Measuring Employee Well-being in the Indian Logistics Sector

By Riya Jain & Abhinash Jena on December 26, 2024

Employee well-being is a multi-dimensional concept that includes employees’ emotional state, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction (Dong & Yan, 2022). Employee well-being extends beyond physical health to emotional and mental health by providing healthcare benefits, fair compensation, skill development, and flexible working hours (Rahman & Tahseen, 2023).

The significant influence of employee well-being on retention rates, engagement and productivity has made it a top priority for organizations (Reidhead, 2021). In today’s time, organizations need to focus more on employee welfare for it contributes to increasing their loyalty, productivity, and creativity leading to better financial outcomes (Rahman & Tahseen, 2023). Additionally, promoting well-being is an ethical responsibility, recognizing that employees are individuals with diverse needs. Employee well-being is closely tied to broader sustainability efforts, as organizations prioritising well-being often align with global sustainability goals. By cultivating a healthy and motivated workforce, companies enhance their long-term viability while promoting sustainable practices (Li & Hu, 2024).

This study explores the connection between employee well-being and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. SDG 12 emphasizes the importance of sustainable business practices that mitigate environmental and social impacts. Organizations that focus on employee well-being are more likely to adopt comprehensive and responsible consumption strategies, reducing waste and optimizing resource use. For example, wellness programs not only promote healthy lifestyles but also encourage environmentally conscious behaviours and mindful consumption, contributing to more responsible production processes within the organization.

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Employee Well-being Analysis

The previous article highlighted the rising Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) in Indian logistics companies and the limited transparency around its disclosure. This lack of disclosure reflects a diminished focus on workforce health and safety. Moreover, fewer efforts were made in 2024 compared to 2023 to train employees in health and safety, underscoring the need to analyze how the Indian logistics industry’s approach to employee well-being is evolving.

To address this issue, this article aims to evaluate methods for measuring employee well-being in Indian logistics companies. Building on earlier findings, data from fourteen companies has been collected, covering eleven basic indicators and eleven principle S3 indicators for the years 2023 and 2024. The analysis will leverage the Power BI DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) command process to compute the indicators and derive overall employee well-being scores.

Computing Training Coverage for Employee Well-being

The percentage of the workforce receiving training is crucial to understanding the investment in health, safety, and skill upgradation. The logistics industry of India faces challenges related to employee skill development, health and safety due to their exposure to chemical pollutants, fire spread, collisions, mechanical failures, adverse weather conditions, or hazardous materials, thus, improving the efficiency and productivity of the sector, assurance of health and safety in the industry is essential (Lovas et al., 2021; Agarwal, 2023). Also, as in India out of twenty-two million employees employed by the Indian logistics industry, only 4.7% of them are formally skilled, so there is also a need for identifying skill gaps and enhancing workforce capabilities (Arora Bhola, 2024).

Percentage Employees Training HealthSafety = DIVIDE(SUM('Goal 3'[Training to employees On Health andSafety measures]), SUM('Goal 3'[Total employees]))

Percentage Employees Training SkillUpgradation = DIVIDE(SUM('Goal 3'[Training to employees on skill upgradation]), SUM('Goal 3'[Total employees]))

Share of employees receiving training = DIVIDE(SUMX('Goal 3', 'Goal 3'[Training to employees On Health andSafety measures]+'Goal 3'[Training to employees on skill upgradation]), SUM('Goal 3'[Total employees]))

Percentage Workers Training HealthSafety = DIVIDE(SUM('Goal 3'[Training to workers On Health andSafety measures]), SUM('Goal 3'[Total workers]))

Percentage Workers Training SkillUpgradation = DIVIDE(SUM('Goal 3'[Training to workers on skill upgradation]), SUM('Goal 3'[Total workers]))

Share of workers receiving training = DIVIDE(SUMX('Goal 3', 'Goal 3'[Training to workers On Health andSafety measures]+'Goal 3'[Training to workers on skill upgradation]), SUM('Goal 3'[Total workers]))

Percentage of workforce with Recordable Work-Related Injuries

The safety metrics focus on the percentage of employees and workers with recordable work-related injuries. The workforce in the Indian logistics industry often faces risks of exposure to dangerous materials, traffic accidents, and manual handling (Agarwal, 2023). This results in creating the need to maintain safety for the workforce by having the identification of the workforce with recordable work-related injuries. For this, the following DAX commands are used.

Percentage Employees Recordable Injuries = DIVIDE(SUM('Goal 3'[Total recordable work-related injuries - employees]), SUM('Goal 3'[Total Employees]))

Percentage Workers Recordable Injuries = DIVIDE(SUM('Goal 3'[Total recordable work-related injuries - workers]), SUM('Goal 3'[Total workers]))

Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR)

As the previous milestone highlighted, the Indian logistics industry has witnessed an increase in LTIFR for logistics companies. However as this value is for one million person-hours worked, therefore for a better understanding of lost time injury this indicator needs to be computed. 

LTIFR-worker = DIVIDE(SUMX('Goal 3', 'Goal 3'[Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) (per one millionperson hours worked) =- workers]), 1000000)

LTIFR-employee = DIVIDE(SUMX('Goal 3', 'Goal 3'[Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) (per one millionperson hours worked) - employees]), 1000000)

Percentage of Differently Abled Employees and Workers

The presence of differently abled employees and workers in the workforce is essential for adhering to the hiring practice and maintaining a workplace environment which supports diversity and inclusion. As most of the Indian logistic companies have almost 0% share of differently abled employees (TVS Supply Chain Solutions Limited, 2024; Blue Dart Express Limited, 2024), therefore, there is a need to have an understanding of the inclusive environment of the logistic industry to have better information about the employment of differently abled employees and workers in the industry. 

