Levelling up your EVP can help you to retain and attract the best talent in the game…

“So, you think you’ve got your employer branding down to a T, your website is “on fleek” and staff are saying that they’re happy. That’s all well and good, but what about the promises you are making to existing employees and new employees joining the team?”

So, what is an Employee Value Proposition?

Employee Value Proposition or your ‘EVP’ defines the essence of your company, from your values, culture, uniqueness and what you stand for. It sets expectations of what your employees and clients can expect from you and, what you expect from them. A powerful EVP is woven into the entire lifecycle of a business. From the very first interaction, a potential employee has with your business, to the day they leave, your EVP shapes all your internal communication with them.

An EVP is sometimes confused with an “employer brand”. The difference is that the employee value proposition is focused internally (what keeps staff happy and attracts great talent); versus the employer brand which is more externally focused (e.g. reputation, social image, what makes your company different).

Defining your EVP: The Research Phase

Key starting points:

• Look within: Ask your team not only what they think are the key strengths of your organisation, but also what they’d like to see in the future.
• Start to understand what your competitors are doing.
• Analyse the common themes from the above.

You’ll begin to see things unfold in your research – it might be that your existing employees really value your culture, your flexibility or your benefits. When you look at what competitors are doing and start to work out what you’re offering that they don’t, it can become a unique selling point for your company to retain and attract new talent.

Using your EVP to build a strong employer brand and talent attraction strategy: The Design Phase

Once you’ve embedded the EVP internally, you can start to weave the EVP into your content marketing strategy. Ask yourself “is our brand putting out a story externally that’s matching what’s happening internally?”. Perhaps you have some amazing, unique things going on internally, but are you articulating that from an external perspective?

Your campaigns should absolutely match the lived experience of your employees! Your EVP should shine through on every platform that a prospective candidate might see — job descriptions, career pages on the website, marketing materials and social media.

Delivering on your EVP

This is about attraction AND retention. It’s a promise to employees to follow through with the things you have set out for them. Making your EVP a core focus when considering your brand awareness and company culture is essential to encouraging fresh talent, as well as retaining your current employees, and building the best talent retention that works for you.

– Amy Playfair, Community and Growth Manager