Employee Value Proposition – the ‘new frontier’ for reward management

When John F. Kennedy referred to a “new frontier” in a speech ahead of the 1960 presidential election he was looking ahead to an era of space exploration, geopolitical turmoil and societal shifts at home. An era of great uncertainty – and opportunity – which, if you allow me some creative license, reflects to some degree the position of reward professionals today.

With little recent innovation in our field, we see reward teams running out of ideas to improve the effectiveness of reward and fulfil the perennial mantra: attract, motivate and retain the best talent.

So what else can we do? The answer is hard to find in the traditional realm of reward. But it can be found beyond that. In a new frontier. Enter the Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

In fairness, this might not be the first time you’ve heard about EVP. However, a closer look at the conversation around EVP shows it is often confused with employer branding, and there is not much in the way of structured thinking and tools to help you get your head around it.

This is where the opportunity lies.

A systematic approach

We have found that a systematic approach to understanding what employees value, and how well their employer is delivering on these factors, can have a transformational effect in reward and HR in general for three reasons.

It gives organisations hard evidence of which areas constitute the core strengths of their EVP and where improvements to the ‘employee deal’ can have the biggest impact – and consequently make the organisation more attractive for candidates and employees alike.
It changes the focus on EVP from “what we want to do” to “what we are doing well and how we can build on it”, thus moving away from aspiration and towards relevant action.
It provides the metrics to inform decision-making and track the impact of different interventions going forward.

In a nutshell, a structured view of your EVP will help you make reward about more than money and improve the return from your investment in people.

So, are you ready to get serious about your Employee Value Proposition?

The author is Juan Novoa, consulting lead at QCG.

This article is provided by QCG.