Workplace Wellbeing- How TCS Prioritises Workplace Wellbeing for Healthier Lifestyle
A lifestyle change means behaviour change and a behaviour change means more mindful choices. Therefore, when associates are encouraged to choose, the onus is on the organization to provide interesting, sustainable, and viable options for enabling healthier lifestyle choices.
Employees spend a large proportion of their day-to-day life in the workplace. So, employers have a responsibility to influence some aspects of employee health and lifestyle, from their eating habits to the amount of physical activity they are or are not subject to, the environment and the amount of time spent within the working environment. Also, with the recent Covid pandemic, the work and home boundaries have blurred even further, leading to greater challenges for sustaining a healthy balance between personal and professional lives.
With an organization family of half a million and growing, designing, and driving integrated wellbeing was a herculean task by itself. But in line with the TCS brand of “Building on Belief”, we believed we could build an inclusive wellbeing structure keeping the associate needs at the centre. That’s how the entire integrated TCS Wellbeing initiative was born.
Interestingly, with the pandemic and the working from home aspects, we no longer were looking at the associate in singularity. Instead, we were looking at their life in their entirety including, but not limited to, their homes, their families, their social structures and so on. Therefore, now lifestyle was being looked at as lives style!
Considering this paradigm shift, the initiatives firstly needed to be holistic, catering to a diverse group, scalable and easily doable individually as well as in groups.
In TCS, these holistic lifestyle initiatives are designed to promote a resilient and therefore healthier mind, body, and spirit. This was done through the key principles of Positive Psychology, which is promoting Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Achievement through each well-being aspect.
The key focus areas for our healthier lifestyle and wellbeing initiatives are
- Physical Health, Yoga, Fitness & Nutrition
- Mental & Emotional Health
- Personal Safety
- Financial Health
- Purpose and Engagement
Amongst these, physical fitness is promoted through the Fit4Life initiative, which engages associates in multiple physical activities through interactive group initiatives.
Supporting this fitness at a more holistic level, TCS has its very own TCS Yoga council, which designs and drives wellbeing and individual transformation through Yoga. Personalized yoga consultations and daily online yoga workshops across time zones have been a huge support for a mindfulness-based lifestyle approach.
As corporate associates, we may be spending a major chunk of our day in our chairs and at our desks. So, our lifestyle today needs to consider our workspaces at home as well. The TCS Ergonomics team solely focuses on these aspects through the Ergonomics Engagement program, which aims to help associates adopt the most feasible ergonomic posture while working from home.
Another important aspect of wellbeing is Nutrition. A platform has been created for associates for understanding the importance of a healthy and well-balanced diet to be able to sustain the constant changes to routine, especially in the post-Covid era.
For promoting Engagement and Meaning exclusively, we have the Purpose4life program which is designed to channelize the TCS corporate volunteering efforts and enable employees to contribute towards societal well-being.
Lifestyle is, basically, consistently choosing healthy behaviours, and the key factors for any behaviour change are the underlying thoughts and feelings. Therefore, emotional, and mental wellbeing is among the most important pillars of a healthy lifestyle.
The TCS Cares program, which is a dedicated TCS initiative for creating a psychological safe space through professional counselling and self-help offerings, plays a key role in creating a culture of hope, empathy, and resilience. Our associates are trained in self-worth creation, which enables them to make healthier lifestyle choices.
Some key factors which were part of our wellbeing framework are:
Diverse Needs Focus
TCS Wellbeing considers diverse needs across all associate segments. The lifestyle initiatives are also curated for various business roles across geographies. Another tip that works is asking the associates what wellbeing means to them. Frequent wellbeing surveys, therefore, provide a much-needed pulse for the design teams to improvise their wellbeing offerings.
Accessibility
Each wellbeing offering is made available through multiple channels across geographies. 24*7 Counsellor Helplines, Experts, Doctors, Nutritionists, Peer Support groups, Physiotherapists, Live Videos, Webinars, Podcasts, Mailers, Chatbots, Blogs, Stories and Employee Welfare Teams are some of the virtual as well as human interaction channels for supporting the associates and their families across time zones.
Collaboration and Amplification
The reassurance associated with being heard, validated, and supported is very important for building trust with associates. Wellbeing Champions, Wellbeing committees at region and unit levels, dedicated team groups, blogs and discussion forums on our internal media create this much-needed infrastructure for sustaining the wellbeing buzz and motivation for a healthier lifestyle.
These wellbeing practices are promoted through creatively designed nudges and incentive campaigns. Getting in the leadership to endorse this also goes a long way in creating healthy lifestyles. Creating associations between multiple lifestyle choices e.g., Yoga and Nutrition or Mental and Physical health also help amplify healthier choices.
Support and Awareness
One of the key barriers in the way of a healthy lifestyle is the knowledge of what a healthy lifestyle is. Weekly interactive webinars, workshops, and Q&A sessions with industry experts in each of the wellbeing areas contribute to a constant rise in awareness and understanding around a healthy lifestyle choice.
Through TCS Wellbeing, we are sowing a culture based on empathy, resilience, mindfulness, and hope—one that gives top priority to the holistic wellbeing of employees and their families.
Through our wellbeing practices and initiatives, which are evolving each day, we are building on the belief that our associates will make the correct choices. Our focus is to create a mindfulness culture and an easily accessible wellbeing infrastructure for them to wisely choose from and at times nudge them towards healthier choices.