Hyderabad: Corporate companies planning to enter Hyderabad are increasingly seeking office spaces that can accommodate gyms, yoga and Zumba centres to promote healthier lifestyles among employees.
Speaking at a panel discussion, ‘Workplace Wellness: Is Obesity Eating into Employee Productivity?’ at the Gut and Metabolic Summit organised by AIG Hospitals here, experts said organisations were moving beyond routine health check-ups to actively monitoring employees’ physical and mental well-being. This shift, they noted, is also helping companies reduce long-term health insurance costs.
Sandeep Patnaik, managing director, JLL, said nearly 90 per cent of companies run wellness programmes merely as a checklist exercise, often lacking empathy at the managerial level. “Reporting managers rarely ask why an employee has been absent or unwell for a prolonged period. Companies need to build a supportive environment to reduce stress,” he said, citing Johnson & Johnson’s example of saving nearly $250 million over a decade by investing in employee wellness.
Ranga Pothula, managing director, Infor India, pointed out that long and irregular working hours, global time-zone support and easy access to junk food had contributed to rising obesity among IT employees. “We have seen employees join fresh out of college and undergo visible physical changes within three years. To address this, we conduct yoga classes and use an app where employees log daily exercise, with monthly rewards,” he said.
Karthik Duddala, an enterprise technology leader, observed that Indian organisations were still largely reactive when it came to wellness programmes compared to their global counterparts.
Satyanarayana Mathala, president, Telangana Faculty Management Council (TFMC), said office design priorities had changed significantly. “Today, nearly 80 per cent of planning goes into wellness before construction. IT offices in areas like Hitec City and Raidurg are being built as open spaces with access to yoga centres, prayer rooms and Zumba facilities, which are fast becoming standard operating norms,” he said.
Deepak Sapra, CEO of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, added that aligning time for health improves work-life balance and decision-making.
Experts concluded that obesity indirectly increased insurance costs and employee absenteeism, suggesting that sick leave policies should evolve into broader wellness leave frameworks, backed by structured health strategies rather than periodic check-ups alone.
