Unlock the secrets to a compelling Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that attracts and retains top talent, boosting your employer brand. Dive into how an effective EVP enhances company culture, employee engagement, and business growth.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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Organizations are quickly realizing the importance of the employee value proposition (EVP), which is crucial for drawing in, keeping, and attracting top personnel and enhancing your employer brand as a whole. However, what is an employee value proposition (EVP) and how can you create an engaging EVP that showcases your company’s special advantages and opportunities? Let’s explore this in greater depth.
The employee value proposition is the special value you provide to your staff as an employer in exchange for their knowledge, expertise, and dedication to your business. This covers elements like your beliefs, goals, social purpose, company culture, and aspects like pay, perks, rewards, career growth, and work-life balance.
In essence, your employee value proposition’s goal is to list and explain the distinct advantages and experiences that workers will have when they choose to work for your company. It also helps you draw in the ideal customers who complement your exclusive offering and explains why your business is the best location for the employees who flourish there.
According to Pawar and Charak (2015), the employee value proposition is the unique set of advantages that an employee receives in exchange for the knowledge, expertise, and experience they bring to a company.
Your internal employee value proposition tells staff members what they can or will get for their dedication to the company. It’s the assurance you give to your employees.
Your employer brand, on the other hand, is external and describes the public’s perception of your company, particularly among prospective workers. It’s the message you spread to the public about your business’s goals, core principles, and culture, as well as what it’s like to work there.
The two do, however, overlap. Your employer brand is the creative, external manifestation of your employee value proposition. Your employer brand spreads the word about your company’s benefits to potential and current employees, while your employee value proposition outlines these benefits.
Stated differently, your employee value proposition is the foundation of your employer brand. It should sum up your company’s core values and highlight its distinctive features.
Investing in your employee value proposition can help your company in real ways. Why is it important to your organization specifically?
Bringing in and keeping top talent
By emphasizing the opportunities and advantages that people in your company have access to, an authentic and persuasive EVP assists you in identifying your employer’s unique selling point. This will assist you in drawing in and keeping the individuals who would most likely thrive in your company and align with your offer. According to Gartner, companies that successfully fulfill their EVP can reduce yearly employee turnover by as much as 69%.
A motivated staff
Thanks to a well-defined employee value proposition, your staff will be more engaged and invested in their work if they clearly know the organization’s goal, vision, and values. Studies reveal that companies with compelling employee value propositions see a nearly 30% boost in new hire commitment.
Spending reductions
The correct people will be attracted to and stay in your organization, saving money on recruitment and retention expenses.
Business growth and performance
Improved employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction will increase corporate performance, profitability, and organizational growth. In fact, highly engaged teams can enhance customer loyalty by 10% and boost profitability by 23%.
Increased transparency
Respect and mutual trust are fostered in the relationship between workers and employers when an organization is upfront and honest about expectations from its workforce and what it will provide in return.
The employee value proposition is made up of various aspects of what a company provides to its workers, including:
When taken as a whole, the essential elements of your employee value proposition affect how potential hires and current staff view your company. Let us examine each employee value proposition model component in more detail.
Pay
Pay, or pay and benefits, is the first component of the employee value proposition structure. It covers the degree of contentment that staff members have with their pay, as well as extra benefits like incentives and features like your assessment program. Fair compensation is among the seven best practices for HR.
Not everyone places the same value on compensation and ranks it as their top concern while looking for work. According to a JLL poll, 54% of respondents said having a comfortable income was their second priority, after having a high quality of life. On the other hand, the biggest reason for taking a chance on a new job was the higher salary.
A consultant at PerformanceCulture.Expert, Dr. James Chitwood, suggests that businesses extend their perspective on compensation. When it comes to pay, the majority of organizations just have a transactional viewpoint—a person does X to obtain Y. According to Chitwood, numerous methods of compensating employees are unrelated to salary.
Long-term workers who excel at their jobs can be passionate about the environment, imaginative writers, or mentors of new hires. How can a business provide its employees with time to engage in activities that uphold the company’s core principles and their own intrinsic beliefs?
Balance between work and life
Work-life balance includes paid time off, vacations, flexible scheduling, savings plans, and the ability to work remotely and from home. It has a major effect on workers’ well-being.
