Analyzing Employee Well-being Scores in India’s Logistics Sector

Sustainability has become a pivotal focus for modern organizations, emphasizing balancing economic growth with environmental and social responsibilities (Lozano & Garcia, 2020). India’s logistics sector shows dynamic shifts in workforce development priorities between 2023 and 2024. While health and safety training witnessed a decline for both employees and workers, skill upgrade initiatives saw significant growth. Companies like Blue Dart Express and VRL Logistics led in training volumes, while others like Delhivery and Sindhu Trade Links showed emerging commitment to training programs in 2024.

Incorporating employee well-being into sustainability initiatives enhances employees’ quality of life and fosters a more engaged and productive workforce, which is crucial for long-term business success (Gupta et al., 2022; Madero-Gómez et al., 2023).

Balancing Growth and Safety in India’s Logistics Sector

In India’s logistics sector, employee well-being is increasingly recognized, with companies implementing various initiatives such as health programs, work-life balance policies, and mental health support to enhance the workplace environment (Menon, 2023). However, despite this, the value for Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) is high in different logistic companies like TVS Supply Chain LTIFR value is 1.06 in FY 2023-24 (TVS Supply Chain Solutions Limited, 2024) and Blue D art Express Limited LTIFR is 3.81 in FY 2023-24 (Blue Dart Express Limited, 2024). This created the need for having examination of the well-being score in the Indian logistic industry for designing a strategy to improve the overall well-being of employees.

Businesses should respect and promote the well-being of all employees, including those in their value chains.

Goal 3 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs, n.d.

Business Sustainability and Responsibility (BSBR) reports were extracted (NBCC India, 2021). The final list of indicators selected for the goal is as follows:

Overall company status indicators

• Company name
• Year
• National Office
• International Office
• Total employees
• Total workers
• Total differently abled employees
• Total differently-abled workers
• Percentage of female in Board of directors
• % of females in key management personnel
• CSR expense (% of average profit)

Goal 3 indicators

• The cost incurred on well-being measures as a % of the total
• revenue of the company
• Training to employees On Health and
• Safety measures
• Training to employees on skill upgradation
• Training to workers On Health and
• Safety measures
• Training to workers on skill upgradation
• Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) (per one million person-hours worked) – employees
• Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) (per one million person-hours worked) =- workers
• Total recordable work-related injuries – employees
• Total recordable work-related injuries – workers
• Complaints filed on Working Conditions
• Complaints filed on Health and Safety

Health and Safety Training Distribution

As highlighted in the data Preparation and Transformation article, the key issues with the data were non-relevant rows inclusion, non-definition of headers, wrong data types specification, presence of null values, and having all principle data compiled in one datasheet. All these issues were resolved and the final datasheet for the goal is prepared.

After cleaning the data, a basic overview was done to give a better picture of the overall employee well-being. The step involved having pivot data analysis and visualization of information. The pivot table shows the following:

The table shows that Blue Dart Express Limited has the highest number of employees trained, with 19,671 employees in 2023. However, their numbers dropped significantly to 12,656 in 2024, indicating a possible reduction in training focus or the completion of a major training initiative in 2023. VRL Logistics Limited also shows high training numbers, with 7,042 in 2023 and 7,134 in 2024, maintaining consistent training efforts. Delhivery Limited had no employees trained in 2023 but introduced training in 2024. Sindhu Trade Links Limited similarly reported no data for 2023 but trained 1,153 employees in 2024. TCI Express Limited, and TVS Supply Chain Solutions Limited show relatively consistent training numbers across both years. Several companies, such as Aegis Logistics Limited,  Agarwal Industrial Corporation, Gateway Distripark Limited, Transport Corporation of India Limited and Allcargo Logistics, report relatively low numbers of employees trained on health and safety measures. The slight decline in the overall number of employees trained from 2023 to 2024 could indicate varying approaches by companies, possibly due to changing priorities, completion of training cycles, or other external factors like budget constraints.

The Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) increased for both employees and workers from 2023 to 2024, highlighting a growing concern in workplace safety within the logistics industry. Employees saw a relatively smaller increase from 4.9 to 5.6, but it still suggests more injuries occurred per million person-hours in 2024 compared to 2023. Workers, however, faced a more significant rise in injuries, with the LTIFR jumping from 3.0 to 5.2. This sharp increase indicates a potential decline in safety measures or increased exposure to hazards for workers in 2024. Also, individual company-wise assessment shows that the details were available only for Blue Dart Express Limited, Delhivery Limited and TVS supply chain wherein only for the TVS supply chain, did the value of LTIFR decrease while for the other 2 companies, there has been increase in LTIFR. The increase in LTIFR for both employees and workers in 2024 suggests that the logistics industry might need to reassess its health and safety protocols to better protect its workforce.

From Safety to Skill Development in India’s Logistics Sector

The above shows a comparison of training data for employees and workers on health and safety as well as skill upgradation in the logistics industry. The number of employees trained in health and safety decreased between 2023 and 2024. This suggests that companies have reduced efforts in providing health and safety training to their employees. The training for workers in health and safety measures saw a decrease from 27K in 2023 to 22K in 2024. This shows a sharp decline in efforts of the companies towards training workers. The data for employees receiving skill upgrade training shows an increase from 6K in 2023 to 14K in 2024. This significant jump reflects a strong initiative to enhance employees’ skills, showing a positive trend in upskilling the workforce. A notable increase is observed in workers’ skill upgrade training, which rose from 37K in 2023 to 41K in 2024. This rise suggests a modest focus of companies on improving workers’ skills over time, although it indicates limited growth in upskilling efforts. This graph indicates that the logistics industry has reduced health and safety training efforts for employees and workers. However, it shows a much stronger focus on upskilling employees and workers in 2024, which could help address skill gaps and improve overall industry performance in the coming years.

While there has been a focus on providing training to employees and workers for skill upgradation, the LTIFR rate for employees and workers also increased showing less emphasis on maintaining the health and safety of the workforce. This was also evident from less training programs existence on health and safety of employees and workers in 2024. These insights provided a brief overview of the employee well-being status in the Indian logistic industry however, for a more detailed assessment, there is a need to have a statistical examination of the selected indicators.

Reference

• Blue Dart Express Limited. (2024). Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) for the Financial Year ended 31st March, 2024. https://nsearchives.nseindia.com/corporate/BLUEDART_25062024195742_SELETTERBRSR2506.pdf
• Gupta, J., Suresh, R., Krishnappa, R., & Sharma, A. (2022). Employee Well-Being Initiatives: A Critical analysis of HRM Practices. Educational Administration: Theory and Practice, 30(5), 6808–6815. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380799329_Employee_Well-Being_Initiatives_A_Critical_Analysis_Of_HRM_Practices
• Lozano, R., & Garcia, I. (2020). Scrutinizing sustainability change and its institutionalization in organizations. Frontiers in Sustainability, 1. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2020.00001
• Madero-Gómez, S. M., Leal, Y. L. R., Olivas-Luján, M., & Yusliza, M. Y. (2023). Companies could benefit when they focus on employee wellbeing and the environment: A Systematic Review of Sustainable Human Resource Management. Sustainability, 15(6), 5435. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065435
• Menon, R. (2023). Employee wellbeing: the driving force behind logistics excellence. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employee-wellbeing-driving-force-behind-logistics-excellence-menon-aci8f/
• Goal 3 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (n.d.). https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3
• TVS Supply Chain Solutions Limited. (2024). Submission of Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report for the Financial Year 2023- 24. https://nsearchives.nseindia.com/corporate/CSCOMPLIANCE_19072024184427_BRSR.pdf