Milena Atanassova is one of the founders of the social entrepreneurship platform Wellness Masters Hub Ltd. which offers integral solutions for corporate wellness. She is a psychologist with over 20 years of corporate experience in human resources and public relations. Today Milena tells us in detail about the importance and the role of employer branding for companies and talents and shares her professional experience on how to build and maintain a successful employer brand and a positive corporate culture.
Nowadays every organization is aware of the importance of a good employer brand. Howis this achieved in practice ?
Yes, it is good that most employers in Bulgaria are beginning to understand the importance of corporate reputation, the principle of building it and the role of corporate communications overall. Here I would like to point out the effort of colleagues from communication agencies and human resources agencies, who for more than a quarter of a century have been working to prove how important it is to consciously, purposefully and sustainably build the corporate brand, because it is an integral part of the business and it does not happen with one-off initiatives.
Employer Branding, in fact, is just the corporate brand through the prism of past, present and future people in the company. It can only be good when a company meets the expectations it creates and delivers on the promises it makes. When it is transparent, sincere and does not mislead its people. When it values them and respect their opinion. When it engages them both professionally and emotionally. When it respects their personal choices, gives them enough time and space to feel fulfilled in their personal lives. Simply put - it accepts its people as individuals, allows them to be and express themselves in the workplace, encourages them to develop so that through their own development they can develop the business as well. All the research so far shows that successful companies are successful precisely because of their people policies, the culture they have created and the healthy and encouraging climate they maintain. Every company is like a living organism and it is important that all the organs within are healthy first, only then comes growth – business development.
What role does corporate wellness play in strategies for the successful development and maintenance of a working and effective employer brand?
I love the wordplay, so I would answer this question like this: a well-developed comprehensive corporate wellness program would, in fact, be an excellent employer branding strategy in and of itself. Because it contains all the key components for a company to be a good employer. Just think about it: with such a program in place, people in the company will have the opportunity for prevention of their physical and mental health; for material security and financial literacy; for social and spiritual development, as well as for regular participation in various corporate and social responsibility initiatives that inspire them and unite them in smaller or larger groups. In a word, it is simple, but not easy to implement, because the development of such a program requires optimizing many processes in the company. And like everything integral, these programs require a thorough approach and serious resources - both intangible (attention, time) and tangible - financial and other means for implementation. Surely, though, it's an excellent investment that not only works for employee (and business) wellbeing, but saves huge costs from: recruitment and selection, onboarding and training, holidays, sick leave, extra absences. One Harvard Business School study, for example, showed a 600% return on investment in wellbeing programmes in the form of avoided sickness losses.
On the other hand, speaking of good employer branding and promotion, it's important to remember that communication always goes from the inside - out. That's why the best employers develop their teams not so much through advertisements , but thanks to recommendations from people within the company. Because they have well-developed referral programs and people are happy to recommend the company they work for. In general, this is a much more sustainable way to develop a team.
As a conclusion to this question, I will say that once developed, such a corporate wellness program works flawlessly in many directions and the best part is that it attracts the right people to the company because such programs rest on the specific values and business goals of the company for which they are made.
In times of change and uncertainty, how have people's views, expectations and attitudes changed within the company and what does this mean for the corporate culture as a whole?
Here I can share statistics from my personal experience as a psychologist, because in the last 2 and a half years a large part of my working time has been spent in individual consultations. I can certainly say that during the period of isolation people relied heavily on their employers not only for material security, but also for moral support and for training in order to adapt to the new reality - changes in processes and ways of working, as well as in their personal lives.
As I said, more and more people are considering their reasons for doing a job or choosing a job, looking for meaning in their work - not just material security. I note this as one of the essential and very significant psychological factors in people after the pandemic, and define it as a very positive change. If people are more aware, they won't start working in a place just for the pay, but will have a sustainable attitude towards the company itself precisely because of its culture. The more searching, thinking and aware people are (whether they are current or potential employees in a company), the better for both parties to reduce turnover and avoid unnecessary expenditure of resources.
The difficult period in the past 2 years was also very indicative of which employers are really interested in their people and care about their well-being and which only care about the product of people's work. During the pandemic, the corporate culture of the different companies was clearly evident in their actions towards people. Those companies that still do not understand how important the human factor is for their business are not few, and itis one of the main reasons for the slowing down of the development of the business itself.
Sharing his own experience, what are the most sought after and used practices for building corporate wellness and strengthening the employer brand?
Certainly over the last 2 years, the link between workplace wellbeing and employer branding has clearly emerged and several practices that support work-life balance have gradually come to the fore, such as the introduction of flexible working, the hybrid model or fully remote working; different innovations and technologies at work to facilitate people and work processes; more trainings and coaching, interactive and blitz - so called bite size learning; gamification for ease and better focus and memory; richer and more comprehensive social packages - such as transport to the workplace (if necessary) or food vouchers, but also insurance, better medical care, allowancefor medications, nutritional supplements, various treatments and alternative health prevention practices besides traditional sports and yoga…
Let me end on a positive note: more and more employers in Bulgaria are realizing that their people need to be healthy, feel safe and satisfied in order to be productive and effective at work. We will continue to work to promote and enforce best practices so that corporate business can be efficient.
