Employee Wellnes Is A Culture At Optum: Gayatri Varma, Head HR, Optum Global Solutions
How does physical fitness help improve productivity of employees and businesses?
We associate physical fitness as an integral part of our overall employee wellness agenda. We invest in the physical well being of our employees to ensure that we have a healthy, productive and engaged workforce in the organization, which in turn has a positive impact on business. While we are cognizant of the primary health benefits of running and yoga, there are several corollary benefits realized through these activities. Such initiatives motivate one to achieve his/ her goal, boost confidence, and make one more disciplined and efficient. Additionally, doing these exercises in groups impacts one positively in terms of team building, supporting one another, sharing the same goals and making new friends.
How important is physical and mental health to counter stress?
It is important to manage our energy and time effectively which will help lead a productive yet stress free life. Therefore, we do several webinars and face-to-face counselling sessions to help our employees and their families manage stress levels. Our stress management programs are built on pillars that go beyond physical and mental well being. The four tenets of our stress management programs include:
Is the LiveWell program a CSR propaganda or a company’s promotion? If CSR, does company’s interest collide with the CSR?
LiveWell is neither a CSR propaganda, nor a means for company promotion. Being in the health care sector, we are committed to promote wellness at work and encourage employees and their families to maintain healthy lifestyles. Wellness at Optum is a culture, not a mere program or a one-time event. We have a year-round calendar for employees so that that can choose programs that align with their health goals. LiveWell was conceptualized at Optum primarily for the millennials to keep them engaged, healthy and productive. The program has delivered its goal in the last 4 years, and over the next couple of years, LiveWell is geared to deliver more value to the organization and its employees. As an integral part of our employer branding statement and a key promise under our employee value proposition, LiveWell will become much bigger than just a key differentiator for the organization.
What has been the company growth in India and expansion plans?
Optum has been operating in India for more than 10 years. Optum brings global technology and know-how to India to improve the affordability, accessibility and availability of health systems. Currently, Optum is serving diverse stakeholders across the system, to help modernize health care infrastructure, improve patient outcomes, reduce costs and increase efficiency. With our presence expanding, we are also growing in terms of capabilities and leveraging talent pools.
India is making rapid strides towards a National Health Protection Scheme, and we have new age solutions that can help insurers, employers, crowdfunding organizations, MFIs and patients digitize the financial aspects of medical transactions. We at Optum are also encouraged by the new focus on integrated disease surveillance across the country and are working on defining a suite of solutions for integrated disease surveillance for India. Existing solutions from Optum and our partners already address diabetic management, care coordination, care plan personalization etc. which are critical in this space.
How well does the company care for the wellness of its employees?
We understand wellness deeply and we strongly believe in our organization’s dual mission to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. As a US Fortune 6 company focused on health care, we strongly believe in the ‘our people first’ approach. Based on the foundation principles of scalability, sustainability, impact and site/business/employee specific nuances (health checks parameters, the nutrition aspects), we have articulated an enhanced ‘holistic wellness’ charter linking the physical, emotional and social elements of wellness. The charter encompassing mind, body, soul and nutrition, paves the baseline for highly differentiated and extensively curated offerings to employees and their families. LiveWell interventions now include awareness, preventive health, occupational health, chronic disease management, lifestyle, mental health initiatives, spiritual health initiatives and other wellness enablers.
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