Companies enhance work-life balance by including fitness in their employees' daily routines

BANGALORE: For 46-year-old Gurcharan Singh, Saturday mornings aren't spent at home enjoying the weekend holidays. Singh, group manager, mission quality at Wipro Ltd, is at the office campus exercising along with 50 other colleagues.
Every Saturday, members of Wipro's running club, including their family and friends, come together at the company office in Sarjapur at around 6.00am to jog, run, swim, gym, play games, and attend an intensive exercise training module conducted by an in-house professional trainer.
"I travel 20km to go to the campus on a holiday and since the beginning of 2012 I don't think I have missed out on a single Saturday. What inspires me is the professional training that is given. And that's very important if you want to get into any sporting activity. I, however, realised that late in my career," says Singh, who couple of months ago won the 5km run at the Spirit of Wipro Run 2014 event, by completing the run in about 17 minutes.
Every second Saturday, Singh makes the 20km early morning trek to the campus along with his wife and children, who also partake in the training module. Nearly six-hours are spent on campus on Saturdays, and the workout sessions are followed by a hearty breakfast at campus and birthday celebrations, if any.
The enthusiasm about fitness has even spilled over to weekdays, where one can now find the Wirpo campus waking up to joggers and fitness freaks.
Prabha Shankar Amarnath, a network consulting engineer at Cisco, has a fixed Monday-to-Friday morning workout regime at the company's gym. These days, post workout, 26-year-old Amarnath relaxes in one of the many massage chairs that Cisco has provided for its employees.
"Depending on what workout I've done — either for my back or legs — I adjust the chair settings accordingly for a 10-minute massage session. While I do that I log on to my laptop and allow the inbox to get buffered," says Amarnath, who finally settles down at his work station at around 10.45am.
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The boundaries between work and personal life have increasingly blurred, which has in many ways led to increased stress and fatigue levels. And to beat such lifestyle trends, companies are seeing huge benefits in keeping their employees fit.
Across its campuses in India, Infosys has an enviable line-up of fitness centres comprising of 11 swimming pools, 23 gyms, eight international standard cricket pitches, athletic tracks, and basketball courts among others.
"In today's hectic work and life scenario employers have to do much more than just meet the formal contractual needs of its employees. They need to create an all-inclusive environment which enables employees to improve on their physical and mental abilities," says Amitabh Das, CEO of Vati, an HR consultancy firm.
Cisco has an onsite nutritionist to help employees with their food choices and assist those with health issues. In addition, all Cisco Cafés have digitalized menus that show the calorie count of each food item.
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"It is proven that fitness amenities bring employees closer to their organization, allows them to think more freely, innovate, and help them go beyond their stated objectives," adds Das.
To curb stress levels amongst employees, Infosys launched a Health Assessment & Lifestyle Enrichment plan (HALE). "This has been a focused response to rising concerns of employee health and the impact of work stress on our employees and their families. HALE improves organizational productivity through healthy employees and has done work in the area of employee health (physical and mental), creating a healthy work environment, amongst other things" says Richard Lobo, VP and head, HRD Units, at Infosys.
Fit for Life is Wipro's health and wellness initiative, which focuses on enhancing the fitness quotient of employees. "It comprises of a wide array of health management tools and fitness resources," says Sunita Cherian, VP- Human Resources and Head - Diversity, Wipro Ltd.
The enthusiasm about fitness has even spilled over to weekdays, where one can now find the Wirpo campus waking up to joggers and fitness freaks. (TOI photo)
To get people to think and be creative, today's mantra is definitely about 'collaborative space' and campuses are one of the most important cases in point. While good salaries are still the employees' main motivation, many companies realize that innovative workplace environments rather than merely functional office spaces can help them in the war for talent.
Shrinivas Rao, CEO-Asia Pacific, of Vestian, a global real estate consultancy firm, believes workplaces are no more limited to a cubicle where working professionals on an average spend 60% of their day. A Vestian study of IT Campus environs in India revealed an increased emphasis by employers to create intelligently designed, vibrant physical spaces inside the buildings that are ergonomically efficient and technically supported with cloud computing and internet connectivity.
"The new concept of 'standing cubicle' is also gaining popularity amongst employers," says Rao. Cisco says that their employees get to evaluate their own workspaces and recommend modifications. "Many employees choose to stand as they work for short periods of time," says a spokesperson of Cisco.
Fit for Life is Wipro's health and wellness initiative, which focuses on enhancing the fitness quotient of employees. (TOI photo)
And it's not just companies that are making the changes, but even commercial real estate developers who are seeing the benefits in providing a well fitted out office campus. RMZ Ecoworld, a 52-acre IT Park located along Outer Ring Road, has an in-house club facility which boasts of swimming pools, tennis courts, golf putting greens, sun deck and lounge, jogging track, outdoor gyms, squash courts, and a jacuzzi on the terrace! The IT Park even has a sports terrace located on the eleventh level at one of the campus blocks.
"It is difficult to see this trend reversing over the next few years. High quality, iconic, and well-positioned workplace environments such as campuses that are scaled and designed on global parameters, are going to be key tools for companies to attract and retain the best talent," says Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of real estate consultancy firm JLL India.
Gurcharan Singh has run the Puma Urban Stampede twice, the TCS 2014 Marathon and the Spirit of Wipro marathon since 2008, even after suffering from a major spine injury in 2007. While fitness is his passion, sharing the passion with other like-minded people on a regular basis comes with its own benefits.
"There are 100-plus people from different departments who are part of the running club. A certain bonding has been established, which nobody wants to break. Through this I have uplifted myself from a compartmental culture to become closer with a wide range of employees," he says.