The Covid-19 induced lockdown has been in place almost continuously since March last year, when it first came into effect. Now, daily life is returning to normal gradually, though working from home for more than a year has resulted in issues such as imbalance in personal-professional life, unhealthy diet, obesity etc. The situation was no different at Zerodha, a Bengaluru-headquartered financial services company, according to its founder-CEO Nithin Kamath.
Kamath took to Twitter to share his experience on the same and how employees were motivated to become fit once again. “Post the first lockdown, like everywhere, our team @zerodhaonline as a whole was probably the unhealthiest ever, due to the lack of physical activity, work-life imbalance, bad diet and more. We thought of a way to nudge the team to get healthy and the results are phenomenal,” he posted on Twitter.
The solution, he said, was on the company’s internal forum, called Discourse. Kamath tweeted, “We asked everyone to set a 12-month get-healthy goal and update the progress every month, to create accountability. To increase participation, we said everyone who reaches the goal will get one-month salary as bonus and one lucky draw for ₹10 lakh."
{{/usCountry}}The solution, he said, was on the company’s internal forum, called Discourse. Kamath tweeted, “We asked everyone to set a 12-month get-healthy goal and update the progress every month, to create accountability. To increase participation, we said everyone who reaches the goal will get one-month salary as bonus and one lucky draw for ₹10 lakh."
{{/usCountry}}The Zerodha CEO added that the emerging transformation stories are “super inspiring” and push others to take action as well. “We also have proof that getting healthy improves professional performances. Our GetHealthy program will now run permanently. Sharing to seed the idea among fellow entrepreneurs,” he concluded.
The first Covid-19 lockdown came into effect on March 24, 2020, and opened on June 1 that year. During the reopening phase, named Unlock, restrictions were gradually relaxed though WFH continued at most places. However, curbs were re-imposed earlier this year as a second and more devastating wave of Covid-19 swept across the country, and was at its peak in April and May. From June onwards, daily cases started to decline and relaxations, once again, were announced in phases.
Zerodha launched its services on Independence Day in 2010, and has amassed more than 6 million clients in 11 years, according to its website. The name “Zerodha” is a combination of the word Zero and Sanskrit word “Rodha” which means barrier or obstacle. The name, therefore, roughly translates to “no obstacle/barrier.”