When you’re looking for talent, look to your Employee Value Proposition

If you want to attract and win the best candidates in today’s increasingly competitive recruitment market, you need to stand out. You need to find a way to convey that yours is a great place to work and communicate all that’s best about your organisation. You need an Employee Value Proposition.

What is an Employee Value Proposition (EVP)?

Think of it as a way of summing up why your organisation is unique, the values it stands for, and why someone should work there. Your EVP should give a compelling reason for a talented individual to choose to work with you. It should convey all the benefits (not just financial) that an employee will receive in return for the skills and experience they bring to your business.

More than just a recruitment tool

The benefits of a great EVP go well beyond simply attracting the best people. According to research by Gartner, businesses that effectively deliver on their EVP can decrease annual employee turnover by 69% and increase new hire commitment by nearly 30%. Equally important, a well thought out and distinctive EVP can boost employee engagement, help retain top talent, plus strengthen your employer brand and corporate culture. Which means over time, you’ll spend less to win the best candidates.

What does a great EVP look like?

A successful EVP distinguishes your company and sets it apart from competitors, conveys what employees like about working there, and places your company in the wider world – by referencing your strategic goals and what you stand for. It should be a mix of concrete benefits such as money and perks, and those that are less tangible, including culture, diversity and opportunities.

A good EVP will cover six key areas:

Financial rewards – this isn’t just a case of a competitive salary, bonuses and share options, but should also reflect your pay review process and pay transparency.

Employee benefits – these work best when they’re truly relevant to your workforce’s needs so don’t be afraid to customise them. You’ll probably want to think about health insurance, paid leave including maternity/paternity entitlement and retirement benefits, but other less obvious benefits might work for your team too.

Career development and personal growth – do you encourage, support and enable career progression through training and development? Employees will want to see career opportunities ahead within your organisation and beyond.

Work environment – is your place of work attractive and well-equipped? Do you offer flexible working and hybrid options? The pandemic has sharpened our focus on a good work life balance so expect today’s candidates to be choosy. They’ll be assessing your business for purpose, variety, challenge, innovation, feedback and coaching, as well as wellbeing, health and safety.

Company culture – will employees feel at home in your organisation? Potential candidates want to identify with your culture, from your ESG policies, to your corporate vision and values, even your politics. They’ll need to be comfortable with your leadership style, team communication and choice of people.

Reputation – it always matters. Can your employees trust you and your organisation and are they comfortable with your impact upon people and the world at large?

How to create your EVP

To be effective, an EVP needs to be an authentic reflection of your organisation. So how do you develop one?

Look at what you offer already. Assess your current offering to build up an outline of what you need to include or add. Gartner, for instance, expresses its EVP in five pillars similar to the areas outlined above: challenging work; talented people; limitless growth; community impact; and big rewards.

Talk to your employees. Interview current and former staff to find out what they think and feel about your brand and culture. You’ll need to find out:
• What attracted them to the company
• What they believe makes your company unique
• What they value most about working there
• Why do they stay
• Why do they leave
• What could you do better.

Define and write. Use your discoveries to create your EVP – it should be relevant, differentiated, and aligned with your company values. It should reflect what your people care about. Aim to make it specific, simple and inspiring. Hubspot brings their EVP together under a single aspirational headline: “Your best work starts here”. One part of Nike’s EVP is entitled “Win as a team”. It reflects their product innovation in the world of sport in an inspiring way that’s then reflected in employee benefits such as fitness discounts, relocation benefits, competitive pay and learning opportunities.

Test it with your employees. Does it sound genuine? If not, rework until it does. Salesforce summarise their EVP like this: “meaningful work and the ability to get it done, with good people in a good environment, and being fairly recognized and rewarded for it”. We can be confident it’s a genuine description as the company has been in the top three of the UK’s best places to work since 2017(1).

Incorporate and communicate! A good EVP will help make your organisation a more attractive place to work, so apply it and communicate it frequently – you want to make your business appealing to candidates, customers and stakeholders. Use it in your PR and marketing comms, your company website and social media posts. Internally it should form part of you induction material, employee engagement comms and management training, right through to your exit interviews.

We can help you bring your EVP to life

At Lucent we’re experts at helping you bring meaningful, inspiring communications to your employees. Why not talk to us about how we can help you create and share an EVP that gets you noticed and inspires your employees to achieve great things.

(1) https://www.greatplacetowork.co.uk/awards/uks-best-workplaces/uks-best-workplaces-2022