How Himalaya keeps its workforce up and running

Caring and Reaching out to Employees (CARE) is the initiative, which the Company is using to ensure the wellbeing of both its people and their families.

As organisations look to develop and retain talent, their health and wellbeing takes up centrestage in ensuring that they feel valued, motivated and in good spirits, to perform well. In line with that, organisations today are not leaving any stone unturned to ensure the holistic wellbeing of its employees. The Himalaya Drug Company has also been on a path to HR transformation programmes in the last one and a half years, and employee wellbeing has been at its core.

In 2015–16, the company rolled out a programme called CARE, all across its international hubs. CARE —Caring And Reaching out to Employees — is the initiative through which Himalaya not only ensures the wellbeing of its people but also their family members. The programme supports and encourages people to follow a healthy lifestyle.

Being in the healthcare business, the initiative also aligns with the organisational purpose, and hence, Sanjeev Dixit, general manager- human resources, The Himalaya Drug Company, says, “Himalaya is a herbal health and wellness organisation, and wellness not only forms its DNA, but also gets extended to holistic wellness through CARE. It certainly reinforces our core belief, more from an internal perspective, by building an ecosystem and long-term culture, which institutionalises wellness.”

CARE being a holistic programme, offers various initiatives, facilities and activities. Free and regular health check-ups, counselling sessions, wellness talks and workshops by experts in yoga, ayurveda,  and diet, are some of the programmes conducted every month. In addition, recently, the company also participated in the Standard Chartered Marathon Run for 2017 completing the four kilometre-run event.

The programme was aimed at reinforcing the need for all the employees to proactively address their lifestyle and fitness for a healthy living. The event saw enthusiastic participation from the teams, where a majority of the members participated and completed the Marathon run. In the process, they were able to evaluate and realise their current fitness levels and set future fitness goals setting the right tone for 2017 at the same time.

“The programme is part of a bigger organisational strategy focussed on achieving higher employee engagement by providing them avenues in the areas of employee welfare, health and wellness management, sense of giving to the society, lifestyle management sessions and more,” says Dixit. He also shares that the initiative has certainly impacted the overall employees’ connect with the organisation, resulting in improved business performance in 2016. It is further “expected to have a positive impact on the sustainable profitable growth of Himalaya’s business,” he adds.

According to Dixit, once in every two years the company measures the impact of such programmes and its linkage to the overall business performance, through a comprehensive employee engagement survey.

Witnessing positive results, such as improved lifestyles, reduced absenteeism and a more productive workforce, Himalaya is now looking at introducing more of such programmes over the year, to address overall wellness and welfare of the employees, be it physical, mental and/or financial.

Sharing the future plans, Dixit emphasises, “We will continue to build on our existing portfolio of programmes, consolidate and leverage them and look forward to leveraging employees’ advocacy and quality time, dedicated to the individual and corporate social sustainability drive.”