Exciting times. You’ve launched your new EVP. You’ve done everything right – the research, the stories, the creative messaging. One moment though, why are your efforts being met internally with rolling eyes and shrugging shoulders?
Opinions tend to differ as to when the concept of the Employee Value Proposition was first introduced. 2002 appears to be a reasonable assumption. Meaning we’ve had more than 20 years of the EVP. Organisations have varied significantly in their enthusiasm to embrace the construct and making the business case for one was far from straightforward 15 or so years ago. Happily, albeit with some exceptions, that’s changed.
Extrapolating some of the numbers above, it’s reasonable to assume that many organisations will have developed multiple EVPs since the 2000s. This piece isn’t intended to make the case for when the optimal time for constructing a new EVP might be. But that time will come around. So, perhaps four or five years after the previous incarnation, your organisation is likely to be in need of a new EVP.
And whilst we’re in the business of assuming, it’s not unreasonable to project that a number of your employees will be experiencing their second or even third EVP whilst working at your organisation.
Question is, how do we make sure that those people respond positively to such an initiative and enthusiastically embrace it, rather than rolling their eyes? Perhaps it’s no surprise, according to Gartner, that just 31% of HR leaders feel their people are satisfied with their EVP. Or that this year’s Edelman Trust barometer revealed a 3 point (4 point in the UK) decline in employee trust in their employer.
Your organisation is on a constant journey. Change, either rapid or gentle, is a given. Everything around you is in flux – your consumer markets, the labour market, the economy, the competition, regulation, M&A activity, organisational performance, geo-political factors, you name it. So much change makes the case for evolving your EVP.
But it’s important that you take your people on that journey. Four or five years ago, you or your predecessor presented those people with your last EVP. At the time, presumably, it will have reflected where your organisation was going and the realities of the marketplace. You will have asked those people to live and champion that EVP, encouraged them for their stories which helped carry that EVP. People will have been attracted into your organisation on the basis of the promises your EVP made to them.
It is, therefore, imperative, from launch, that you outline the story behind your new, emerging EVP. What has changed, both within and without your business, making your new EVP the right decision? Is it the market, is it what your organisation has done in the last five years, is it a new strategic direction your organisation is taking? Is it a new and evolving culture?
There should be a clear reason and a clear motivation behind your new EVP. If you want it to have traction further afield than TA and HR, it needs to reflect your changing organisation. More to the point, you have to make that clear to your internal audience. Changing your EVP without there being a logically presented and strategic rationale for doing so risks marginalising or trivialising the initiative. In asking your employee base to get behind your new EVP, there’s a real responsibility for clarifying why your previous EVP was right at the time, what has changed since then, and why your new EVP is right for today’s (and tomorrow’s) challenges, journey and direction.
It’s entirely possible that without the positioning narrative, that all your people are aware of is a new strapline and a new set of creative messages. A change, but a change without context, without meaning and without rationale.
Worse still, it also entirely possible that without such explanation, your people simply see the new EVP as an unnecessary expense, a corporate indulgence, money poorly spent, particularly given the current challenging economic backdrop.
The majority of your employee base today will have a grasp of what an EVP is. However, we shouldn’t assume that they readily associate it with organisational direction and market sentiment.
A new EVP provides much in terms of opportunity and potential, not the least for its capacity to galvanise and inspire your people. But to land it successfully with your all-important internal communities, it requires context. Give them a clear reason why. Make sure your new EVP is aligned to where your organisation is going. Better still, make sure your people are fully aware of the journey you are making from one EVP to another and why you’re doing this.
Your EVP journey is just as important as your EVP destination. More important still is making sure your people are on board for that journey.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 