BRAVEday Blog

How corporate wellness programs improve talent attraction and retention

Written by Tania | Aug 28, 2017 8:15:00 PM

You want to attract and retain the best and brightest for your business. What company doesn’t? The success of your enterprise rests on the shoulders of your talent attraction and retention, and those who manage to capture the interest of these rising stars or experienced hands will soon outpace their competitors in quality.

That’s a nice sentiment, but if you’re anything like us, you’ll be asking “so how do you actually do that, exactly?”. Is it better pay, better benefits, better culture? Certainly. But these aren’t always factors that you can control, or offer to new hires from the get-go. So what’s the solution?

Read more: Wellness 101: What business leaders need to know

We present the humble wellness program, and we’d like to show you how it can help you attract and retain the talent you need.

 

Talent attraction

Modern workers are becoming more and more aware of the sheer amount of time they spend every week at work. More specifically, they are becoming more and more aware of how much this time can affect their physical and mental health. Workplace accidents, high levels of stress, ongoing issues brought on by a non-ergonomic work environment—and that’s just on a Monday!

The point is that people are tired of being sick and sick of being tired at work—and they know the solution is a wellness program. In fact, one study found that 88 per cent of employees said that an organisation was a top choice for their future employment if they had corporate wellness programs in place.

88 per cent of employees said that an organisation was a top choice for their future employment if they had a wellness program in place.

Maybe that’s why the majority of the biggest and best employers around the world have one.

These top players know that the fight against lifestyle disease such as high stress, obesity and diabetes (to name just a few) isn’t only fought in the kitchen and the gym, but the workplace too.

Ask yourself: do you want to be able to compete with these global businesses? Do you want to be able to attract the people you need to be successful? Do you care about the health of your workers as much they expect you to? If the answer is yes, and it certainly should be, you need a wellness program.

 

Talent retention

The idea of company loyalty as a given is swiftly becoming a thing of the past as people prefer to prioritise mobility, particularly amongst the younger generations. In fact, millennials (the future of your workforce) only stay at a workplace for an average of 2 years!

That would be a surprising figure by itself, but even more shocking are the reasons why people leave their workplace. One survey found that half of all professionals employed today said that they would leave their workplace if their wellbeing needs were not met. People want to feel comfortable at work, both mentally and physically; but ironically, the same survey found that the vast majority of hiring managers hugely underestimated how much of a factor wellness could be within their workplace.

Half of all professionals employed today said that they would leave their workplace if their wellbeing needs were not met. 

We don’t think you want to be one of those managers. All too often, employers recognise that wellness is a priority, but still put it far too low on their list. As a result, their best-and-brightest simply walk away, which is a real shame considering that wellness programs can be so simple to implement with the right assistance.

We’re a testament to the effectiveness of a wellness programme on staff retention here at BRAVEday, as we’ve seen a significant improvement in staff morale and tenure.

 

Summary

Wellness programs are an important piece of the attraction-retention puzzle. If you want the best, you have to offer them what they want—and the writing on the wall is spelling that out loud and clear.

Our wellness programme has a really positive impact on our recruitment and retention. Our staff turnover is very low and new staff coming on board love the fact that we ‘gift’ them the three work days between Christmas and New Year’s so that they can have a longer holiday break without using up their annual leave.  

Be a wise employer, and consider a wellness program!

 

To find out more about wellness programs and what they can do for you, read our free ebook available below.