Employee engagement is at an all time low. This is not a huge surprise given the current climate – but how do you go about changing this? Improving employee engagement starts with intentionally designing great experiences, and a great place to start is with your Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
So what exactly is an employee value proposition?
Some definitions focus on the unique set of benefits and rewards offered by an employer in exchange for an employee’s skills, knowledge and experience. This includes salaries and benefits, sometimes also training and development, as well as company culture and values.
At People Lab we go further than this, viewing your EVP as more than the ‘employee deal’. Done well, your EVP is an expression of what you uniquely offer to both future and current employees. It can be a key differentiator to attract and retain talent. It should identify what makes your organisation a great place to work and focus activity on those experiences which will bring this to life.
Your EVP can help to motivate and inspire both current employees, as well as attract high calibre future employees, no matter what the role. And your EVP will provide you with the blueprint for your employee experience across the entire employee life cycle.
A strong EVP must:
- Align with the culture, values and purpose of your organisation – stating clearly what behaviours are expected of employees and then rewarded
- Outline how it should feel to work within your organisation
- Be informed by existing employees and culture
- Be unique, relevant and compelling if it is to act as a key driver of talent attraction, engagement and retention
At a basic level, your EVP will include your compensation, reward and benefit offers, but this won’t necessarily help your organisation to stand out, or improve the engagement or experience.
The key is to take time to genuinely understand what is different and special about your organisation, and we recommend involving your employees to do this.
Gathering insights from your employees enables a genuine understanding of your organisation’s unique strengths, as well as an honest appraisal of the current reality. Whatever your EVP ends up including, it should range from elements which are instantly recognisable today, as well as some which are more aspirational.
For example, when we developed an EVP for a health and social care company, one of the stand out insights from the research phase was that this organisation was a place where you could authentically be yourself; you could bring your true self to work. This was both pretty unique and differentiating so was included in the EVP.
We use the model below to outline our approach to developing and using your EVP:
Creating a strong EVP is a win-win for both employees and employers. Employers who put in the time and effort to craft a compelling and inclusive EVP, that meets the needs of their workforce, will see an improvement in employee engagement and experience, as well as enjoying a competitive advantage.
And employees who work for an employer with a strong EVP, are more likely to feel valued, motivated, fulfilled and engaged at work. And above all, they’re more likely to have a great experience day-to-day.
At People Lab, we are experts in developing EVPs. We’ve worked with a number of organisations over the years to help design and then implement their EVP, using our award winning approach.
If you’d like to find out more about developing and using your EVP then we’d love to hear from you.
