What do we think are the most challenging aspects of delivering a successful EVP project? There’s a lot to one – a lot of moving parts. A lot that can and does go wrong.
For example, it can be tough making the business case effectively for an EVP project to get the initial go-ahead, and particularly so in the current sclerotic market. But perhaps the TA community are pushing today against an open door, in this regard, to a greater extent than was the case perhaps a decade ago. Leaders have far more grasp of what an EVP is, what it entails and what its potential is.
What about the discovery and delivery stages? Sure, it can take some persuading for managers to part with their people for the research phase – but, again, people have far more realisation today as to the importance of employees across the business telling their stories, outlining their experiences.
There are a lot of stakeholders who have a weather eye on the development and articulation of an EVP. Keeping them in the loop and ensuring all such stakeholders are in agreement with EVP messaging can effectively prepare someone for the world cat herding championships. Challenging certainly, but definitely doable.
Spoiler alert – it’s about embedding
The stage, for me, that provides the greatest challenge to a successful EVP project relates to its internal embedding and implementation. The point at which it progresses from a largely theoretical construct into something lived and breathed by an employee base.
So, what are the obstacles likely to influence whether an EVP becomes real or fails to take root and is a proposition seen fleetingly only by external talent audiences and not consumed and embraced by internal employee communities?
Communications
A lot of this is down to communication and positioning. Although the concept of an EVP is far better known today, there are likely to remain large swathes of employees who simply don’t understand what one is and why it is being introduced. If they have come across one, their assumption is likely to be that it’s something to do with recruitment and only relevant to external audiences.
So, the owner(s) of an EVP has to take the time to prepare the way for the internal launch. Thought needs to be given as to why employees should engage with the EVP. What does it mean to them? What should it enable? Why is it so much more than an external hiring tool? How can it drive engagement, loyalty, clarity of mission and togetherness? And how can they live it and promote it?
Make sure your people know why this is important – what’s the business case?
The business case and the deliverables of a successfully landed EVP should be clearly communicated. There are any number of powerful metrics which underline the return on investment of successfully embedding EVP. (Although a cynic might point out that some of these accepted metrics are perhaps showing their age). Organisations with a compelling EVP experience up to 10% increase in productivity, according to Gartner. Becoming an employer of choice delivers up to 18% higher productivity and 12% better customer advocacy for David MacLeod. Organisations with stellar Glassdoor ratings outperform their peers by up to 16% in terms of stock market returns, according to the University of East Anglia. Powerful stats but they need to be effectively delivered to your employee base.
They need a reason to get behind your new EVP.
Don’t make it about HR or TA – it’s for and about the whole business
It’s important too that the EVP does not feel compartmentalised. Not something owned purely by HR or TA. Some of the figures above make this case with real clarity. EVP’s broader application and contribution needs to be made clear. It would clearly benefit from senior leader endorsement in this regard. Something that is both top down and bottom up – something constructed through the stories of people right across the organisation, but with the buy-in and involvement of leadership.
Internal messaging alignment
It’s equally clear that such owners realise that EVP is not the only show in town. Employees will be potentially exposed to any number of other competing internal messages. How does the EVP fit in with such existing messaging and noise? It may be making different points, but the messaging should not clash or confuse internal audiences. What sort of collaboration with internal comms has taken place? Are two sets of messaging existing in splendid isolation? Does too much internal messaging ultimately become white noise? It’s clearly so important to understand how your employees are processing such messaging.
How real does it feel?
A new EVP has to feel recognisable. The people who are expected to embrace it should first recognise it. Do they feel as if they had any influence over its content and messaging? Were they, or anyone they know, involved in its creation? Do they recognise the stories that are being told to help land the EVP? Do they build, therefore, association and empathy?
To what extent does the new EVP feel inclusive? Does it look or sound like me and my colleagues? Has it originated from my department, my office, my country? Or does it feel like something head office has come up with? Or London? Or New York? Does it feel too corporate, too far removed from real working life in so many locations?
How close is the EVP to your employment experience?
Above all, how real, relatable and genuine does it feel? (I’m desperately trying to avoid the authenticity word here). To what extent does the essence of the EVP align with the lived working reality of an employer? I was recently exposed to a major, sophisticated, global organisation which had invested heavily in the construction of an EVP messaging template which bore exactly no relationship with actual lived culture and workplace experience. It felt clunky, artificial and out of touch.
Employee advocacy
Finally, an EVP will not land successfully by magic. Even if it has senior level endorsement, has been explained clearly, feels real and credible, it still requires boots on the ground to become embedded. The use and utilisation of employees as advocates and champions is critical. They will provide objectivity and independence. And if they have been involved in its construction through focus group presence or the telling of workplace stories, so much the better.
Keep things fresh
And efforts should be made to keep the EVP front of mind. It needs to subtly evolve and be kept fresh. New stories or adapted stories should be introduced to keep it in the mind’s eye of employee audiences. And people want to know if and how it has worked. What has been the impact of the EVP on engagement, on productivity, on tenure, as well, clearly, as recruitment? Many of your people will have contributed heavily to its shaping and landing – they want know the difference it is making.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 