Once ‘red’, HUL staff now in pink of health

Better employee health is Hindustan Unilever Ltd’s (HUL) key to achieving higher workplace efficiency.

Better employee health is Hindustan Unilever Ltd’s (HUL) key to achieving higher workplace efficiency.

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A four-year initiative by HUL to enhance the vitality of its 15,000 employees has paid off. The number of employees with poor health has come down from 8 per cent in 2006 to around 3 per cent in 2009.

“In 2006, when we conducted the tests, 8 per cent of our employees were earmarked as red. Following continuous monitoring their number came down to 6 per cent in 2007 and 4 per cent in 2008,” said Dr Thirumalai Rajgopal, Vice-President, Medical and Occupational Health, HUL.

“The 2009 results will be out soon and I expect they would be around three per cent,” he said. As part of Unilever’s Global Vitality Mission, Dr Rajgopal had spearheaded this initiative at HUL and still monitors it.

It all started in 2006 when HUL conducted health checks of its employees and categorised them into green, amber and red depending on their health.

Based on this, a ‘Vitality Index’ was set up to gauge the personal vitality of employees and even today this index monitors each employee. Red indicates high Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, blood cholesterol and blood sugar and such employees needed constant monitoring.