The lifestyle habits of staff in Bangalore’s IT sector are resulting in productivity loss worth an alarming $3.5 billion annually. According to a survey by research and advisory firm, RedSeer Consulting, this loss of about Rs 24000 crore is equal to seven per cent of the total revenue of the IT sector in Bangalore.
There are mainly five reasons for this productivity loss: (i) lack of physical activity, (ii) inadequate diet, (iii) poor emotional/mental health, (iv) poor physical health and (v) substance abuse.
About 50 per cent of the total cost owing to loss of productivity is due to lack of physical exercise and the weak emotional and mental condition of the employees.
The other three factors, physical health, inadequate diet and substance abuse make up the remaining 50 per cent of the financial loss due to low productivity.
As per the survey, employees belonging to the 30–40 age bracket—who make up 35 per cent of the IT-sector workforce in the city— contribute the maximum share of about 42 per cent of the total cost to the sector. This group causes more loss due to poor physical health.
The younger employees in the 20–30 age range comprise 50 per cent of the workforce and are responsible for approx. 30 per cent of total expenses incurred from productivity loss. This group causes more loss owing to poor diet.
Surprisingly, poor emotional and mental health of the employees in this sector also causes significant productivity loss. Therefore, companies will now need to focus on programmes to help reduce the stress levels of the staff and make them mentally healthier to be able to perform better.
