Just because there’s a broadly defined process in order to arrive at one, doesn’t mean the EVP itself is a process.
It’s not, however, entirely surprising that such an assumption is levelled at the Employee Value Proposition.
As well as a process, it can be viewed as something of a commodity, something of a product, something to be focused on every two to four years.
Do we, as an industry, consider EVP as a strategy as often and as clearly as we should?
Do we apply the appropriate levels of budget, thought processes, focus, senior level input and involvement, measurement?
By approaching the EVP as a commodity or a standalone process, does this become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Don’t put EVP in a box
If we presented EVP more clearly as a strategy, and discussed its strategic objectives, its strategic intent, its strategic outcomes, what do we think might be the implications?
It can be much easier, much less challenging, much more tangible to think of it in more tactical, physical terms. It has long been seen as a tool to drive an organisation’s Employer Branding or even recruitment marketing output.
And for many organisations, that is the box in which it remains. An important box, but very much a finite, contained box. A box with an operational use and perception. One to be reconsidered in a few years’ time or when a new senior talent acquisition professional arrives.
Strategy?
So, if we’re attempting to bestow EVP with a more strategic aspect, what exactly is strategy?
There’s a whole industry been created around simply defining it. Broadly speaking, and you may well have your own versions, strategy is a course of action designed to bring about long-term organisational change and/or additional value.
And long-term change should be the aim of your Employee Value Proposition. It is, or it should be, a strategy aimed at facilitating the direction and trajectory of an organisation through the input, passion and motivation of its people. There should be a very clear and very deliberate relationship between the EVP strategy and organisational strategy.
Do your people have a clear understanding about their role in organisational strategy?
A business can have no hope whatsoever of successful strategic delivery without the contribution and buy-in of its employee base. An employee base attracted in and inspired by an EVP. An EVP that sets out how the contribution of both existing and would-be employees can help shape where their organisation is going and how it will get there.
It’s important, then, in defining an EVP that we are clear about its aims and objectives. There should clearly be a focus on recruitment and retention, but to what end? Why are people encouraged to either join or stay? In achieving their own professional goals, what are they delivering for the organisation? What strategic goal is their combined, collective input going to enable?
How will your EVP strategy be evaluated and measured? If we’re being brutally honest, measurement is something at which our industry has rarely excelled. Many of the metrics we use to gauge the impact of the EVP are vanity or operational metrics or ones as much at the whim of the economy and labour market, as our doubtless sterling efforts. The more we can align the EVP with organisational strategic progress, the clearer the case is that inspired and focused people are delivering this strategy.
And, in contributing to overall organisational strategy, does this not result in making the on-going business case for an EVP much more solid and credible?
EVP as strategy makes a more plausible business case
Because it can be all too easy for a business to switch off EVP budget when the economy is struggling – the assumption being that either an organisation is not hiring or that talent acquisition is so much easier and undeserving of investment when GDP is weak and sclerotic.
In aligning your EVP to strategy, you are making it more real, more tangible, more credible, more front of organisational mind. Less able to be compartmentalised. It becomes seen much more as a key business driver.
Your EVP becomes effectively the route map for your people’s engagement with your overall strategy.
Owning EVP doesn’t mean not sharing
One of the key metrics an EVP can influence is that of engagement. The greater the relationship that can be drawn between employees’ impact and influence, particularly as that relates to organisational strategy and success, the more likely they are to feel engaged within their work. What they are doing is making a clear, measurable and acknowledged difference right across their organisation.
And if the owners of the EVP within a business are framing the construct in strategic rather than operational or tactical terms, it is likely to reflect positively on their standing within the organisation. TA has long aspired to greater internal kudos and appreciation – shaping and landing a strategic enabler aligned to organisational strategic can only help this.
So, what do we need to do in order to position EVP with more strategic heft and contribution?
- Make sure we fully understand and grasp organisational strategy;
- Understand how long the current strategy has been in operation and when it is likely to be updated;
- Identify and engage with the key people responsible for shaping such strategy;
- Understand which elements of the strategy can be influenced and delivered by your people;
- Align these elements to your EVP – your people need both to be aware of the strategy and understand how their work can land it;
- Ensure that their ability to help land such a strategy is a key element of your EVP and their reason for either joining or staying with you.
Finally, ownership of the EVP is important, but if TA/HR hold onto this too tightly, to the exclusion of other key organisational stakeholders – internal comms, marketing, leadership, then they risk it becoming isolated and without strategic alignment.
Think about your own organisational strategy and your own EVP – what’s their current relationship?
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 