Total differently abled employment (Goal 3) = SUMX('Goal 3', 'Goal 3'[Total differently abled employees]+'Goal 3'[Total differently abled workers])

Total employment (Goal 3) = SUMX('Goal 3', 'Goal 3'[Total employees]+'Goal 3'[Total workers])

Differently abled employment percentage (Goal 3) = DIVIDE([Total differently abled employment (Goal 3)], [Total employment (Goal 3)])

Computing the Share of Complaints

There are issues in the Indian logistic industry like poor working conditions, low pay scale or poor manpower policies which result in reducing employee satisfaction and productivity (Juneja, 2023). The reporting of these complaints by employees shows the focus of industries towards handling employee complaints however low rate of complaints depicts less focus of industries on encouraging the recording of issues. 

Share Complaints Working Conditions = DIVIDE(SUM('Goal 3'[Complaints filed on Working Conditions]), [Total employment (Goal 3)])

Share Complaints Health and Safety = DIVIDE(SUM('Goal 3'[Complaints filed on Health and safety]), [Total employment (Goal 3)])

Average Percentage of Female Representation

In the dynamic logistics industry, women are breaking norms and stereotypes by being part of a mostly known male-dominated industry. As of 2018, women held a share of 20% of the logistic workforce (Cleopatra, 2024). Though the industry is becoming more open for women but still as mostly the focus is on keeping women in workforce but not in leadership roles. The need to build a more inclusive environment requires having more females included in leadership roles too, so herein, the following command was used to understand the existing status of women in the leadership role.

Average Female Percentage (Goal 3) = AVERAGEX('Goal 3', ('Goal 3'[% of female in key management personnel]+'Goal 3'[Percentage of female in Board of directors])/2)

Employee well-being performance

To compute the employee well-being performance for the logistics company, each indicator is assigned a weight, and the overall well-being score is computed.

  • Training Coverage: 20%
  • Safety Metrics: 40%
  • Diversity Metrics: 20%
  • Well-being Expenditure: 10%
  • Complaints Analysis: 10%

Based on these weights, the following DAX formula was used to compute the well-being performance score.

Wellbeing Score = SUMX('Goal 3', ((([Share of employees receiving training] + [Share of workers receiving training]) / 2)* 0.20) +((([Percentage Employees Recordable Injuries] +[Percentage Workers Recordable Injuries] +[LTIFR-employee] + [LTIFR-worker] ) / 4) * 0.40) + ((( [Share Complaints Working Conditions] + [Share Complaints Health and Safety]) / 2) * 0.10 ) + (([Differently abled employment percentage (Goal 3)] + [Average Female Percentage (Goal 3)] )/2 * 0.20) +('Goal 3'[Cost incurred on well-being measures as a % of totalrevenue of the company]))
#Overall score
7.53

Employee well-being scoring

Based on the calculated score value, the performance status of the industry was identified based on the  following criteria:

  • Excellent (80-100 points): Outstanding performance
  • Good (60-79 points): Solid performance
  • Average (40-59 points): Moderate performance
  • Below Average (20-39 points): Poor performance
  • Poor (0-19 points): Minimal 
Wellbeing Score Category = SWITCH(TRUE( ), [Wellbeing Score] >= 80, "Excellent", [Wellbeing Score] >= 60, "Good", [Wellbeing Score] >= 40, "Average", [Wellbeing Score] >= 20, "Below Average", "Poor")
Overall score = 20
Result = Poor

By focusing on comprehensive indicators such as training coverage, safety metrics, complaints analysis, and diversity metrics, the article provided a thorough assessment of how companies in the Indian logistics sector support their employees. The findings highlight significant gaps in the sector’s approach to workforce health and safety, as reflected in low scores for the well-being performance of the Indian Logistics sector. Addressing these shortcomings requires a strategic shift towards prioritizing employee-centric policies, including enhanced training programs, inclusive hiring practices, and improved safety standards. As the logistics industry strives to align with Sustainable Development Goals, fostering employee well-being can serve as a pivotal step toward achieving both business and sustainability objectives.

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Measuring Employee Well-being Metrics in Logistics with Power BI DAX

References

NOTES

I am an interdisciplinary educator, researcher, and technologist with over a decade of experience in applied coding, educational design, and research mentorship in fields spanning management, marketing, behavioral science, machine learning, and natural language processing. I specialize in simplifying complex topics such as sentiment analysis, adaptive assessments and data visualizatiion. My training approach emphasizes real-world application, clear interpretation of results and the integration of data mining, processing, and modeling techniques to drive informed strategies across academic and industry domains.

I am a Senior Analyst at Project Guru, a research and analytics firm based in Gurugram since 2012. I hold a master’s degree in economics from Amity University (2019). Over 4 years, I have worked on worked on various research projects using a range of research tools like SPSS, STATA, VOSViewer, Python, EVIEWS, and NVIVO. My core strength lies in data analysis related to Economics, Accounting, and Financial Management fields.

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