Re-evaluating your Employee Value Proposition: is it still fit for purpose?
Business leaders have to look at their overall EVP through the lens of the changing needs of employees, which have been shaped by the pandemic. Even in a post-COVID-19 world, employees are expecting flexible working and hybrid work models that allow them to work from anywhere, at any time, to continue.
What does all this mean for HR and reward managers? To attract and keep the best talent at your company, you need to think beyond the salary and consider how your company can create an environment and culture where employees can thrive, no matter where or how they are working.
The ‘New EVP’ looks at far more than an employer’s benefits package to ensure that organisations are doing their best to inspire and support their people. In the past, HR may have competed for talent by piling on a high volume of benefits or novelty perks, like Friday beers, or pawternity leave for those with new four-legged friends. Now, with remote working contributing to a sense of isolation and the lack of in-person events, HR leaders are providing new ways to meaningfully connect and support their employees to create an inspiring culture.
Transform your EVP to boost employee engagement
What separates a ‘good’ from a ‘great’ EVP is admitting when things need to change, and being open to the evolution of your EVP. What may have been core to your EVP as a small start-up of 10 can differ widely from an international, 1,000+ strong business. The key to developing a strong EVP is creating that ‘People Deal’ that will excite, motivate and engage your new starters, your veterans and everyone in between.
Here are a few steps to help you create that perfect EVP:
1. Review what incentivises your highest performers and most engaged employees
Identify people working at your organisation who represent your ideal candidates and ask them. If you want broader opinions, you can opt to send out a survey or run a workshop to find out what attracted them to the company and what keeps them around.
2. Engage with your job candidates
Survey candidates directly, and ask people who rejected your job offer if they’d be willing to take a candidate experience survey and have them elaborate on the reasons why they turned you down. Likewise, survey new hires to find out why they accepted your job offer. What was the ‘wow’ moment for them?
3. Don’t forget the exit interview
Spending 30 minutes talking to people who are leaving is an excellent way to find out why they’ve sought other opportunities and what changes you can make to strengthen your EVP. Ask them what they loved about your EVP, what lost its sparkle in their time at your organisation, and what has changed.
4. Look at external resources
Employee review sites like Glassdoor are a rapidly emerging way to find out what employees really think about your workplace. Because reviews are anonymous, much of the feedback is candid and can provide details that a survey or exit interview won’t. We firmly believe in personally responding to each and every review and it’s a core responsibility of each of the members of our Leadership Team to do so.
5. Reevaluate and potentially make changes to your company culture
Use this opportunity to evolve your own internal employer brand, with special attention to your values. Your values drive your culture and are a key factor in building your EVP. Consider the current working environment, and if your values should evolve as a result of changes in the working world.
6. Expand your workplace benefits, add meaningful employee perks
Many of the leading employers are providing benefits that are both unique and surprising, relevant to their organisation and meaningful to the employees they want to attract.
The Office for National Statistics recently reported that nearly one in four adults have said the coronavirus was affecting their household finances, with the top concerns labelled as reduced income, using savings to cover living costs and struggling to pay bills. As such, a focus on providing employees with practical, financial support is something I’ve seen lately as employees continue to navigate the pandemic.
7. Take a hard look at how you reward and recognise great work
Organisations are losing their people because they’re failing at recognition. With the proper reward and recognition programme, you can introduce monetary bonuses to your people through manager- or peer-led reward nomination programmes for an extra boost to recognise hard work, which can make employees feel seen and valued, especially during an increased remote working environment.
One last point
Keep your people central to evolving your EVP. Communicate what your EVP is and ask for input (often!) on whether it still rings true. In job advertisements, be sure to include your employee values, unique benefits and all the little things that make your organisation a great place to work. Mentioning something like a wellbeing allowance may seem like a detail that doesn’t belong in a job posting for a sales executive, but it’s part of your EVP, and those details could make all the difference when attracting top talent to your organisation.
Ask yourself, is your EVP ready for the next evolution of employees?
The author is Robert Hicks, group HR director at Reward Gateway.
This article provided by Reward Gateway.
In partnership with Reward Gateway
We help the world's leading companies with an employee engagement platform.
