How to enhance your EVP (Employee Value Proposition)

About EVP (Employee Value Proposition)

Employee Value Proposition, or EVP, means the value that companies can provide for their employees.

Some features of an EVP include work-life balance, favourable employee benefits, and assistance in attaining qualifications. By working to attain and enhance their EVP, companies can prevent current employees and future candidates from moving to another company. Whilst encouraging employees to keep working at the same company, an EVP can also persuade jobseekers to choose that particular company over others.

However, it is important to remember that many other companies will generally offer a standard set of employee benefits and similar perks; you will need to consider a unique EVP to set your company apart from the rest.

Why an EVP is essential

It is no longer the norm for employees to remain at the same company for a very long time, as changing jobs has become more common than ever before. Companies are seeking new ways to ensure that they do not lose talented individuals to their competitors, and an EVP is an essential factor in preventing this problem.

Create and enhance your EVP

Analyse the value offered by your company

Before working to create an EVP for your company, first analyse the nature of your company on your own terms. Think about why you decided to work at your current company. You are likely to come up with many different reasons as you go through this process of analysis. For example, you may enjoy a suitable work-life balance, your workplace may have a flat organisational structure, or there may be opportunities for younger employees to take on managerial positions.
Another useful method of analysis is to ask your friends and team members at your workplace about why they chose to work there, and what they think about the company.

Differentiate yourself from competitors: identify the most attractive aspects of your company

Try to pinpoint the unique strengths of your company. What does your workplace have that your competitor doesn’t? You may reach an answer more effectively by asking other employees for their opinions.
Another useful tactic is to survey the kinds of EVP featured at other companies. This information can usually be found on their websites or recruiting pages. Make sure to check what the competition is offering before working to create your own EVP.

If you find a competitor offering similar perks to you, aim to view your workplace from a different perspective so as to identify its most attractive aspects, extract elements for differentiation, and work to create a truly unique EVP for your organisation.

Get the entire company involved in creating your EVP

Once you have analysed and identified your company's strengths, collaborate with your team to narrow these down to the most essential and prominent aspects that you will feature in your EVP. Check that your intended message is actually getting across by holding surveys with people outside your team as well as new recruits.

Work to ensure that your EVP matches the kinds of employees you want to hire

If you are looking to employ engineers at your organisation but you have an EVP that focuses on sales work, job-seeking engineers are unlikely to consider joining you.

Similarly, if your company is looking to hire global talent so as to expand its operations globally, your EVP will only hit the mark with its intended audience if it includes details on future global development.

It goes without saying that it is counterproductive to stretch the truth in your EVP in order to gain global talent or highly skilled individuals. Any new hire in this situation will soon notice incongruities with actual workplace conditions and will swiftly seek to leave—an unfavourable outcome for all parties involved.

In order to acquire highly skilled talent, you must continually strive to make your company more attractive.

Offering the same EVP elements with no consideration for change is not effective. In order to stay on the same page, aim to gather opinions from other employees about the EVP once a year. Use the insights from this process to further refine your EVP.