How to Create A Winning Employee Value Proposition & Enhance Your Company Image
A competitive pay package is no longer enough to attract and retain talent in an increasingly competitive labour market. Candidates today expect more - from greater flexibility to better work-life balance, a positive working culture, and good progression opportunities.
Building a positive company image and enhancing your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) can go a long way towards engaging the best candidates. Your EVP is your way of selling yourself to future employees and communicating your unique employer brand.
What goes into an EVP?
An EVP demonstrates why a candidate would choose to join - and stay - at your company over another one. It’s a comprehensive proposal that summarises everything a company has to offer prospective candidates.
A typical EVP encompasses five core aspects:
- Compensation
- Career
- Benefits
- Culture
- Work Environment
Why is an EVP important?
Employees’ mindsets have shifted over the past decade, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Employees want to feel valued, recognised, and appreciated for their work, and a strong EVP communicates what your business is doing to engage its people and provide long-term job satisfaction, along with meaningful rewards and benefits.
Benefits of a strong EVP
- Reduces employee turnover
- Increases new hire commitments
- Can attract passive job seekers
- Builds a positive company image
The connection between your EVP and company image
Your EVP is a part of your company image. It shows why employees want to work for your business over others. It helps align your company’s interests and goals with those of your employees, turning them into your strongest brand ambassadors. Positive workplace culture can also be a huge selling point for potential candidates, and it’s an essential part of your EVP - read our blog on enhancing your company culture to retain your talent here.
7 Steps to create your Employee Value Proposition
An EVP must be realistic and laid out to make an impact with a meaningful and distinctive framework.
1. Define your employee persona
Think about the kind of people you want to attract. You may have more than one type of ideal employee – for example, you would probably look for different skill sets for a tech employee compared to one in a creative role. The work experience they are looking for is likely to differ too, which you need to consider while building your EVP. You may also consider segmenting your EVP by different target personas, such as having one EVP statement for recent graduates and another for senior professionals.
2. Evaluate what you currently offer
Summarise what you offer to employees. Organising your offerings under the five core pillars of an EVP will highlight any areas that are lacking and where you shine.
How to organise your offerings:
Compensation
- Salary satisfaction
- Raises and promotions
- Timeliness
- Fairness
Benefits
- Paid time off
- Flexible working
- Childcare and family
- Healthcare
- Wellbeing
The next step is to involve your employees when assessing your offering. This will help ensure you don’t miss anything valuable from your EVP.
3. Survey your employees
Carry out surveys to understand what your employees love about the company and the areas they feel could be improved. You can include a section for each core aspect of the EVP: compensation, benefits, career, culture, and work environment. Once you have this information, it is time to start drawing up your EVP or enhancing your existing one.
Here are a few questions to ask:
- What do you like about working here?
- What motivates you the most about your work?
- How satisfied are you with the professional development opportunities we offer?
- Does management encourage and support your commitments outside of work?
- What improvements would you like to see in the future?
To help refine your EVP statements, you can group the survey responses according to your employee personas. You could also conduct a separate survey for new hires and interviewees to understand what attracted them to your company and if it meets their expectations.
You can find EVP inspiration in other places, too – for example, if your company carries out exit interviews for employees that are leaving, is there a question about how highly they would rate the company or if they would recommend it to a friend? The Glassdoor website can also be a great place to go for insights, and you can export the employer reviews to include in your EVP data set. Additionally, hire through a recruitment consultancy.
They will be able to provide you with insights about the critical factors in candidates’ decisions to accept a job offer from your company and, likewise, any areas where you are losing out to other employers.
4. Define the key components of your EVP
Next, use your research into your current offerings and the answers from your employee survey to build your EVP. Base it around what your company can offer talent and what your ideal employees want. Answer questions based on each pillar while developing your EVP, for example:
- What financial compensation and benefits will attract suitable candidates?
- What professional development opportunities are my ideal employees looking for?
- What kind of work environment appeals to my employee personals?
Once you’ve completed this step, it’s time to put your findings into clear statements.
5. Write your employee value proposition
Describe what it is like to work at your company and use any development areas highlighted in your employee survey to shape the ideal workplace and company culture you want to create.
Next, define your employer brand. Identify what makes your workplace unique and how it aligns with your company’s culture and values. Explain how you stand out from the crowd and why you are better than your competitors. Demonstrate what makes people want to come to work every day. Make sure that your EVP statement is clear, unique, and inspirational. Here are some examples of clear and persuasive EVPs:
HubSpot: “We’re building a company people love. A company that will stand the test of time. So we invest in our people and optimise for your long-term happiness.”
PwC: “From empowering mentorships to customised coaching, PwC provides the support you need to help you develop your career. You’ll work with people from diverse backgrounds and industries to solve important problems. Are you ready to grow?”
6. Communicate your EVP
Clear and well-executed EVPs can turn employees into the strongest advocates for your business – and to do that, they need to know what’s on offer. Ensure that your company’s internal communications, briefs, policies, and recognition plans reflect your EVP’s principles. Feature your EVP statement on your website, social networks, careers site, intranet, blog, and any other channels employees and candidates may use to connect with you.
When it comes to hiring, your EVP is a powerful tool, so ensure it’s featured in your recruitment materials and job adverts. Communicate the key things that make your company a great place to work, like flexible working hours, training programmes, or volunteering opportunities. Integrating your EVP into your onboarding process will also help to embed it from the start with any new joiners.
7. Review the results
There are several metrics you can use to measure the impact of your EVP, including:
- Increases in job applications
- Reduced employee turnover rates
- More engagements on social media on job-related posts
- An increase in responses from passive candidates
“If you hire through a recruitment consultancy, they will be able to provide you with insights about the critical factors in candidates’ decisions to accept a job offer from your company and, likewise, any areas where you are losing out to other employers.”
There are seven key steps to creating a great EVP:
1. Define your employee persona
2. Evaluate what you currently offer
3. Survey your employees
4. Define the key components of your EVP
5. Write your employee value proposition
6. Communicate your EVP
7. Review the results
It’s a good idea to review your EVP at least once a year to make sure it stays relevant and continues to meet people’s expectations. To help with this, you could carry out surveys from time to time and use focus groups and exit interviews to understand what your employees are looking for.
Hiring? Adecco can help put the right people on your team and give you the support and resources you need to keep them there. To learn more, contact us today..
