The term ‘destination employer’ is a badge of honour for any business, but one does not simply become a destination employer overnight. Whether a business qualifies as one depends on how jobseekers and your existing staff perceive the business.

If you’re seen as a company that is well known and respected in your industry and people see working for your business as their end goal, then you’re a destination employer. Earning this title should be important to employers because the competition for talent is heating up. Across all industries, the drive to recruit graduates is intensifying with 2019 seeing the highest annual rise in graduate recruitment since 2010. Some industries, such as hospitality and manufacturing, are facing sizeable skills gaps so will be working harder to attract the right talent.

But what do companies without the ‘destination employer’ badge of honour have to do to earn it? From an HR perspective, becoming one comes down to fulfilling three goals which are:

• Creating desirability so that the top talent out there wants to come and work for you
• Keeping your workforce engaged, productive and fulfilled in their roles to prolong a positive working environment
• Retaining your talent so that people don’t just aim to land a job in your business but want to grow their career and help grow your business with it

Wellbeing initiatives and workplace benefits are key to achieving these goals. A carefully curated range of benefits that address workers’ needs is integral to building a positive, productive and rewarding working environment and workplace culture.

Tech giants such as Apple, Facebook and Google are synonymous with the term ‘destination employer’. Between them, these companies offer a colourful range of benefits including free massages, hot meals prepared by professional chefs, dry cleaning services, and even cash to help new parents cover expenses.

But not every business has an HR budget that’s enormous enough to be able to match such benefits. Fortunately, though, companies can implement workplace benefits that have a big impact on workers’ everyday lives for no investment whatsoever.

Take the idea of providing workers with on demand access to a portion of their earnings. This is what Hastee Pay enables employers to do, and in doing so, they give their workers the opportunity to better manage their personal finances, avoiding costly overdrafts, credit cards and payday loans by allowing them to use the money that is rightfully theirs without having to wait until the end of the month. With this one benefit, workers have a fair opportunity at achieving financial freedom. To protect your employees, Hastee Pay caps the early-pay limit at 50% of a month’s salary. This provides a safety buffer for the end of the month. So you’re protected, they’re protected, and you’re both doing your bit to promote healthy, helpful budgeting.

You don’t need to be a tech giant with a multi-billion pound turnover to begin your journey towards becoming a destination employer. With easy-to-implement benefits that have a tangible impact on worker’s daily lives, you can start that journey without any negative impact on your budget or your business cashflow. And while becoming a destination employer won’t happen overnight, you’ll quickly begin to see better results from your efforts to recruit, engage and retain the best talent for your business.