HYDERABAD : The ongoing pandemic has deeply affected the mental health being of several corporate executives working tirelessly both at the office and from home to meet the demands of their employers. The continuous work stress keeps building up constantly leaving the workers anxious and experience episodic depression. Many experts suggest that corporate organisations need to lend a caring and supportive hand. Kiran Kalakuntla, Founder and CEO of ekincare, a Hyderabad based health benefits platform, talks about these issues and more:
Why must businesses facilitate a platform on mental health and well-being for their employees?
Since the emergence of Covid-19, organisations have been dealing with an entirely new spectrum of issues, most of which have to do with the mental health of employees and their families. Reports have shown that one out of every two employees in corporate India shows signs of stress and anxiety and this is indeed one of the leading causes for absenteeism from work and early retirement. While mental health problems in the workplace have serious effects on employee health, it also affects productivity and competitiveness and thus the economy and society as a whole. That’s the reason why now businesses and states have pushed mental health up their agenda.
How do you see the importance of mental health and well-being in the workplace?
The poor mental health of employees triggers not just work stress but also physical, financial, social, and work-life stress too. Since employees spend a large portion of their waking hours at work, the workplace is an ideal setting to address their mental health and wellness issues. So, any organisation that prioritises the mental health and wellbeing of their employees will benefit from their staff that is engaged and invested in their business, willing to work hard each day.
How an initiative can help an organisation as well as the individual lives of employees?
Productivity loss, absenteeism, job abandonment, and higher turnover are often directly linked to poor employee mental health. Therefore, mental health and wellbeing programmes are now critical for maintaining sustainable levels of employee engagement, resilience in the face of organisational change, motivation, and innovation.
Through integrated employee health and wellness benefits, employers can benefit through its positive impact on productivity and business performance. While the pandemic has been an unfortunate event, it has been a great opportunity for ekincare to show proof of the pudding with the way in which physical and mental health services, adopted by 100s of companies amid the pandemic, were delivered from the beginning of the crisis managing everything without a flutter with seamless onboarding and activation.