Private sector lender, Kotak Mahindra Bank on Tuesday said it will be giving a 'fitness allowance' to its employees for their health and wellness. The employees will have to share their health and fitness goals with the bank to get the monthly fitness allowance, it said in a statement. 

The bank has also classified employees' roles as full-time or partially remote working ones, and will be giving a ''remote working allowance'' as per their role's classification, it said. 

Many employees, especially those not working in branches, have been working from home either full time or partially since the onset of the pandemic in March this year. While working from home in what are sedentary jobs, the employees have to depend on dedicated equipment for connectivity and also take care of their health. 

The bank said the two allowances have been introduced to give a boost to employees'' health and wellness in the new normal and will be applicable from December 1 onward. 

"The new normal has brought with it a unique set of challenges. In a work-from-home environment, it's been seen that work-life balance is getting impacted, and we give utmost importance to employee well being – physical and emotional, always," its group chief human resources officer Sukhjit Pasricha said. 

The bank has been conducting a range of activities to support the health and overall well-being of employees to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said.