Crafting a Compelling
EVP
(Employee Value Proposition)
As a business owner or senior leader, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of what your organisation offers to both potential and existing employees. This is where an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) comes into play.
Throughout your career, you have likely encountered the term Employee Value Proposition without realising it. EVP refers to the implicit agreement or understanding of what a business provides for its people. When effectively utilised and presented with the right content, EVP can attract and retain top talent, ultimately cultivating them into future brand ambassadors.
Developing a robust EVP for your business offers numerous benefits, including attracting exceptional candidates and increasing brand awareness. Essentially, EVP is what makes your company appealing as an employer. While EVP often evolves organically, you can proactively create your own EVP using the right tools and knowledge to attract the right talent and facilitate natural business growth.
In this guide, we will delve deeper into EVP, emphasising the importance of specific areas. Whether you are starting to develop your EVP or already have one in place, this guide will provide you with a checklist of key criteria to consider in order to attract and retain your best employees.
What Exactly is an Employee Value Proposition?
An EVP is a statement that outlines what a company offers its employees in terms of compensation, benefits, and overall work environment. It should effectively communicate to potential employees why they should choose to work for your company and support the retentions of employees through shared values, kept promises and clear direction.
According to Minchington (2005), EVP is the set of offerings and associations provided by a company in exchange for the skills, capabilities, and experiences brought by an employee. EVP is derived from the marketing concept of Unique Value Proposition, which describes the value provided to customers by a supplier. In the case of EVP, it refers to the value provided to employees by their employer. This value extends beyond financial compensation and includes factors that make the company attractive to employees.
Why is Employee Value Proposition Important?
Employee Value Proposition holds immense importance in today’s challenging job market, where attracting the right talent has become increasingly difficult. Businesses face the challenge of finding candidates who meet all the necessary criteria, especially when individuals prioritise factors such as work-life balance and reduced commuting time. However, by clearly defining your EVP, you can showcase the numerous benefits it brings to employees, potential recruits, and your business as a whole, including:
Ensuring the role is attractive to top talent:
Understanding what sets you apart from competitors and the qualities that would make an excellent candidate choose your company is essential. While monetary compensation is important, factors like work-life balance, career development opportunities, and the ability to take ownership of tasks can also be decisive factors for top talent.
Enabling candidates to determine fit:
EVP serves as both a branding exercise and a recruitment tool. By clearly defining your corporate culture, you help candidates understand if your company aligns with their values and if it is a place where they can fit in and thrive.
Enhancing employment opportunities for your brand:
A compelling EVP can make your overall package more attractive, enabling you to attract talent even without actively recruiting. A strong EVP can create a positive reputation for your brand, making it an employer of choice in the market.
Presenting a clear vision:
Clearly articulated values, beliefs, and objectives are appealing to top talent. When your company has a clear vision and actively strives to embody those ideals, the best talent will naturally be drawn to your organisation.
Breaking Down the Employee Value Proposition
The following information provides crucial insights into the Employee Value Proposition and outlines the core elements to consider when creating your own EVP.
The Strategy, Vision & Beliefs
Before creating an EVP, it’s important to understand the culture and values of your company. What do you stand for? What kind of environment are you trying to create? Knowing these things will help you craft an EVP that accurately reflects your company.
Mission Statement & Vision:
The Mission Statement and Vision are vital elements of an organisation as they provide clear direction and purpose. A well-crafted mission statement and vision offer clarity, focus, and a sense of purpose, aligning stakeholders and guiding strategic decision-making.
Values:
Developing company values involves identifying and defining the guiding principles and beliefs that shape the culture, behaviour, and decision-making within an organisation. By establishing clear, authentic, and actionable values, organisations can create a positive culture and strengthen employee engagement.
Behaviours:
Company behaviours play a crucial role in shaping the culture, values, and overall success of an organisation. They impact employee engagement, customer satisfaction, ethical conduct, performance, and more. By promoting and reinforcing desired behaviours, organisations can cultivate a positive and high-performing work environment.
Environment & Culture
Work Environment, Practices & Management:
Creating a work environment that is conducive to employee satisfaction and purpose is crucial for employers. Factors such as office design, location, work-life balance, well-being initiatives, management interaction, autonomy, personal achievements, and recognition all contribute to fostering an engaged and motivated workforce.
