Why Employee Well-Being is Key to Effective HR Recruitment in Malaysia for 2022

As we recently discussed, 2021 was a year that saw largely unprecedented rates of workers leaving their jobs. Of course, there were pandemic-enforced retrenchments, but many professionals have also voluntarily left their employers — sometimes, for greener pastures, or even to begin businesses of their own. 

Often referred to as The Great Resignation, this shift in employee mindset means that employee well-being has become a key factor in all successful recruitment efforts for businesses in Malaysia, and beyond. COVID-19 has highlighted the need for more emphasis on employee wellness, including mental health and engagement, and employers must take heed of this in order to attract the best talent to organisations. 

So, how can you achieve this? 

Empower your employees 

To attract the best talents to your organisation, it’s important to position your company as a place where employees can grow, and hone their skills. This can come in the form of the right exposure to the right projects, while you should also look into initiatives that can help employees upskill to stay relevant amidst the 5th Industrial Revolution.

With many organisations still implementing remote, or hybrid work models, consider offering an e-learning programme to your employees as part of their standard benefits package. With the costs of legitimate, accredited training programmes rising, this can be a great benefit to offer to talents looking to grow within your organisation. 

Design a great employee experience

Just like the Customer Experience, it’s equally as important to design an engaging employee experience in order to attract the best prospects to your team. Any successful company will need to work in tandem with their employees to design motivating experiences to offer a sense of purpose, direction, and drive to employees. 

Crucial to this is the role of the HR department. As workforces have gone remote over the pandemic, those working in HR have been the glue holding organisations together — and as organisations look to build an employee experience that attracts the best talents, this is more true than ever.  

Schedule regular 1:1s on a consistent basis between leaders and employees, offering a free space/forum for team members to speak out. This can extend beyond work matters, as a great employee employee experience goes beyond simply the office, particularly in hybrid or remote work models. 

Prioritise employee mental health 

2020, and 2021 has shone the spotlight on mental health when it comes to employee well-being, with the pandemic resulting in millions of job losses, as well as isolation for many individuals in affected regions. 

Consequently, it’s pivotal that employers and HR managers take this into account when planning recruitment efforts for 2022. A good example of this would be to implement a mental health day or even a mental health week — click here to read about Digi-X’s own mental health week

Implement cross-departmental trainings/cross-functional teams

Just like upskilling programmes, cross-departmental exposure can also be hugely beneficial in providing real-life work exposures for employees — outside of their usual disciplines. Essentially, these type of policies will allow individuals to develop new skills, gain new experiences, and get a broader understanding of other roles and departments. 

For example, you might allow someone from business development to try their hand at marketing — this doesn’t need to come at the cost of their main job scope, as you can design this to be a 70-30 balance of time, or even a 50-50 division. 

Ultimately, the arrangements will depend on the capabilities of your individual and the organisation, but cross departmental teams can be a significant growing opportunity for prospective employees when recruiting.