There is no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all approach to work-life balance since individuals will place varying values on certain perks. For instance, compared to graduates, new parents are far more likely to appreciate paid parental leave. Similarly, older people are more likely than Gen Z to be interested in pension and retirement plans. Because of this, developing an appealing EVP that will enable you to stand out in the labor market requires a thorough understanding of your employees’ requirements and preferences.
All generations seem to agree on one thing: they want to work in hybrid ways. According to the EY Work Reimagined 2022 Survey, 80% of workers desire to work remotely at least two or three days a week; nevertheless, 22% of companies mandate that workers report to the office five days a week.
According to a comprehensive worldwide McKinsey survey, most demographic groups place a high value on job flexibility. Meanwhile, a JLL study revealed that 38% of workers experience stress and overload due to excessive workloads. 35% of employees anticipate that their employer will support them in developing a better work-life balance and taking self-care time throughout the workday.
Stability
Stability in the workplace is fundamentally the state of mental and physical safety that permits workers to carry out their jobs with assurance, security, and efficiency.
Stability for remote workers could entail guaranteed work hours and consistent work schedules.
Career stability is a different kind of stability. It speaks to your staff members’ chances to grow personally and advance in their careers while working for your company. This is where the work you’ve been doing on your education and growth counts.
Giving your staff members a long-term perspective on their careers with you means offering training, mentoring and coaching initiatives, efficient performance oversight, internal advancement, and other career options. Employees, particularly those in their younger years, want to work for an organization that allows them to advance in the ranks.
Location
There is much more to location than just where your office is located. Consider its location in the most general sense of the word: a high degree of autonomy, a supportive work atmosphere, and a robust corporate culture.
Organizations need to reconsider the purpose and significance of the location part of the EVP in light of the increasing popularity of remote and hybrid work models.
Respect
Respect is the last component in the employee value proposition model. It is centered around supportive relationships, teamwork, company culture, and your organization’s fundamental principles and values. According to a McKinsey study, a significant portion of employee turnover can be attributed to leaders who lack empathy and motivation. Of those who left, 35% listed it as one of their top three reasons.
Here are some pointers on creating an employee value proposition that will appeal to potential candidates, help you recruit, retain, and engage the right individuals, and be consistent with your organization’s overall objective.
Coming up with the qualities and advantages that make your company stand out from the companies that compete with you for talent is the first step in creating an EVP for your company. You may begin by posing the following questions to yourself:
Since your EVP should try to match employee expectations and goals, you must understand what workers need and want. As we have already covered in the employee value proposition model, your employees’ requirements and preferences will differ depending on their unique situations and demographics. This is especially true regarding the components of stability and work-life balance.
Ensure that employee input is gathered and that surveys, focus groups, research, and other methods are carried out to determine your staff members’ requirements. Employees bring a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints to the workplace. Consider how these things affect their goals and expectations. As a result, you may create an inclusive EVP that attracts a wide spectrum of workers, assisting you in luring and keeping a more diverse staff.
Bruna Vasconcelos, Head of People at the employment portal Revelo, suggests holding one-on-one meetings with staff members to explore the themes emerging from the gathered data.
Making the time to have these discussions enables you to delve deeper into the survey data while providing a secure environment for employee discussion. You may ask them about things they want to improve, and they can expound on how they feel about the company and what they have experienced there,” says Vasconcelos.
For your employee value proposition to be cohesive and successful, it must include and align with the organization’s specific mission, values, and objectives. This may entail stressing how the organization’s beliefs are mirrored in its practices, rules, and culture and how they foster the advancement and development of its workforce.
Emphasizing the business’s goals and mission in your EVP may help employees feel a sense of purpose.
Employer branding that highlights your values and mission will assist in drawing in individuals who share those values and fit in well with your company culture.
Developing an honest, transparent, and compliant EVP that aligns with the company’s beliefs, processes, and organizational culture is imperative. This fosters important credibility and trust among employees.
For instance, if your website or job interview process encourages a good work-life balance or flexible work schedules, be sure to keep your word and instill the same values in your communications and interactions with staff members.
Employee participation in the development process might result in a more compelling and genuine EVP that appeals to them.
