All you’ve ever wanted to know about EVP but were too afraid to ask

Within the last five to ten years, the construct of the Employee Value Proposition has become so well embedded within talent acquisition thinking and practice that there are now any number of dedicated job titles focusing on its delivery.

As someone responsible for researching and articulating EVPs on behalf of client organisations, the conversation today is more around how, rather than why.

Happy days, then, to a large extent. But its general ubiquity means that people can feel awkward and potentially exposed asking questions around the subject.

Given that the thinking and approach to constructing an EVP is part science, part creation, there’s not always an absolute right or wrong as to how we go about the process or how to get the most out of one. But, for what it’s worth, here’s my take.

So, what exactly is an EVP? – Pretty fundamental this one, I guess. Firstly, it’s the promise you’re making to candidates and employees alike. It’s the employee experience and journey encapsulated. It’s your compelling why and your where – why should great talent join you and where will you take them? It’s the north star for your people communications – both internal and external ones. It should be literally or figuratively visible in all your people messaging – it’s the DNA or source code that holds these communication threads together. Sure, it delivers your candidate messaging but it doesn’t or shouldn’t stop at the door – it should influence the journey your employees take through your organisation.

What should it inform? Let’s think about both your candidate journey and your employee experience. In an ideal world, all communications that touch such journeys should be informed and shaped by your EVP. If it’s the proposition or promise you are making to candidates and employees alike, it’s a promise that needs reinforcing at all stages. People need, particularly in the current market which combines historically low unemployment with Brexit inspired career caution, a great reason to move. A key part of that great reason is your EVP. Like every branding initiative, it should be consistent throughout all people touchpoints. So as external employees become applicants, then candidates, then your employees, they need a constant and consistent reminder as to why they are making this career decision. Arguably your candidates only make the one decision in joining you, your employees make the decision to stay with you every day they work with you. I think they deserve to be reminded why.

This is an exciting time in terms of harnessing tech for talent acquisition purposes – be it chat bots, AI, candidate experience-enhancing ATS’. They are so much more effective, more personal, more intuitive if they are talking the same language and messaging, if they are another channel that is delivering your EVP, as the rest of your people comms.

How do we go about constructing one?  There’s no absolute formula behind this, however, you’d be basing your EVP on a significant amount of guesswork if you don’t invest in some original research. By all means make use of existing materials – but ageing engagement surveys will only tell you so much. And an EVP combines the here and now with a look to the future. Don’t base it on what your people were telling you two years ago. How many focus groups, interviews and surveys? There are so many variables – the size of your organisation, number of offices, geographical spread and so on. How easy it is or isn’t to take your people out of the business for such research also plays its part. But until you’ve taken the pulse of your people, listened to what they love, listened to what they’d change, listened to their stories, your bespoke, ownable EVP could be just about anyone else’s not very bespoke, not very ownable EVP.

It’s easy and far from rare to exclude external research as part of your EVP preparations – organising such interviews and focus groups brings with it a cost and a time implication. However, they do provide hugely insightful understanding of how external candidates currently perceive you and your offer. Such perceptions are what your newly curated EVP will be looking to address.

Can you actually construct or create an EVP? I’m hearing this a lot right now. Sure, an EVP has to be authentic and genuine. But you won’t come across one organically, by magic. You have to listen to your people, your direction, your competitor set, your market, your strategy and build an EVP that will become organic. You have to articulate something that already exists. You have to breathe life into something that already has a beating heart. But it remains unarticulated until you build it. So, get out there and do what you have to do.

EVP and culture?  This is interesting emerging territory in my mind. There is a synergistic relationship between your internal culture and the EVP you deliver to both candidate and employee audiences – or there should be. If your EVP doesn’t accurately reflect the internal culture, then internal audiences will call BS and external audiences will have an uncomfortable reality check on their first day with you – which, as a result, might not be far from their last day with you. And your EVP has the opportunity of bringing on board talent who can take your organisation and its culture forward. Neither your culture nor your EVP is set in immovable stone.

What are the deliverables?  It’s a harsh fact of life that there is an element of investment that goes into constructing an EVP. But in making the case for an EVP, there’s an increasing body of evidence that points to the returns it generates. Here are a few nuggets to present to your CFO – 83% of employers felt their EVP had a significant influence on their ability to hire top talent, according to LinkedIn. Organisations with an actively managed EVP increase hiring pools by 50% for the Corporate Leadership Council. And my favourite, becoming an employer of choice delivers up to 18% higher productivity and 12% better customer advocacy, in the wise words of David MacLeod. Of course, perhaps an even more pressing thought – if you aren’t reviewing and/or renewing your EVP, you can be pretty confident that your competitors will be. Put it this way, I’ve just done a small research study on the career site offerings of a number of organisations recruiting technology professionals. It’s very, very obvious which organisations have reflected on their EVP recently and those for which it is a distant memory. What sort of conclusions are candidates likely to draw faced with similar evidence?

