We spend a lot of time talking about wellbeing at work: mindfulness programmes, flexible work policies, and engagement surveys. These things matter, but they’re often just well-intentioned attempts to fix issues that were baked in long before a person’s first day.

The truth is, employee wellbeing doesn’t start with yoga classes or mental health days. It starts with how you hire, or more precisely, with the paradigm behind the way you hire.

The Hidden Foundation of Wellbeing

Every personal relationship begins with an intention. That intention shapes how you show up, communicate, and what you expect. Work is no different.

But here your intention falls into one of two main categories: extraction or expansion. 

If you see work as a transactional you’ll be operating with an extractive mindset, and you’ll behave in a transactional way.

If you see work as a way for humans to build mutual working relationships bases on collaboration and connection, your intention is expansion.

Your intention shapes the initial employment relationship you build, which can have a long-term impact on productivity, retention, and wellbeing.

Why Wellbeing Starts with Hiring

If you start the relationship the right way, so much suffering can be avoided. 

Here's how recruitment usually goes: jobs are created with lists of tasks and set wage, and are bolstered by vague references to the ‘’great company culture’’. What isn’t discusses id the day-to-day realities of the role. Which is odd, considering one of the most important parts of hiring is making sure employees are comfortable with ‘the way things are done around here’, and have traits that match the role requirements, team and wider culture. 

New employees hired under false pretences find themselves feeling let down, frustrated, and sometimes even unable to do the jobs they were hired to do.

Is it really any wonder so many people burn out and disengage?

You Can't Fix a Broken Arm with a Plaster

Most companies are trying to solve these problems downstream with “perks” such as rooftop yoga and team building days. But the real problem is upstream.

When a hiring approach doesn’t reflect the reality of the culture and work, it attracts the wrong people. This leads to unhealth employment relationships where people feel stressed, anxious, and disengaged, which ultimately erodes productivity. A relationship doomed from the start.

From Employment to Enrolment

An upstream paradigm shift changes everything. 

Enrolment thinking is expansive. It’s about partnership and recognises that wellbeing is a by-product of the way people feel about working for you. It’s about alignment on goals, principles, contribution, and reward. 

In this paradigm, the most powerful thing you can do is hire in a way that sets up healthy working relationships. Because when employees thrive, so do businesses.

Employment thinking, on the other hand, is about extraction - getting people to do things they don’t want to do by incentivising them with perks.

The result is a vicious cycle of fatigue, frustration, and turnover. In this paradigm employees are cogs in a machine of inherently unfulfilling and mis-aligned work. Some employees will painstakingly strive for recognition and to feel a sense of ‘’belonging’’ in a mis-match environment, and those that don’t achieve it burn out. The rest simply quiet quit or take another job.

​The Ripple Effects of ''Hiring Wellbeing''

When you recruit differently, everything downstream changes for the better.

Engagement: People feel seen, valued, and connected from the start. 

Productivity: Employees self-manage, innovate, and collaborate naturally.

Retention: When people choose a company because it helps them grow, they want to stay.

Culture: A culture of enrolment fosters trust, autonomy, and psychological safety, the real drivers of wellbeing.

Profit: When you hire the right people the right way, you unlock creativity, innovation, and higher retention - and profits follow.

Recruitment done right isn’t a cost. It’s one of the most powerful investments you can make in employee wellbeing and performance.

Introducing Meqa Smith

This WellTalk article is a guest article in collaboration with Meqa Smith, a Growth Strategist helping CEOs rethink the way they hire in order to unlock employees full potential. Make sure to connect with Meqa on Linked In.

linkedin.com/in/msmeqa

WellWise is a trusted solution provider for organisations serious about improving their people experience.