THOUGHTLEADERS
OLYMPICS: HEALTH AND WELLNESS
CSC’s “Global Get Fit Challenge” By Brandon Taube, Global Compensation & Benefits, CSC DL
A | We asked the leaders of more than 20 companies to share personal and corporate stories related to the Olympics. Corporate health and wellness initiatives, Olympic sponsorship and values and lessons taught from athletics are the three topics they elaborated on.
Prevent, Educate, and Balance at Akraya By Tanya Taneja, Director of HR, Akraya, Inc.
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ellness and health are very important values at Akraya. Our mission statement is “People Come First.” This reflects the quality of talent we place as a staffing company but also our attitude towards our employees and their wellbeing. The cornerstones of our wellness program are three simple words: Prevent, Educate, and Balance. Prevent: We believe that the most important role of a company’s wellness initiatives should be to prevent illness and maintain the employee’s health. Prevention comes from educating and also from providing employees with a health-conscious work environment that supports healthy choices. The company provides its employees and spouses/children with free gym memberships to a nearby gym to make sure employees get enough daily exercise. Every Monday morning, a large basket of fresh fruit arrives to Akraya from a local farm to encourage employees to satisfy their appetite with a healthy treat. We find that there is no better team building exercise than doing sports together. One initiative we are pursuing is the “Akraya Sports Wednesdays,” a monthly sports event that occurs in a nearby park. We recruited our employees into teams and we play soccer, volleyball, and Frisbee together. The Akraya team also participates in local races for charity. For the last five years, we have been a returning Gold Sponsor and participant of the Race For Literacy, a 5K race with the goal to eliminate illiteracy in India. Educate: We also make sure employees have access to diet and healthy lifestyle counseling. At the local gym, employees are welcome to attend the complimentary nutrition classes as well as weight control counseling. We are also planning to start hosting on-site workshop lunches inviting experts to educate employees about healthy and green lifestyle choices as well as alternative wellness practices like Ayurvedic medicine. Balance: Akraya management truly believes in the adage “it is not the number of hours you put in, it is what you put into those hours.” Our flexible work schedule allows employees to adjust their work hours with their personal lives and start or finish work earlier or later. By investing in training, productivity tools, and monitoring employee workloads, we ensure that our staff is not overloaded to the point that they have to work long hours. PDJ
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PROFILES IN DIVERSITY JOURNAL
July/August 2012
ccording to Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The greatest wealth is health.” At CSC, our people are essential to business success. In an attempt to create a healthier employee population, CSC piloted an exercise initiative in the U.S. called the “CSC Walking Challenge” in 2010. The program leveraged the company’s partnership with the American Heart Association (AHA), using their online tool to track individual and team progress. The program generated high levels of interest and enthusiasm among U.S. participants, begging the obvious question, why not expand the program globally? So, in 2011, CSC introduced the “Global Get Fit Challenge.” Continuing to partner with the AHA and providing our own executive sponsorship to spur the effort, the results have been truly astounding. The goal was to increase levels of exercise while also facilitating networking and camaraderie among employees. It has done just that. The number of participants has nearly quadrupled and the number of teams shot up from 10 in 2010 to 66 worldwide in 2011. Additionally, participation demographics vary significantly: males and females, ages ranging from 20 to 50+, and employees who self-identified from “sedentary” to “extremely active” on a scale of current exercise level. This emphasis on health and wellness continues to capture the attention of our employees and leadership alike and discussions have already begun in preparation for the 2012 iteration. On a smaller scale, CSC has also begun to explore the idea of convening a grassroots running group. With growing interest and weather breaking, this very informal group would provide another opportunity to meet colleagues and get fit. While CSC may not train Olympic-level athletes, the emphasis on employee health and wellness continues to be a strong priority for the company and will only continue to increase as the momentum from our current programs grows. PDJ