Make the information in your employee value proposition more concrete by associating it with benefits like paid parental leave, flexible work schedules, access to opportunities for learning and growth, or yearly bonuses. Emphasize how certain policies, initiatives, and programs support the EVP as a whole. Additionally, you might provide anecdotes and examples of how these initiatives have helped workers.
You can make your employee value proposition more tangible, approachable, and engaging for staff members by tying it up with actual experiences.
The employee life cycle comprises seven stages: development, offboarding, retention, attraction, recruiting, onboarding, and happy leavers. A strong EVP highlights the services your company provides throughout the whole cycle.
For instance, you may advertise your hybrid work scheme in your job descriptions during the attraction phase. You might provide your staff members with online courses or training during the onboarding phase to provide them with a strong basis on which to start their jobs. To keep workers on board, you may also consider providing incentives for surpassing goals, a pay raise for each year of service, and the appropriate technology to support their work.
Sean McPheat, CEO of MTD Training Group, a management and sales education business, says it’s critical to pinpoint the gaps in the present EVP and what people want from their work experience, then take appropriate action based on your findings.
Create a plan of action to close the gaps found. According to McPheat, this may entail adjustments to the company’s perks and pay plans, chances for professional growth, and culture.
Employer branding, employee experience, and EVP integration enable you to fulfill your commitments to staff members regarding your services and how you provide them. When these three essential elements of the relationship between employees and their employers are combined, employee engagement increases. It also lowers turnover and improves productivity and performance.
To execute this:
After creating your employee value proposition, the next step is effectively communicating it to applicants, staff, and stakeholders. Consider how you may engage your audience and make your EVP relatable and captivating.
For instance, you can create a plan for reaching out to potential hires and highlight your EVP on your website, job descriptions, and social media by using employee endorsements. On the other hand, you can inform your staff through monthly business presentations, one-on-one meetings, team updates with managers, and the corporate newsletter.
The last stage in creating a successful employee value proposition is creating a particular set of metrics to monitor your EVP’s effect and identify areas for improvement. Metrics like lower cost per recruit, employee engagement, and retention rates are helpful.
Continually improve your EVP in light of your discoveries.
Let’s examine what constitutes a superb EVP in the real world.
Deloitte
Deloitte designated introducing a new EVP and compensation plan as a strategic goal for 2021–2022. In it, they explained what they value most in their connection with employees and what they stand for as an employer: “Passion for Purpose,” “Be the true you,” and “Never stop growing.”
Deloitte’s principles, purpose, and strategy, which prioritize personal growth, inclusion, and purpose, are linked to a new reward system, higher compensation, and a sharp division between performance and development. These have enabled workers to be their best in a happier, more inspirational work environment.
Patagonia
Leading outdoor apparel company Patagonia takes pride in being a morally responsible, ecologically conscious company that combats climate change. It recently gave all of its yearly earnings to a fund combating climate change. The company advocates for more sustainable practices in its supply chain, provides free customer repairs via its Worn Wear project, provides environmental training for staff, offers a ridesharing and bike-to-work program, and even has a composting program.
Patagonia incorporates its environmental and ethical ideals into its EVP whenever possible, not only for its employees but also for candidates, clients, and the general public.
What was the outcome? A three-fold decrease in worker turnover above the national average. Patagonia gives its workers a sense of purpose and the opportunity to change the world daily with their work.
WD-40
Employees at WD-40 indicated a wish to continue working remotely after the pandemic had largely passed. In response, they developed the “Work From Where” philosophy: We ask that you make decisions based on our corporate values, regardless of where you work from.
“Creating positive, lasting memories in all relationships” is one of those values. This incentivized staff members to consider how their decision to work remotely affected the organizational community and to make their own decisions about when it was suitable and productive to work remotely. According to this theory, most workers decided to remain in the office. In a recent poll, 90% of workers stated that the company’s culture has improved.
This is exactly what occurs when the relationships between various EVP parts are considered.
Maintaining your Employee Value Profession (EVP) can increase employee engagement and foster trust in your company. It can even make your present staff members the most effective brand advocates.
At a time when workers place a greater value on an organization’s reputation as an employer, your employer brand and employee value proposition are critical to attracting and keeping top people, enhancing performance, lowering attrition and recruiting expenses, and achieving business goals.
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