Elevating Corporate Wellbeing: Supporting mental health intervention in tech industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a transformational event in more ways than one, especially when it comes to the world of commerce. In the wake of the pandemic, there has been a significantly high attention on holistic wellness for employees, and that includes their mental health. Business organisations all over the world are realigning their employee benefits and wellness strategies to integrate their culture, talent and performance goals. 

Despite the rising awareness, and acceptance of the need, a lot of organizations continue to struggle in setting up the right regulations and support systems. Conventionally, mental health was never seen as a strategic area by employers. In many cases, employees with poor mental health were even seen as a risk. It is only in recent years that studies have been undertaken to comprehend the full impact of mental health in economic terms. In India, mental health disorders are expected to result in an economic loss of over 1 trillion USD between 2012 and 2030. 

The prevalent lack of awareness and attention as well as support for mental health is not just due to no interest, but also various other factors such as social taboos, reduced levels of resilience against stress in the post-pandemic world, failure of support networks, and above all, a severe lack of qualified mental healthcare resources. However, at Comviva, we have constantly stayed ahead of the curve on this subject. 

Comviva is aiming to plug this gap through its value-driven efforts towards corporate wellness. The idea is to reorient the strategy and put ‘people focus’ at the core of our organization’s efforts. The Comviva Way lays greater emphasis on respecting, recognizing and helping co-workers and others wherever needed. An attitudinal shift has been made through long-term commitment to investing in the development and growth of people, and providing them with the required support in good as well as tough times in their personal or professional lives. One of the most impactful initiatives by the company is to commit from top down towards building a politics free work culture (Comviva even conducted a Snap Poll in 2019 as a dipstick on employee perception, and satisfactory feedback was received).

To alleviate the post-pandemic stress, easy access to counselling sessions called ‘Your Dost’ has been provided to address emotional and mental health challenges faced by employees irrespective of gender. ComPassion initiatives have witnessed voluntary contributions and support by employees where people feel that by helping others, they are able to experience improvement in their own mental health. 

The company has laid down certain organizational tenets to build a happy workplace. These are:

• Making behavioral health a transparent priority

• persity and inclusion as a real actionable agenda: Leveraging persity of Gender, Geography, Age, Physical abilities, and even Neuropersity

• Enablement and upskilling of people leaders on core skills that help them create a work environment for their teams that is wellness-affirming

Sensitization and training on ‘Crucial Conversations’ and on-site mental health services

Training people leaders on skills of planning, organizing, project and performance Management, and all such areas that directly impact the work-life balance of their teams.

Prioritizing trust and safety

Normalization of conversations about mental health

It is now widely observed and experienced that organizations across the board, need to make mental wellbeing, a critical element of their future HR policies. This will help employees cope with the prevalent competitive landscape of modern offices, and perform better towards achievement of their inpidual as well as organizational goals!

Author: Vaishnavi Shukla, HR Head, Comviva - A tech Mahindra subsidiary