‘Infosys doesn't want employees to work extra hours to ensure work-life balance, better productivity'

The Hindu

11 hours ago

At a time when N. R. Narayanamurthy is holding firm about Indian workers logging in at least 70-hour work weeks, the company he co-founded and has later retired from, Infosys, has been mailing its employees to ensure they maintain a good work-life balance.
The country's second-largest tech firm wants its employees to work only 9.15 hours, five days a week, on average. And, if anyone is found working more hours than required, a system triggers a message to that employee reminding him or her of the importance of work-life balance. This platform tracks all employees working from home and from various offices of the company.
'We reach out to employees who are spending more time at work very proactively to ensure proper work-life balance and encourage them to focus on holistic well-being,' said a source at the company. Infosys is currently in a silent period and therefore did not comment officially.
'⁠Our commitment to mental and physical wellness is supported by a wide range of health initiatives and resources. ⁠Through our award-winning HALE (Health Assessment and Lifestyle Enrichment) programme, we continue to foster a culture of health, safety, and overall wellness,' he further said.
According to information available with The Hindu, since its inception, HALE has done pioneering work in the area of employee health (physical & mental), employee safety, encouraging leisure and creating and sustaining a healthy workforce, which can balance work life and is productive. HALE has four key pillars to make the programme more holistic: Health, Safety, Leisure and Emotional Wellbeing.
'A proactive approach to health and life enrichment aimed at increased awareness, overall wellbeing resulting in good health, reduced stress levels, safe work environment and improved productivity levels,' says the company.
The source further said, the Infosys Employee Relations team anchored activities which involve constant employee engagement and understanding of people issues. Through their experience, the team found strong evidence of an early onset of physical, mental and psycho-somatic illness in a young workforce. A sedentary lifestyle coupled with high work pressure and stress was resulting in heart ailments, high blood pressure, cases of depression and mental disorders, cases of suicide, attempts at bodily harm, and many cases of marital discord.
'Yes, we have deadlines and a lot of stress at work. Still, we have facilities at the workplace to relax, rest and rejuvenate ourselves. These days, bosses don't want us to work extra hours and they want us to focus on work-life balance and be productive,'' said a techie employed by Infosys.
Further, medical research corroborated these findings and showed that proactive early interventions that lead to early detection, coupled with treatment options and lifestyle changes, can contribute significantly towards enhancing the active working age of an individual as well as directly impact workplace productivity.
A twin focus on the Infosys commitment to provide employees an emotional value proposition as well as on the company's adherence to its core values led to the formation of HALE, the source added.