

Stress busters 

Infosys has HALE or The Health Assessment and Lifestyle Enrichment Plan. Chat sessions with reputed doctors, training in self-defence, a hotline option for instant access to counsellors and a ‘stress audit tool' that gives access to information on current stress levels are included, said an official. Avenues are provided for employees to pursue their hobbies. Leisure initiatives consist of online quizzes, puzzles and so on that act as great stress busters. 

Walkathons, marathons and ‘Personal Health Evaluation' are among the wellness programmes at UST Global. “We are among the few companies in Technopark that have a wellness officer. We've a wellness calendar, specific to the geography of the company branch, a gender-neutral wellness programme with graphics and streaming workouts, an internal newsletter to promote wellness and a hotel-room workout for employees who don't have time to hit the gym,” explains Rakhin Rajan, an official of the company. A 24X6 wellness room, life-saving equipment, monthly Reiki and Art of Living sessions, ergonomic sessions to ensure best sitting postures while at work and tie-ups with leading medical laboratories (for executive health check-ups) try to keep their employees in the pink of health. Employees can also access personal trainer videos. “UST Global is the first company to employ an online, personalised health assessment tool. The initiatives happen through Colors, a participative management framework,” says Rakhin. 

Then there are companies that opt for the service of WatchMyHealth (WMH), which helps patients centralise their health information through the internet in the form of personal health records. According to Lt. Col. (Retd) Anand Nair, one of the brains behind the initiative, many companies have evinced interest in working with WMH. “We did a camp for 253 employees of Collabera last year and now each of them has a personal health record. The camp did help many who haven't had a check-up at all,” he says.

 

In addition, the number of techies hitting the health club at the Technopark Club House is on the rise. 

“We've separate timings for both men and women, both in the mornings and evenings. The club is always overcrowded in the evenings, especially from 6 to 9 p.m. When this facility was opened in 1996, there was one gym and two girls came in regularly to do work outs. Now, you have as many as 60 women coming in everyday,” said K. Sasidharan, administrator, Technopark Club House.