Nitin Kamath, a fitness enthusiast, constantly encourages Zerodha employees to be conscious of their health. So much so that employees are rewarded and encouraged to participate in fitness challenges organized by the company. However, when Zerodha announced the BMI challenge for its employees, the move was strongly criticized by netizens. Defending the target, the Zerodha boss also pointed out that it is the company’s responsibility to ensure that employees think about their health as well.
Kamat on Friday shared context about his ‘fun’ health program at workplace on social media. On a LinkedIn post, he shared, the average age of the team has gone up to 30 (we haven’t actually hired), and health levels have declined over the past 2 years due to the stress of WFH and the pandemic. So as a company, the team has to do whatever it takes to inspire everyone to think about their health.
What is the BMI Challenge?
Kamath on Thursday shared that the company will give half a month’s salary as bonus to any employee with a body mass index (BMI) less than 25.
He offered each employee half a month’s salary as a bonus if the team manages to achieve an average target of less than 24 BMI by the month of August.
Zerodha has been taking such initiatives since WFH was started due to the pandemic. Talking about them, he added in the post, last year we let everyone on the team set health goals and run a lottery among those who met their goals. 10 kg. Was successful, but participation was not broad-based.
We ran online yoga sessions and provided mental health counselors for the team during the lockdown.
The plan is to take everyone to a diagnostic center once a year for health check-up, but it has been a challenge considering WFH and most of our team is not in the metro. We thought instead of procrastinating, a good way is to start with a few, read the post as well.
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