Employee Value Proposition (EVP) - what does your organisation stand for & why is it unique?
A strong EVP will help retain top performers and attract the best external talent.
Values, culture and benefits are what make your organisation unique. You may make the same products or provide the same service as your competitors, but your EVP is what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Your EVP should have a combination of rewards and benefits that employees are given in return for performing well at work.
A compelling EVP includes:
- Compensation
- Work-life balance
- Stability
- Location
- Respect
But why is this important? These programs can help reduce employee turnover, improve profits, provide a great employee experience, and build an inclusive workplace.
Organisations that deliver on their EVPs are able to decrease employee turnover by nearly 70%.
Strong examples
1.HubSpot
HubSpot’s EVP starts with the tagline, “Your best work starts here” and their benefits page backs up that statement. The core promise of HubSpot’s EVP is a balance between work and life that promises to “help you be the best ‘you’ that you can be”.
It’s transparent about its priorities and provides a 100+ page document called the “HubSpot Culture Code” that details specifically how this culture is implemented.
2.Nike
One of the headlines of Nike’s EVP is “Win as a team”. Nike’s culture emphasises accomplishing innovation in the world of sport with a team mentality.
Its approach to benefits and compensation shows a consistency of its ‘team perspective’.
3.Gartner
Gartner communicates its EVP in five pillars: challenging work; talented people; limitless growth; community impact; and big rewards. Its EVP encourages employees to “live well — in all aspects of your life”.
Review your current EVP
A good place to start when reviewing your EVP is to look at what you have in place today. Try to take an objective look at some of these areas and consider how your current, or potential employees might view them:
- Employee engagement, employee voice and culture
- Benefits and package
- Vision, mission, values and goals
- Career development and investment in personal development
- Social media and online presence
From here, you might already be starting to build up an action plan to strengthen your EVP. Here’s some things to consider if you’d like to take your review a bit deeper…
Maximising EVP - Using the right tools
Find out what your existing employees think is unique about working for your organisation and why they stay. Once you uncover existing perceptions, you can leverage them to elevate your EVP.
Run an anonymous engagement survey, to find out what’s important to them, what engages them and why they remain with your organisation. The information you collate should reach all aspects of your organisation.
When conducting this research, go beyond salary and financial benefits. Identify the intangible experience and rewards that staff value. We use our 4 pillars of engagement to ensure you’re asking your teams the right questions and getting a great view of how your teams view your organisation.
These pillars are:
At Ten Space, we’ll also help you to use your employee feedback to create social media content, to take your culture online. To start your journey to a maximised EVP, book a demo here.
Recognition is often a key topic that comes up in our employee feedback surveys, with a gap between expectation and reality for many employees. 69% of employees say they would work harder if their efforts were better appreciated, and our own research agrees.
Recognition, which is free, reflects and embeds your company culture. It makes your team feel valued and builds engagement & performance.
“The State of Employee Recognition” reveals that organisations with individual or team recognition have a 14% improvement in their performance.
For 3 key points to getting recognition right in your team, check out our blog.
Maximising EVP - Communicate the message
When you’ve completed your research, collate the data. You will be able to clearly list the core values and unique selling points that your employees rate highly. Consider these your organisation's super powers!
We can use these super powers to write a statement to summarise your EVP.
Your message should be succinct and clear. It should highlight what’s most important to your employees, why they stay and what your organisation offers that’s unique in your market.
Once your EVP has been defined, find creative and relevant ways to communicate it to the people you are trying to attract.
Here are some suggestions:
- Hiring channels - Company websites, advertising, the interview process. Prospective talent can determine if they would make a good fit for your business.
- Branding, public relations & marketing - This will help the passive labour market form a positive perception of the value of working for your company.
- Bring it to life - If you claim to support work-life balance or ongoing development, but do not provide training, career progression, study leave or flexible working hours, the reality of your workplace does not match your promise.
Maximising EVP - Refining
Constantly measure the success of your EVP and keep it evolving to keep up with what your talent and your industry need today and in the future.
You should:
- Monitor candidate applications and employee retention rates - these can give great hints for when you need to make a change, or take action
- Ensure existing employees are consulted throughout the lifecycle of their career with you, not only after their first 12 months - keep listening to them
- Run regular employee engagement surveys to keep up to date on what’s important to your teams and where you’re getting it right and wrong.
Review your EVP annually. If necessary, adapt your employment proposition to ensure it remains relevant and is brought to life throughout your employees’ day-to-day experience. Reshape your EVP when required to authentically align with employee expectations.
Your team’s connection to the organisation’s EVP is what brings in success. It’s just one step towards a highly engaged team.
Ten Space can help you to review your EVP. Contact us directly to see how we can help you at enquiries@tenspace.co.uk. For more info on how you can create an incredible workplace, check out our blogs.
