Employee lifestyle costs $3.5 billion loss for Bengaluru’s IT sector

Poor health and lifestyle habits of employees are costing the nation’s IT capital billions of dollars every year.

In a survey conducted among 500-plus IT employees in Bengaluru across 10 leading tech companies, by research and advisory firm, Redseer Consulting, showed that productivity loss from health and lifestyle habits of employees was worth $3.5 billion (₹24,000 crore) to the IT sector in the city every year, which is 7 per cent of the total revenue of the sector which is around $50 billion.

Risk factors

The cost to IT sector due to productivity loss has been attributed to five key risk factors — physical inactivity, emotional & mental health, physical health, poor diet and substance abuse.

Physical inactivity and emotional & mental health contributes to 50 per cent of total cost due to productivity loss while physical health, poor diet and substance abuse contributes to the rest of the total cost due to productivity loss.

“Physical inactivity contributes to majority share of overall cost to IT industry resulting from productivity loss. We believe that there is an initial threshold among employees for physical activity and thus companies can partner with fitness players who can involve employees to reduce the threshold” said Ujjwal Chaudhry, Associate Director, RedSeer Consulting.

The consulting firm said this is the first time that an agency has attempted to quantify the productivity loss due to health and lifestyle factors in India. Employees in the age group of 30-40 years of age contributes to highest share which is 42 per cent of total cost to IT sector due to productivity loss.

However, employees in the age group of 30-40 years constitutes 35 per cent of the workforce in IT sector in Bangalore, while employees in the age group of 20-30 years constitutes 50 per cent of the workforce and contributes to 30 per cent of total cost due to productivity loss.

Also, employees in the age group of 30-40 years of age have higher share of loss due physical health and employees in the age group of 20-30 years of age have higher share of loss due to poor diet.

“The biggest finding of the report is contribution of ‘emotional and mental health’ to the loss of productivity. We believe that companies should take initiatives to help employees reduce mental stress through specific programs which will reflect in higher productivity” Chaudhry said.

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