I came across an article in Forbes on EVP as a potential fix to employee engagement. For those of you who may need a reminder as to what EVP stands for, it’s Employee Value Proposition. Put simply, EVP is defined in the book The War for Talent as “Your company needs a strong employee value proposition – a compelling answer to the question, ‘Why would a highly talented person choose to work here?’”. Thanks to Forbes contributor Rodd Wagner for reminding me of that great book!
As you can imagine, recruiters know EVP best, and marketers tend to know it pretty well too, as it’s also known as the Employer Brand Proposition. While recruiters use it to attract top talent, marketers use EVP to market the brand.
Questions to ask
- What’s your organization’s EVP? Does your company even have one?
- Do your recruiters use it to attract talent?
- Does marketing use it to promote the company brand?
- Most importantly, do your employees believe it to be true?
Actions to take
- What if your organization doesn’t have an EVP? Get one! And see below on how to get started.
- What if recruiters don’t use it? What if marketing doesn’t promote it? Make it so!
- And the kicker, what if your employees don’t believe that the EVP is accurate to what the company uniquely delivers to employees, or don’t believe the EVP is important to them? Now that’s highly problematic. Why, you say? Read on…
Understand the impact of EVP
Research shows that if an employee isn’t satisfied on-the-job, they aren’t so happy. And if they aren’t happy, they aren’t so engaged. And if they aren’t engaged, they aren’t as productive as they could be. The final straw? They walk. So, before we recruit and onboard top talent, let’s be sure we’re using an EVP that employees believe to be true – from what the organization delivers, to what the employees want most out of their work experience – to keep them satisfied, happy, engaged, productive, and on the payroll.
Assess your EVP
If you already have an EVP for your organization, give it a kick in the tire. Take it to the employees for a test drive to see whether they agree that the Employee Value Proposition accurately reflects what they value most in their workplace, and that the company is delivering on it. It’s as simple as that.
Get or fix your EVP
If you’re an organization needing to create or change the EVP, ask the employees what they value most – the non-monetary reasons. Another way to put it is to ask employees what would make them happiest, or most satisfied working for your company. For example, a great manager, a flexible schedule, collaborative co-workers, and the like.
Don’t let the EVP kill your employees’ engagement! L8R!
