Arogya World Recognises 15 Indian Companies As ‘Healthy Workplaces’ For 2018

As many as 15 Indian companies have made their way onto the Arogya World’s Healthy Workplaces for 2018 for their emphasis on chronic disease prevention in the workplace setting, reports India Today.

Arogya World is a global health non-profit organisation, which along with its India affiliate, Arogya World India Trust, works in preventing non-communicable diseases (NCD) like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and chronic lung diseases by educating people about health and changes in lifestyle.

The organisation targets workplaces to prevent chronic disease as many people spend a large portion of their time at their offices. The public health programme, which is in its sixth year, sees 15 companies across various sectors in India. Arogya World has now recognised about 2.5 million employees from 116 companies.

The Platinum level is the highest level in the Healthy Workplace programme. Seven companies were recognised by Arogya World, totalling 750,000 employees from 29 companies. Arogya World identifies companies for tracking employee healthy regularly and scoring them for leadership and commitments to their employees' health.

This invitation-only effort also recognises one company every year as a “Tobacco Free Worksite”. This year, Exide Industries Limited, Hosur, received recognition as the Arogya World's 2018 Tobacco-Free Worksite bringing a total number of three companies in the list.

The seven Platinum companies of 2018 are Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (Automotive Sector), Cyient Limited, Amara Raja - Karakambadi, Tirupati, GSK Consumer Healthcare Limited, Sonepat; Hero Motocorp Ltd, Mindtree and Qualcomm India Pvt Ltd.

There have been promising results over the past two years, including:

• 28 percent reduction in smoking or tobacco use
• 48 per cent increase in employees who exercise regularly
• 25 per cent reduction in those who had difficulty sleeping
• 30 per cent reduction in stress
• 17 per cent increase in those that completed health risk assessments
• 3.9 per cent reduction in average recorded blood pressure
• More than 14 per cent reduction in triglycerides.

The Annual Healthy Workplace Conference and Award event of Arogya World will be in Bengaluru on 14 November. It will recognise the leading public and private sector companies, across various sectors in front of their colleagues and thought leaders.