What about co-dependents?  Your EVP is an important communications tool but it doesn’t or certainly shouldn’t exist in isolation. In constructing your EVP, it’s important to bear in mind that it really should have synergy or certainly a relationship with your organisational vision and values. It’s the articulation of the relationship that should exist between your organisational strategy and your people strategy. Candidates should be attracted into your business and want to stay because of the contribution they feel they can make to where you are heading. The why and the where again.

Who should you engage with?  In the not too distant past, your colleagues in marketing tended to take a dim or certainly suspicious view of a new EVP initiative. Things have changed and changed for the better. Comms or marketing tend to be much more supportive of such projects – given that the EVP should result in a greater capacity to bring on board more and better people to help sell and service their products, we shouldn’t be too surprised about this newfound enthusiasm. But in gathering up a project team, also enlist the help of internal communications and senior leadership – you will need the involvement and endorsement of the latter. Don’t forget though, although EVP projects typically take in a broad church of corporate involvement, it is talent acquisition who will be judged on its success.

There are a lot of moving parts. Because an EVP project should touch a lot of internal departments and functions, as well as external stakeholders, there’s no getting away from tight project management. It’s not sexy or aspirational or likely to win you any awards – but it will win you internal kudos. In co-ordinating the involvement of leaders, internal research participants, regular check-ins, liaison with marketing and internal comms, the outcomes and the opportunities are too great to leave to chance.

What are the caveats?  Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of minefields. It’s both easy and tempting to come up with an all too shiny and not at all authentic EVP. Clearly, you’re looking to portray your organisation in a positive light but there’s a limit. The expression I rather like is ‘you on a good day’. Your EVP too needs to work right across your organisation – not just head office or one country. Interestingly, such a project is a way to bring your people together, to enable them to express themselves, through interviews and focus groups, and to have a voice. Don’t pass up that opportunity. Do it properly, do your research, do your testing – but don’t take too long. Your internal people want to see the results of their contribution and if the end product comes out 18 months after your research began, then, again, it will be describing your organisation as it was, not as it is or as it will be. I would mention diversity, but I’m hoping that portraying a rich and diverse workforce is something that few would describe as a surprise. If you’re communicating your EVP across different countries and cultures, think about your use of language. It’s great to be clever with your wording, but if that simply doesn’t land in other countries and other languages, then your EVP won’t be very inclusive or reflective. Make sure it is applied consistently and by all communication stakeholders – both inside and outside the organisation. It’s confusing at best and certainly detrimental to your employer brand if talent acquisition are saying one thing about your careers and your recruitment consultant partners are saying something entirely different.

You’re not doing this in a vacuum.  There will be no shortage of other competitor organisations doing similar work. That means two things. It raises the bar – your work will not be viewed in isolation but in comparison to other employers – how does it stack up? Just as important, are you saying something different to those competitor organisations? However, elegant and reflective your EVP is, if it feels all too familiar, then candidates might draw their own conclusions about how creative and aware you are. This competitor context makes even more of a case for external research or testing – you need to know what your competitors are saying and how this is playing with your candidate audiences.

Metrics and measurement.  This is one of the aspects of EVP that has improved significantly. Both the capacity and the need to measure the impact of EVP-related work has grown exponentially. But measure what? That is going to depend on your organisation and your hiring. If you’re hiring volume, then time and cost per hire is going to be critical. If you’re after hard to fill roles, then those considerations, whilst relevant, are less important. Key areas to measure – your candidate pipeline: is it leaking? Your three/six month attrition – rising or improving? Three month engagement pulse readings – going in the right direction? Candidate experience ratings – pleasing or worrying? Your external awareness amongst candidate pools – do more potential applicants know of you or less? Some of these will be relevant to you, your hiring plans and your organisation, others maybe not. Choose the ones that matter.

How long will my EVP last?  Often asked question. To which, slightly frustratingly, there’s no hard and fast answer. Much of it will depend on your own organisation – how much has it changed and evolved since you last reviewed your EVP?  If such an EVP is looking backwards rather than forwards, then it’s probably past its best. If your competitors have reviewed their own EVPs and yours is starting to suffer in comparison, again, it may be time to begin the process. If some of the metrics above are moving in the wrong direction, then, again, you might think that your EVP needs re-visiting. Above all, it’s about staying close to what you are saying and how audiences are responding. Don’t construct an EVP, sit back with a warm glow of achievement and leave it in your desk for the next five years. Just like your organisation, the labour markets and your competitors, see your EVP as organic and dynamic. If you haven’t thought about your EVP recently, that’s a pretty strong indication that it’s time to do exactly that.