Is your employee value proposition helping you attract and retain the market’s best talent?
Your EVP is a secret recipe that no other organisation can replicate.
It’s the unique combination of benefits, values, and culture that your business can offer its employees – and how you communicate that to the market.
These days, top professionals typically have more choice when it comes to finding new opportunities. So, what can you offer that will ensure you’re standing out as an employer of choice?
If you’re looking to create, shape, or strengthen your EVP, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s everything you need to know:
- What is your employee value proposition?
- What should your EVP include?
- What are the benefits of a strong EVP?
- What employers need to do.
- Defining your EVP.
- Communicating your organisation’s EVP.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
1. What is your employee value proposition?
Let’s start with the definition of ‘employee value proposition’ – what is an EVP, and why is it important?
Your employee value proposition (EVP) is the unique value your organisation can offer its employees. Covering key areas including compensation, culture, and work-life balance, a company’s EVP is a powerful employer branding and candidate attraction tool. Done right, it can also boost long-term retention rates.
In other words, your employee value proposition is a statement of all the different ways in which your organisation is a great place to work. It’s what makes you unique in the market, and will help you win the battle for talent.
What’s the difference between employee value proposition and employer brand?
A quick sidenote about employer brand…
Employer brand is similar to EVP, but there are some crucial differences.
While your employee value proposition is the tangible benefits your company can offer to potential and existing employees, your employer brand is its overall reputation as an employer.
Essentially, employer brand is a fancy way of talking about your organisation’s public image. A strong EVP can be a highly effective way of strengthening that image.
2. What should your EVP include?
As a general rule, the strongest EVPs are based on five key pillars:
- Compensation and benefits.
- Work-life balance.
- Stability and progression.
- Company culture.
- Respect.
Let’s take a closer look at what each of these pillars is all about…
Compensation and benefits
Offering a strong salary is one of the most effective ways to stay competitive in a crowded market.
When setting your salaries, ask yourself: Are they in line with pre-existing internal salaries, general market average, or actually geared towards top talent attraction?
If you’re not sure where you currently sit, then don’t worry. You can usually find comprehensive, industry-specific salary guides that will help you gauge your place in the market – like our 2024 consumer product salary survey!
Bear in mind that it’s not the end of the world if your salaries aren’t as competitive as others in the market. Remember that your EVP is about a combination of factors.
Additional benefits (financial or otherwise) can also help to boost your EVP if higher salaries are not possible.
Work-life balance
For many UK professionals (33%), work-life balance is now more important than salary when considering a new role.
Employees and candidates expect a certain level of work-life balance support from employers. However, different professionals will have different priorities. While some might be more interested in flexi and remote working, others might be happier with the promise of a good pension.
Take some time to think about which work-life benefits would make most sense for your company and its (current and potential) employees.
Stability and progression
Career stability can come in different forms.
In some cases, it’s about providing clear working patterns and workplace safety. In others, it’s about offering opportunities for progression and upskilling.
If you’re trying to attract and retain talent that can add lasting value to your organisation, it’s a good idea to let them know that they can level up with you. For career-minded professionals, transparent progression opportunities can help them picture a stable, long-term career with your organisation.
Company culture
There are plenty of benefits to a positive company culture. As well as creating a sense of purpose and belonging, a strong culture will set your employees up for professional success.
That’s why it’s so important to create a working environment that encourages communication and collaboration, celebrates successes, and makes employees want to stick around.
If your organisation is flexible or remote-first, then you’ll need to work out what a positive company culture means for you.
Respect
This is a big one. When employees feel respected, they report higher job satisfaction, gratitude, and loyalty to their employers.
Respect should come from leadership first. Consistent communication touchpoints and regular catchups with management can go a long way here.
It’s also important to deal with any instances of disrespect promptly and fairly. Issues that get swept under the rug can very quickly create toxicity.
