When seeking employment, candidates research the hiring company as much as the company researches the individual. It is therefore extremely important for employers to protect their reputation and proffer a successful brand. Let’s see how Health & Wellbeing Programmes could become an excellent ally! 

It is said that a satisfied client is the best form of marketing.  So, what can we say about an employee, who feels valued and fully shares the company values? This really is the winning ticket! 

Work today is seen as a means to achieve self-realisation, perhaps more so than in previous generations; hence it must go hand-in-hand with the ideas, values and the vision an employee may hold. 

The idea that work was simply a means to earning a living is long surpassed. In a highly competitive market, which is increasingly moving towards a higher degree of specialisation and advanced technologies, it is necessary for the employer and employee to be on the same wavelength.  Think of those companies who use one or more of their employees in company advertisements, since who could be better placed to speak of the strengths of the company? 

A recent survey on Linkedin has shown that 49% jobseekers feel the greatest obstacle when looking for a job, is not knowing what it would be like to work for a particular company. Hence, the image a company projects is a key element in the job hunt.

To attract the right talent for your organisation, it is therefore critical to concentrate your efforts in Employer Branding.  By definition, the Employer Brand reveals the perception of a brand or company by the workforce or potential future employees. 

The perception of the brand or company is essentially made up of two components:

    • How employees perceive working for the company

    • What it is really like to work for the company 

To create a successful employer brand you need to balance company reputation and reality. You also need to remain as objective as possible, in order to maintain a healthy balance between expectations that may arise and the work reality itself. If a company’s reputation should surpass the reality of daily work environment, people may be attracted to join; but once they arrive, they soon realise reality does not match their expectations and so they leave.

Job seekers today research the hiring company as much as it researches the potential candidates. It is easy to understand why a negative perception of the Employer’s Brand may deter the best talent from applying. 

But what can be done to promote your own work environment, where talented, motivated, creative people would wish to work? Some would argue that a Health & Wellbeing Programme is a good foundation upon which to build a strong Employer Brand. This would enable a company to distinguish itself from the competition, demonstrating that it proactively supports health & wellbeing of its workforce; especially in an age where thanks to technology, we never really stop working with extreme pressures at work and “burnout” increasingly common experiences. 

Organisations offering a good Health & Wellbeing Programme, which not only includes benefits such as health-checks in affiliated medical centres, subsidies for memberships to gymnasiums etc., but also includes internal initiatives, such as days dedicated to learning about nutrition and healthy eating, group stretching exercises, coaching to learn how to better manage stress and achieve a work-life balance, tend to have happier and more satisfied employees, who stay for longer and become its best advocates. This helps to build a stronger reputation, a more pleasing and alluring Employer Brand to attract best talent among jobseekers.