I had a prospect client last week
who referred to a competitor who had installed an office gym to attract talent.
I had flashbacks of my PricewaterhouseCoopers time in the late nineties where
the new office featured not only a bar and a shopping service but also a fully
equipped gym. Not that we ever used it…after all, you don’t want to sit in the
office with a sweaty, red face after a lunch workout.
Nevertheless, it triggered my mind.
After several years of relative silence, workplace wellness appears to be back
in fashion and is considered as a way of wooing the scarce talent by several
trending companies. But can meditation sessions during lunch time or an in-house personal trainer be a competitive advantage when it comes down to attracting top talent?
Today’s talent attraction goes
beyond drafting a clear job description and assessing a person’s experience and
achievements. It is about finding the candidate who matches the DNA of your company
and who will be complementary to the other team members. At the same time, it
is about convincing the candidate that you can respond to their aspirations and
career goals.
To assess the benefits of corporate
health programs on talent acquisition, a distinction should be made between
people who are just entering the job market and more experienced professionals.
Millennials who are just entering
the workplace, are expecting more from a job than just a paycheck. This implies
that they want to get an insight into what it is like to work in your company.
Consequently, it pays off to invest
in building a solid employer brand. Workplace wellness programs can help you in
defining that brand and set you apart from the competition. Group workouts and lunch
yoga sessions are excellent opportunities to show what’s behind the scenes of
your workplace. Next to that, it is great PR.
More experienced professionals on
the other hand, have different objectives. They are looking for the next step
in their career or a company whose culture is in line with their values. They
are likely to be far less attracted by state-of-the-art wellness programs
unless it has become an integral part of the working culture.
Participating in a Hercules challenge to increase team-building, a pro-active
burn-out prevention program supported by top management or a company restaurant
offering healthy meals will send a message that you care about the well-being
of your employees.
This approach might give you the
competitive advantage that you are looking for as it is a perfect example of
the “show,
don’t tell”-approach to marketing. You’re
putting your money where your mouth is by illustrating exactly how your company
invests in the wellbeing of its employees.
But let’s be realistic, without a
solid vision for the future, strong leadership and sufficient opportunities for
career growth, promoting a corporate health program is merely window dressing
and will not convince top-talent to choose your company as their next employer.
Implementing a wellness approach is
just one of the new ways of working that are trending now. In the coming weeks,
I want to look some other trends and the way they impact the attraction of
talent. So, should you have any innovative new ways of working, let me know!
I look forward to hearing from you,
Isabel
Through a personalized and
tailor-made approach, Ingenium Executive Search aspires to assist you in
attracting the right talent that matches the DNA of your company
Follow me on Twitter
@IngeniumSearch
