It’s bewilderingly hard to make sense of what is currently unfolding around us. Unprecedented is an over-used term, but for Covid-19 and its impact, on this occasion, it feels entirely justified. No one knows with any degree of certainty what the next few months hold for any of us. In our world, we tend to attach huge importance to such certainty, stability, even predictability. All of those values seem very distant right now. We are truly operating without a roadmap – perhaps more accurately, different countries appear to be approaching the same journey with entirely different roadmaps.
Perhaps four months ago when Joss Sargent and I sat down to talk about a potential research project, our main concerns touched on employee engagement and retention, labour and skills shortages, the reasons people might join an organisation and the reasons they might or might not stay.
What we wanted to better understand was the relationship between an organisation’s culture and its Employee Value Proposition. Both are increasingly seen as key, if often under-exploited, business drivers. But do they exist in splendid isolation, ships that pass in the night? In order to make more compelling and actionable use of their potential, should there be a more obvious, more structured connection between the two?
That’s what we set out to establish.
The following research white paper is the product of a number of structured conversations with leading industry professionals whose responsibility touches on culture and EVP. We are hugely indebted to them for their time and insights.
What did we learn? Quite a lot.
We wouldn’t want to pre-empt the white paper entirely, but some of the key points touch on the sorts of metrics that should be applied to both culture and EVP. How topical should the measurement and insights that inform culture and EVP be? Do we need to tear up the rule book and think much more nimbly than ever before?
There are some fascinating questions about the ownership of both culture and EVP. About how organisations could better articulate and communicate their culture and EVP.
Perhaps most fundamentally, this is about making better use of the clear and tangible link between the two. An EVP helps to welcome new talent into your organisation on the basis of the culture they see portrayed. And such new talent can also act as change agents, helping to evolve the culture within an organisation.
There should be a supportive and synergetic relationship between the two. But this feels more like a possibility within many organisations than a reality.
We hope we’ve managed to whet your appetite. Who knows the full implications of the coronavirus. In the short term, it feels unlikely to be anything even approaching positive. Whatever its impact, however, organisations will continue to need to create an engaging, inspiring cultural workplace to get the best and the most out of their people. People who need to feel the backing, the support and the empathy of their employer. And such people will still have to be attracted by an accurate, aspirational message that looks forward not backwards.
We hope you’re interested in what you find within the white paper. We’d obviously be delighted to sit down with you to talk through your own organisational challenges that this might touch upon.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 