Exclusive: Tour de Office – promoting your employer brand through corporate wellness and philanthropy

In an exclusive interview with Recruitment Marketing Magazine, Helen Dwyer, event leader for Tour de Office, demonstrates how organisations can capitalise on philanthropic and corporate wellness events to promote their employer brand.

Established in 2011, Tour de Office creatively combines corporate wellness with philanthropy. To date, they have raised close to a million dollars for various Australian charities. Their unique offering is an in-office relay event whereby up to 80 employees cycle in back-to-back shifts for one week. Employees compete, engage and raise money for their charity of choice, with Tour de Office supplying the bikes and organising volunteers to manage the event.

The events are flexible in that they can work for organisations that are any size, at any level of development. How it is implemented will depend on a company’s goals and purpose. They are a lean organisation, so 90% of funds raised goes directly to charity.

“Organisations that choose to engage Tour de Office usually do so for three main reasons,” says Helen. “As a wellness initiative, as part of their corporate giving responsibilities, or as a customer and community engagement event.”

Typically, larger organisations of more than 80 people use the opportunity as a wellness initiative, raising awareness about health risks for office workers. Those who sit for more than four hours per day are at greater risk for chronic disease, regardless of how much exercise they undertake.

A large body of evidence demonstrates the value of exercise for worker productivity, and Helen has seen these benefits firsthand. She enjoys seeing the satisfaction when people hop off the bike and return to work energised and excited.

“Staff love that the event is conducted within working hours in an office environment. Employers show they really care about wellness and investing in their staff.”

Year on year, organisations continue to see return on investment through a healthier, more engaged workforce. It’s no wonder that hosts often return annually and expand their involvement.

Aside from these incredible benefits, Tour de Office is also a great opportunity to capitalise on employer branding. Because the event is so different and fosters such active engagement, people naturally share their experiences with their networks online.

“Friends of participants are always asking how to get involved or saying they wished they worked there!”

Through promoting and sharing experiences from this event, hosts demonstrate that a commitment to staff, health and charitable giving is part of company culture.

“An organisation that does this really well is Coronis,” says Helen. “They have a strong social media presence and during Tour de Office week, they are very diligent in promoting and sharing it. This enables them to demonstrate their commitment to both corporate wellness and philanthropy.”

Helen would like to see other organisations capitalising from this engagement in a more structured manner, for example through social channels, website copy and in job advertisements.

Another exciting aspect is volunteer involvement. One volunteer reports receiving several job offers from an organisation where she spent the week. This is a unique recruitment marketing strategy in itself, as organisations can tap into a totally new talent source.

“Through cultivating employee engagement, relationships, social sharing, health, well-being, and corporate philanthropy, all with the simplicity of an off-the-shelf event, Tour de Office is such a solid investment.”

To get involved, contact Helen directly at Helen@tourdeoffice.com or on 0429 347 417.

For more information and pricing, visit the Tour de Office website.