INTRODUCTION

Employee welfare means anything done for the comfort and (intellectual or social) improvement
of the employees, over and above the wages paid.
In simple words, it means “the efforts to make life worth living for workmen.” It includes
various services, facilities and amenities provided to employees for their betterment. These
facilities may be provided voluntarily by progressive entrepreneurs, or statutory provisions may
compel them to provide these amenities; or these may be undertaken by the government or trade
unions, if they have the required funds.
According to ILO, “Employee welfare should be understood as such service, facilities and
amenities which may be established in or in the vicinity of undertakings to enable the persons
employed in them to perform their work in healthy and peaceful surroundings and to avail of
facilities which improve their health and bring high morale”.

Source:- http://hrmpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/fotolia.jpg
Importance of employee welfare

Employee welfare raises the company’s expenses but if it is done correctly, it has huge benefits
for both employer and employee. Under the principles of employee welfare, if an employee feels
that the management is concerned and cares for him/her as a person and not just as another
employee, he/she will be more committed to his/her work. Other forms of welfare will aid the
employee of financial burdens while welfare activities break the monotony of work.
An employee who feels appreciated will be more fulfilled, satisfied and more productive. This
will not only lead to higher productivity but also satisfied customers and hence profitability for
the company. A satisfied employee will also not go looking for other job opportunities and hence
an employer will get to keep the best talents and record lower employee turnover.
During employment, the offered benefits will determine whether an employee commits to an
organization or not. As such, good employee welfare enables a company to compete favorably
with other employers for the recruitment and retention of quality personnel.

Types of employee welfare

Employee welfare can be categorized as statutory or non-statutory, meaning as required by the
law or by the will of the management respectively. Welfare activities can also be classified as
either intra-mural (inside the workplace) or extra-mural (outside the workplace).
Intramural welfare facilities are those within the working environment and include condition of
the working environment (safety, cleanliness, and safety measures), employee convenience
(bathrooms, drinking water), health services (first aid and treatment center, ambulance,
counseling) and women and child welfare (family planning services, maternity aid).
Extramural welfare activities are diverse with many of them being sponsored by government
acts. Some include comfortable residences, proper roads and infrastructure and sanitation while
constitutional acts such as the factories act of 1948 and contract labor act of 1970 are examples
of governmental welfare activities.

Source- https://www.cleverism.com/lexicon/employee-welfare/
Source:- https://www.slideshare.net/kiran2512/employee-welfare-27876586
EMPLOYEE WELFARE SCHEMES IN CURRENT SCENERIO
Almost six in 10 companies have introduced digital wellness benefits, four in 10 are providing
telemedicine support, and half of the organisations surveyed are providing advanced preventative
care from Covid-19, finds a new survey.
According to the ‘Covid Benefits Survey 2021’, conducted by ANSR, a consulting firm that
establishes and operates global capability centres, companies have designed and deployed
multiple options that support business continuity in the face of the current crisis. The adoption of
digital solutions, designing custom wellness programmes and continuing to innovate and deploy
programmes have separated the engaged companies from those that are struggling.

“The last couple of months and the rise of the second wave has made a compelling case to all
companies/industries to value their people; employee assistance programmes are no more mere
benefits but a rising necessity as employees are the backbone of any organisation. Our research
was conducted with the motive to understand how companies are standing up in support to their
employees, and it is quite satisfying to see that in a short span of time, 80% of companies in the
country have prioritised and introduced employee welfare programmes and frameworks that
optimise employee wellness and safety.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/eight-in-10-companies-have-prioritised-
employee-welfare-programmes-survey/articleshow/82381723.cms?
utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Welfare schemes in Nestle India

Occupational Health and Safety of our people is of the highest priority and of utmost importance
to Nestlé India. All the sites (Offices and Factories) of the company are certified under Safety &
Health Management System that complies with OHSAS 18001:2007 & Environment
Management System that complies with ISO 14001:2015.

