In India, the workplace often extends beyond a professional setting. It is where many individuals spend a significant portion of their lives. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the average employed Indian works 46.7 hours per week, with over 51% clocking 49 or more hours, far exceeding the global average of 38 hours.

As workplaces increasingly become a second home, it is crucial for organizations to foster environments that prioritize not just productivity but also the health and mental well-being of their people. Supporting employees in this way is no longer just a professional obligation, it has become a moral one.

Deepa Chadha, CHRO, TATA 1mg, believes that fostering a self-empowered culture for employees is the need of the hour as the way forward for any organization lies in co-creation. Speaking on maintaining a thriving environment at workplaces, Chadha says, “The post-pandemic workplace made it clear that the old playbook needs a rewrite. Employees are seeking meaning and empowerment beyond flexibility or well-being initiatives. And companies must balance this with performance, agility, and customer expectations.”

“It’s not a choice between well-being and business outcomes, but about designing ways of working where both can thrive in harmony,” she adds.

This sentiment is in line with the People Matters Survey (2024), which revealed that the employees in India value flexibility, empathetic leadership, and psychological safety as top contributors to well-being.

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Echoing the similar thought, Abhishek Mehrotra, CHRO, Yubi Group, notes, “Our focus must shift from a ‘time spent’ metric to a ‘value created’ paradigm. The goal is to maximize output and innovation by optimizing conditions for human performance, not just by demanding more hours.”

In light of increasing discourse on the 70-hour workweek, Sudeep Sharma, Vice President and Head, HR, Learning and Administration, HCL Healthcare, elaborates on the critical role of well-being. He states, “It is clear that working 70 hours a week is unsustainable and unrealistic for most; yet, dedicating strategically allocated additional time can yield meaningful enhancements in productivity and performance.”

He highlights that the core challenge lies in accurately identifying and deeply understanding priorities, both organizational and personal, and aligning actions accordingly.

“This intentional alignment is essential to cultivating a sustainable work environment that respects diverse generational aspirations while advancing organizational excellence,” he adds.

Advancing a thriving environment

Creating a sustainable work environment doesn’t just enhance the overall workplace experience, it directly contributes to better outcomes for both employees and the organization.

According to the Gallup Survey 2024, thriving employees are 59% less likely to look for a new job and are more than twice as likely to adapt well to change. Beyond retention and resilience, the impact extends to business performance as well. Companies with thriving workplace cultures saw up to four times the revenue growth compared to their peers, as highlighted in the McKinsey 2022 Report.

In alignment with the report, Mehrotra believes that true organizational success isn’t about simply extracting more hours from the teams. It’s about fostering sustainable productivity rooted in employee well-being, two interconnected pillars that reinforce a thriving workforce and a high-performing organization.

He says, “As leaders, our responsibility is to champion a work culture that values human capital as its most precious asset. We can move beyond the outdated notion of simply working longer, towards a future where employees are empowered to work smarter, healthier, and with greater purpose, ultimately driving superior results for our organizations.”

He tells Livemint that moving beyond the set and redundant frameworks means asking one simple question every day: “Who might be feeling unseen and what can we do about it?”

Adding further to the narrative, Amit Prakash, CHRO, Marico Limited, says, “Shaping a thriving environment at the workplace, where human connections and business outcomes go hand-in-hand has become fundamental in today’s changing professional landscape. In the post-pandemic era, the contours of work are being redrawn with flexibility, work-life balance, and well-being emerging as key themes.”

Across the industry, it is increasingly clear that employees want more than policies; they want purpose, autonomy, and a culture that value outcomes over hours,” he further adds.

Fostering Diversity & Inclusion

Creating a holistic thriving environment for employees also accounts for the need for systemically enabling diversity and inclusion at the workplace. While organizations have policies in place to encourage gender ratio at the workplace, women and LGBTQIA+ participation in the workforce still remains abysmally low.

According to the findings of a study conducted by AIM Research in partnership with Chubb, women’s representation in India’s tech contractual workforce reached 32% in Feb 2025 (up from 29% in 2024); but their share in senior leadership remains low, growing only from 11.4% to 13.6%.

Speaking on this issue, Chadha adds, “When employees are part of shaping change – from opening Tata 1mg’s first all-women retail store to our digital upskilling pilots – inclusion becomes personal. People feel seen, valued and proud when they’re part of ‘firsts’.”

She is of the view that listening fuels relevance: Inclusion looks different across roles and life stages. And inclusion becomes real when it responds to lived realities.

“We are rooted in a simple belief: Everyone should feel empowered to claim their space. Just as we gravitate toward our favorite seat in a classroom or a familiar desk at work, our goal is to create an environment where every individual feels safe, seen, and supported to bring their authentic self to work,” she adds.

While there are growing talks about women’s participation in the workplace, LGBTQIA+ still struggle with feeling inclusive of the bigger picture of the organization. According to Deloitte India (2023), 70% of LGBTQ+ workers in India experienced non-inclusive behaviors at work—substantially higher than the global average of 42%.

Speaking on the inclusion across all genders, Sharma opines that the diversity extends far beyond gender distinctions to encompass varied regions, distinct geographies, a broad spectrum of professional roles, and dynamic intergenerational collaboration. “Authentic inclusion requires embracing this multifaceted diversity, thereby cultivating organizations that are not only resilient but also fertile grounds for innovation and excellence,” he says.

Elaborating on HCL Healthcare’s business, he adds, “Our footprint across 40 diverse Indian cities requires us to deftly navigate complex regional geographies and cultural nuances, all while upholding unwavering standards of clinical excellence. Our human capital is marked by rich ethnic and linguistic diversity, which calls for a corporate ethos rooted in inclusivity and cultural fluency.

Inclusion and diversity go far beyond annual celebrations like Women’s Day or Pride Month. It’s about continuously envisioning and reimagining a workplace that is soft, nurturing, and warm; a space where individuals feel safe, accepted, valued, and appreciated in both simple gestures and meaningful actions. It’s about celebrating not just important festivals, but the diverse lives and experiences of people every day.

To help organizations build such environments, Mint, in partnership with Deloitte, has launched Mint India’s Iconic Workplaces, a workplace excellence certification that serves as a guiding light for organizations committed to creating thriving, inclusive cultures and improving the overall quality of life for their employees.