Across Asia, wellness is now increasingly considered a key component of the employee experience. As per industry estimates, about 75% of millennials assign significant importance to wellness factors at work – something not to be ignored by leadership looking to recruit and retain top talent. As the concept of wellness gains ground, companies are starting to measure and report on the links between wellness and financial performance, often through the reduction of employee absenteeism. In India, for example, estimates put savings from wellness initiatives alone at up to US$20 billion last year.
“Wellness will become more integral to the workplace as technological advancements continue to extend the possibilities and ease the implementation of fresh initiatives, as well as better measure their efficacy in terms of improved health, productivity and financial performance,” says Ritesh Sachdev, Senior Executive Director, Occupier Services at Colliers International India.
As the concept of wellness gains ground, companies are starting to measure and report on the links between wellness and financial performance, often through the reduction of employee absenteeism. In India, for example, estimates put savings from wellness initiatives alone at up to US$20 billion last year.
Technological advancements have emerged as a key element of wellness infrastructure, straddling such areas as:
1) Space: The emergence of more accurate air quality solutions is enhancing adoption rates across Asia, especially in China and India where air quality is a major concern
2) Organisations: More and more companies are seeing the advantages of expanding wellness programs beyond physical to include mindfulness and lifestyle
3) Individual: Improved wearable devices motivate employees to get fit and enable tailored solutions to monitor their health
Wellness considerations in commercial real estate
Colliers Research demonstrates that wellness factors such as air quality, natural light and recreational space are all key drivers of relocation decisions in markets such as Hong Kong.
“To maximise the efficacy of wellness initiatives, an important initial step is to identify the baseline. It’s crucial to create a wellness strategy that’s core to a business and its employees.As wellness is not confined to one area of a business, the creation of a cross-functional committee encompassing facilities management, commercial real estate, HR and IT to jointlyoversee wellness efforts is the optimal approach to ensure broad-based support and success across an organization,” says Victoria Gilbert, Associate Director, Wellness Consulting at Colliers International.
Those landlords and tenants that act early to prioritise effective assessment of programmes while considering the human element at their core – including management buy-in and employee participation – will be cultivating a clear source of competitive advantage in the highly competitive markets for property and talent.
SOURCE: Colliers International India