3. What are the benefits of a strong EVP?
Organisations with a strong EVP will enjoy substantial benefits, particularly from a talent attraction and retention perspective. These can include:
- Stronger candidate attraction: A strong EVP can cut through the noise and help you connect with top candidates. It allows you to differentiate yourself and stand out as an employer of choice, giving you a major advantage over competitors.
- Better long-term retention rates: When you offer genuine value to your employees, they’re more likely to stick around. We’ve seen companies’ first-year retention rates go from 40% to 96% with EVP support from Advocate Group!
- Improved employee engagement: Employees are more likely to be fully engaged if your company has a strong EVP. This means higher-quality work, stronger results, and brand advocacy representation from top employees.
- Enhanced financial performance: As a result, you’ll save on costs associated with long, drawn-out recruitment processes, high attrition rates, and poor employee performance.
On the flipside, an inauthentic or negative EVP can make it significantly harder to attract the right talent. It will also negatively affect employee satisfaction, retention and, in the long-term, productivity and other essential KPIs.
4. What employers need to do
Before you begin developing your EVP, you’ll need to understand two key things: what makes your company unique, and what your employees need.
Let’s look at these in a little more detail…
Understanding what makes your company unique
Every company has something unique to offer its current and potential employees.
Your unique offering could include, for example, a market-leading rewards scheme, an unbelievable company culture, or a brilliant brand and products.
Take the time to pin down which features and benefits will make you stand out to the talent you need.
Understanding what your employees need
Remember that your EVP is all about meeting employee needs and rewarding them for their service.
So, it’s a good idea to work with your employees to develop an EVP that is both effective and inclusive.
There are several ways to understand what your employees want and need from your EVP. Consider sending out surveys, running focus groups across different teams and demographics, and be sure to take diverse perspectives into account.
It’s also worth asking questions to gauge how employees feel about your current offering. For example:
- What attracted you to the company?
- What benefits do you value most?
- What do you think makes the company stand out from competitors?
- What’s keeping you with us?
With a good grasp of these two key areas, you’ll be in a better position to shape and communicate your EVP!
5. Defining your EVP
It may take some time to collate all of the research. During this process, you might find that you’re lacking in key areas, or that certain parts of your offering aren’t that relevant to your employees. This information will help you define and strengthen your EVP.
Your EVP should encompass the five pillars we mentioned earlier: compensation and benefits, work-life balance, stability and progression, company culture, and respect.
A strong EVP should also:
- Differentiate your company in a positive way.
- Communicate what potential employees can expect if they join your organisation.
- Reflect what existing employees experience.
- Reflect or be relevant to your organisation’s values and brand.
- Benefit different demographics of employees.
Start drafting with these points in mind to create an EVP your organisation can be proud of!
The importance of authenticity
It’s worth noting here that authenticity is essential. If your EVP is all talk and no action, this can have a damaging effect on your overall employer brand.
So, make sure you have the resources to back up each and every promise you make. Otherwise, you could gain a reputation for dishonesty.
6. Communicating your organisation’s EVP
Make sure your organisation’s EVP is communicated both internally and externally.
Internal distribution should be simple enough, especially if you have effective comms channels. Just make sure to regularly remind your employees of what you offer and back up what you promise.
External distribution, however, can be a little trickier…
…We can help
As well as being consumer product recruitment experts, we also specialise in EVP promotion for our client partners.
Here’s how we can help you communicate your EVP as widely as possible, reach top talent, and elevate your employer brand:
- Tailored job ads that shine a spotlight on your KSPs and benefits.
- Bespoke, in-house designed candidate packs that put your brand front and centre.
- Attention-grabbing social content and newsletter features that will get you seen by a wide, constantly-evolving network of engaged market professionals.
Our internal marketing team can also work closely with you to create incredible tailored content that spotlights current employees and inspires top talent. Here’s an insight into how that could look for your organisation:
If you want to boost your organisation’s EVP or overall employer brand, get in touch today to request our EVP Elevation pack!
We are brand advocates to consumer product organisations of all sizes – let’s talk about how we can support you with your talent attraction and retention:
Call: 0333 772 7200