Nestlé India provided regular safety and skill up-gradation trainings to the employees where
required. Company has been consistently focussing on the machinery Safety, Lockout & Tag out,
Behavioural feedback system, Tool Box Talks, Management GEMBA and other aspects of
industrial safety.
Safe driving under project Suraksha was promoted amongst our field sales as well as with the
third party transport service providers for liquid milk transportation. Road safety awareness
camps have been organized at many sites to ensure that our people practice safe driving
behaviors, both on site and off site.

Compliance is an important pillar of the S&H Management system."I-comply" software tool has
been further leveraged for EHS & other compliances. Dedicated SH&E team under the strong
leadership is established for every site to ensure flawless implementation of company's own
standards as well as legal requirements.

Source:- https://www.nestle.in/csv/employment-and-diversity/healthy-workplaces

Safeguarding healthy futures for employees

As the COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdowns, we wanted to inspire and empower our
employees to embrace healthy habits and safeguard a healthier future for themselves, their
families and our business. In late 2020, we launched a pilot to test the impact of healthy breaks
that focus on physical activity. Our hope is that the projects will remove the stigma behind taking
a break during working hours.

In the first pilot – operating in six countries – employees are being offered access to a dedicated
webpage with guided exercises. The science-based breaks offer fun and motivating activities.
These include mindfulness exercises and office yoga.

The second pilot includes an app with a variety of virtual activity challenges such as competing
on steps, distance or active minutes. There are individual and team-based tasks, enabling
employees to drive healthy lifestyle changes and have fun.
Effect of covid-19 on employee welfare schemes of
Nestle India

Source:- Image Source: https://rb.gy/dkutqp

Nestle India will provide families of employees who passed away due to Covid with a two-year
base salary along with pension, gratuity and other applicable statutory benefits, and support
education of children and cover critical hospital expenses of impacted families, company
managing director Suresh Narayanan said.Among other support programmes, India’s largest
packaged foods company, which makes Nescafe, Maggi and KitKat, has collaborated
with Apollo Hospitals for isolation rooms for employees, and with International SOS for medical
Covid-19 support. Nestle has started staff loan schemes to aid its workforce financially, and has
tied up with virtual pre-schools for children of employees and is offering nutrition counselling
for the employees, it said. The company said it is additionally setting up oxygen plants in five
hospitals near its factories in Punjab, HP, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Goa, besides facilitating
oxygen concentrators for employees and their families.

Read more at:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/fmcg/nestle-scales-up-financial-medical-aid-to-
employees/articleshow/83110410.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Google
Source:- https://www.wired.com/story/google-hopes-ai-turn-search-conversation/

Google offering its employees to request weekly home COVID-19 test. The search engine tech
giant has over 90,000 employees in the US who can request a free COVID test. Google rolled
out the new perk last week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The report states that the demand for the free COVID-19 test was so great that the external site
to get a test crashed shortly after it went live. Google employees will get the polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) test kit within four days of requesting. Their COVID-19 test reports will be
returned within two days after completing the nasal swab, and a lab receiving the test samples.
Google is said to have partnered with BioIQ and will pay $50 (roughly Rs 3,700) per test. This
would cost nearly $4.5 million per week if all 90,000 employees decided to take the test.

Currently, only Google US employees are eligible for the free test. A Google spokesperson
told The Verge that interns will be eligible for the program as well and that it should be
expanding to international employees in 2021. Employees working from home are also eligible
to take advantage of the free perk. This is unlike many other companies, which are offering
COVID-19 tests only to their on-site employees working on the field.
Google hopes to reduce the number of asymptomatic spreaders should any of its employees get
infected by the coronavirus. 
Source:- moneycontrol.com
Britannia Industries Limited has announced Covid-19 relief measures to support over 10,000
frontline personnel.

These frontline people include sales personnel and merchandisers employed with its distributors
pan-India.

Britannia is offering a term insurance policy and hospitalisation insurance of ₹2 lakh and ₹1
lakh respectively, to people affected by Covid-19. It is also contributing ₹2 lakh each to the
bereaved families of the personnel who were not insured earlier.

The company is offering domiciliary Covid treatment worth ₹7,500 for patients who need
support at home, apart from reimbursing vaccination costs, it said in a release.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/