To attract the best talent, you need to invest in your current workplace. Whether you struggle to fill positions or you’re looking to boost the quality of your applicants, our top 10 tips are here to help. Continue reading to learn how you can attract the very best in your industry. 1. Invest in Healthy Lifestyles Workplace health and safety is vital in attracting and retaining top talent. Employees want to work for businesses that care about their wellbeing, and employers have much to benefit from a healthy, motivated workforce. Show your current employees, community, and your industry’s talent pool that your company cares about more than their bottom line. Suggest standing or walking meetings to make the most of meeting time. Invest in standing desks to limit sedentary behaviour in offices. Reward and recognise healthy lifestyles and changes towards healthy behaviour. Partner with a local fitness centre for company discounts. Implement health and wellness programs to educate employees about the importance of physical and mental wellbeing. WHA offers a variety of workplace and corporate health services to help you optimise the health and wellbeing of your team. Our health and wellness programs are designed based on leading industry data and are tailored to meet the specific needs of your organisation. 2. Encourage Holidays Day after day of working long hours without adequate time to rest and recuperate will establish a burnt out and anxiety-ridden work culture. A 2018 survey of 1000 Australian workers found “the equivalent of 2.4 million full-time working Australians have gone without taking leave for more than a year, with 86% experiencing burnout as a result of not taking enough leave.” Stand apart from your competition. Make taking leave a priority for you and your employees. Vacations are scientifically proven to be good for your health, and they send a clear signal to prospective employees that you will be a company that values their wellness. 3. Provide Routine Health Checks Routine health checks can identify signs of heart disease, mental illness, and aging, as well as workplace injuries or illness. Help your workforce detect health problems early so that you and your employees can immediately address and manage any issues that should arise. 15% of Australians are 65 or older, with that percentage expected to increase by at least 5% within 20 years. It’s fair to say the symptoms of aging and the adverse health effects that come with it will only become more prevalent in the years to come. Ongoing employee health checks reduce downtime, workplace injuries, WorkCover claims, and insurance costs. They help to ensure your workforce can remain happy and healthy for years to come, and make it clear to current and prospective employees that their physical and mental health will be valued throughout their time with your company. 💡 Learn more in The Importance of Employee Health Checks. WHA offers comprehensive medical assessments using a proprietary software that manages the entire medical from booking to processing to delivering your results. Learn more about our employment medical services available at our facilities across Australia and New Zealand, or on-site for your convenience. 4. Invest in Mental Health 9 out of 10 Australian employees believe a workplace that supports mental health initiatives is crucial to the success of the company, but only 5 out of 10 believe their workplace is a mentally healthy environment, according to a study by HeadsUp.org. Encourage a work environment that is understanding, one that not only promotes but enables mental wellness. Empowering your employees to find the help they require leads to a healthy, productive, and motivated workplace. For candidates, a work environment that promotes mental wellness lets them know they’ll be valued and taken care at their place of work. 5. Ditch Overtime Enable your workforce to work smarter not harder by putting a limit on overtime. Having your employees work long hours with few breaks doesn’t enable productivity; it hinders it. Employees who overexert themselves by working longer hours run the risk of making poor decisions and workplace mistakes, as well as developing serious mental health issues. If it’s feasible for your business to do so, end overtime hours completely, and ensure no employee is working more than their allotted hours. 💡 Learn more about the Negative Effects of Working Long Hours. People want to work for companies that understand their needs as individuals. A prospective employee that could spend the next decade or two of their life with your company won’t want to do so if it means never being able to see their friends and family. 6. Free Snacks and Lunches If you want to attract top talent, free food that’s delicious and nutritious is certainly a step in the right direction. Have tea, coffee, and healthy snacks accessible to your employees so they always have an opportunity to recharge whenever they need to. Consider a daily or weekly catered lunch courtesy of a local food vendor or restaurant. Providing a free and healthy meal made from whole foods alleviates employee stress, which allows them to focus on their work. Free food is a simple and cost-effective perk that will keep your current employees happy and spark interest in potential candidates who love getting their hands on a free meal. 7. Prioritise Flexibility A flexible work environment is a paramount concern among millennials when compared to baby boomers and members of generation X. According to a FlexJobs survey of 3000, 82 percent of millennials cite work flexibility as a factor when choosing where they’d like to work. Considering how many millennials make up the talent pool, it makes sense to invest in a flexible workplace. Allowing employees more flexibility in any way builds trust between you and your staff and makes your business a more desirable place to work. Encourage flexibility inside and outside the workplace: Allow long lunch breaks so employees have time to get out of the office. Give time off for physical activity. Offer flexible hours (ex. 9-5 plus or minus 2). Let employees work an extra hour each day in exchange for every second Friday off. Allow employees to take extended unpaid leaves for travel or significant life events. 8. Offer Remote Opportunities Ensuring your company promotes and enables work-life balance is vital to attracting and retaining talent. If your employees do most of their work via their laptop, do they need to be in the office to get it done? The option to work remotely gives employees more flexibility while adding balance to their lives. It illustrates how much you trust your team and shows mutual respect. The ability to work from home in general or on occasion could be the deciding factor for potential candidates. A day working from home could mean a great deal for families, people with elderly loved ones, or those who have a long commute to and from work. 9. Provide a Way Up Prospective candidates want to know that they can go somewhere with the job you are offering them. Do you have a process for employees to advance within your company? How do employees move up at your business? Without opportunities for promotion within your company, you’re only offering temporary, stagnant employment. To attract the very best of the talent pool, ensure you are clear about how employees can advance their career with you. This strategy will help you retain your talent too! 10. Attract from the Inside Employees talk. Word gets around. If your workforce is unhappy and your employees dislike their workplace, that message will get out to your industry, community, and prospective talent pool. The good news is that the same thing will happen when your workforce is happy. Ensuring the overall happiness and wellbeing of your workforce will help you attract talent from the inside out. A happy and satisfied workforce will talk about how much they enjoy working for your company, and the word will spread. Encourage employee referrals by offering bonus incentives for successful candidates that were recommended by a current employee. Workforce Health Assessors offers comprehensive pre-employment, pre-placement, and periodic medical assessments tailored to the needs of your business. We organise, perform, and report on all health assessments and medicals to help you determine the suitability of candidates for your business and mitigate risks in the workplace. Our tests are carefully designed and vary depending on the specifications of the role a candidate will fill. Learn more about our pre-employment medical services, ongoing employee health checks and other health assessment services. Continue Supporting Your Workforce With the high cost of workplace turnover, selecting your next team member is critical to the success of your business. Before you make a decision, here are 10 Things to Consider in Your Next Hire. Sitting for long hours is linked to many adverse health effects, including increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, and excess body fat. Learn how employees and employers can Reduce Sedentary Behaviour at Work.