Company Culture:
Company culture plays a significant role in attracting and retaining talent. By addressing factors such as company values, diversity, support, socialising opportunities, collaboration, team spirit, and trust, organisations can foster a positive and engaging work environment.
The Offer
Compensation:
While not everyone is solely motivated by salaries, having a structured compensation system that reflects the role and financial compensation is essential. It includes aspects like salaries, bonuses, share option schemes, raises, promotions, fairness, and evaluation systems.
Benefits:
Customizing your benefits package to align with your industry allows you to provide comparable offerings while also offering flexibility to be creative. Examples of benefits include pension plans, health insurance, paid leave, and company-sponsored holidays.
Career Development Opportunities:
Career development opportunities will always be factor in attracting and retaining high achieving employees. Providing a clear plan for growth, training programs, promotion paths, opportunities to work in different locations or departments, and avenues for learning and development are crucial for both recent graduates and experienced candidates.
Creating an Exceptional EVP
Creating an EVP should be a strategic endeavor for your business, aiming to define your brand, vision, and attract and retain top talent to drive business growth and achieve your goals. Whether it is initiated by management or assigned to a dedicated individual within the organisation, there are certain steps you can take to create or improve your EVP:
Assess your current offerings:
Begin by understanding your company’s current branding, what it represents, and the services it provides. Identify which core elements are already in place within your business. It is important to objectively evaluate what applies to your organisation at this stage.
Gather feedback from employees:
To maintain objectivity, reach out to current and past employees for feedback on how they perceive the business and what it can offer. Utilise surveys, internal focus groups, and exit interviews to gain a better understanding of the challenges involved in creating the EVP. Ask the right questions, such as why they enjoy working at the company, what motivates them, what improvements they would like to see, and what support they expect for their professional development goals. Engage in one-on-one discussions with your top performers to identify what motivates them and incorporate their insights into the development process of your EVP.
Identify and define key points for the EVP:
Evaluate your findings and identify the aspects that truly stand out. These key points will help attract and retain top talent. Consider your target candidates and use language that resonates with them. Tailor your EVP to different segments, such as recent graduates and experienced candidates, both in job listings and in your website and social media communications.
Draft your EVP:
With a clear understanding of your company’s offerings, perception, and focus areas, begin drafting your EVP. Create a clear, unique, and inspiring statement that effectively communicates the value your company offers to employees. Ensure that your EVP aligns what your company can offer with the expectations and desires of your ideal candidates.
Evaluate your EVP:
Take a step back and analyse the drafted EVP. Share it with individuals outside the business and gather their feedback. Evaluate your EVP against the market to assess its effectiveness and competitiveness.
Communicate your EVP through relevant channels:
To make your EVP effective, it must be visible to the intended audience. Promote it through appropriate channels, both internally and externally. Internally, use the company blog, email blasts, launches, and incorporate snippets into communications to embed it in the company culture. Externally, leverage your website’s careers page, social media platforms, and include it as boilerplate information in job applications.
Assess the response to your EVP:
Regularly evaluate the impact and effectiveness of your EVP. Consider factors such as the quality of applications, the alignment of candidates with your ideal profile, increased engagement on social media channels, reduced employee churn, and an increase in applications from passive candidates. Conduct focus groups within the organisation to gather feedback and refine your EVP accordingly.
Most Importantly – DELIVER
The most important part to developing an world beating EVP is ensuring that it is then deployed / delivered / followed through! Grand-but-empty promises will attract the first round of employees but they will not retain them, once they leave then reputationally you will suffer, and your EVP becomes false hope. Remember that sometimes its the small things that make a big difference to people so it is important to keep every promise.
Summary
Attracting the best talent has become increasingly challenging, and a strong EVP can give your business a competitive edge. By developing an EVP, you define your company’s brand and address the question of what makes it an attractive place to work. Meeting the needs of your ideal candidates is never easy, but an EVP helps set out your business goals from the start.
An effective EVP can help attract and retain top talent, increase employee engagement and motivation, and ultimately contribute to the success and growth of your company. Take the time to create an EVP that accurately reflects your company and its values, and you will see the benefits both in your bottom line and in the satisfaction of your employees.
