Developing the Right Employee Value Proposition ‘EVP’ For Your Business
Paul McClatchie
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Ireland’s labour market has now achieved ‘Full Employment’ and there are several sectors where there is more competition than ever for talent.
What’s covered in this article:
- The Importance of an EVP and Employer Branding
- How to Create the Perfect EVP
- An Example of a Winning EVP – Bank of Ireland
- Conclusion and Words of Wisdom for HR Managers
84% of the world’s top 100 most attractive employers have an Employee Value Proposition, otherwise known as an EVP. This can be defined as a strategic statement that communicates a company’s values, goals, workplace culture and employer branding. More specifically, an EVP is the commitment an employer is making to its new and current employees.
If we look at the Irish hiring landscape, it’s clear that we have significant progress to make regarding new strategic approaches to hiring and implementing EVP’s into our acquisition and retention processes.
A PWC study found that 77% of Irish HR managers are experiencing talent acquisition constraints even though 81% of companies experienced skills shortages during 2018 (CIPD, 2018).
Thus, HR departments need to expand their inbound hiring strategy by creating an engaging EVP that’s in-line with the employer branding strategy.
The Importance of Employer Branding
The EVP is a subset of a company’s employer branding strategy. Employer branding is fundamental to communicating a positive profile of a company and showcasing every aspect of what it’s like to work there. In short, employer branding gives prospective employees an insight into a company before even stepping foot inside the door.
Over 80% of business leaders acknowledge that employer branding has a significant impact on their ability to hire talent, according to LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends report. Thankfully, Irish HR Managers realise this impact, and 48% are investing in employer branding to grow their 2019 talent pipeline.
LinkedIn also found that professionals under the age of 40 are 61% more likely to investigate an EVP and employer branding when it comes to job opportunities. And, 50% of people wouldn’t consider working for a company with a bad employer brand, regardless of salary.
These statistics clearly demonstrate the importance of incorporating a strong EVP and employer branding into the inbound hiring strategy. In the next section of this article, we explore what topics to include in a fool-proof EVP.
How to Create the Perfect EVP
An EVP should simply answer the question, “Why would the people we need want to join our company and stay?” So, here are the top three areas HR Managers should focus on when writing the EVP:
- The Perks and Benefits
Studies show that candidates across all industries look first at not just salary, but also compensation, benefits and the perks associated with a job. Flexible hours, the ability to work from home and a healthy work-life balance are also taken highly into consideration.
- Career Progression
Career development is also vital to a company’s EVP. People are looking for their next job as soon as they start one. In fact, millennials will change careers 15 times throughout their life, according to a McCrindle study, and the main reason is lack of career progression or direction.
To deter this trend from impacting the workplace, HR Managers need to tailor their communication strategy by using clear information, infographics and employee testimonials to display the positive progression path within the company. This way, candidates can envision their career path several steps at a time.
If this isn’t done correctly, companies are running the risk of losing quality hires to other companies who have an even stronger EVP.
- The Company Culture
Prospective employees want to know what a day in their job will look like. This relates not just to a clear depiction of what their role will involve daily, but also what the workplace culture is like. Are there staff events and activities they can get involved in? Are there employee incentive schemes, rewards or competitions that might interest them? Express this clearly in your EVP and you’ll instantly notice the volume increase of quality candidates applying for vacancies.
An Example of a Winning EVP – Bank of Ireland
Bank of Ireland set themselves a challenge – to communicate its core values in a way that its current and future workforce could connect to. The goal was to attract, engage and retain top talent in Ireland’s rapidly evolving financial landscape. In other words, BOI set themselves the task of creating one of the best EVP’s in the country.
After first interviewing BOI employees across a broad range of disciplines, the following steps were taken during the making of their new EVP:
- Capturing stories and perspectives from a wide cross-section of staff.
- Bringing Bank of Ireland’s values to life through emotive content online.
- Targeting and engaging job seekers with a careers website that reflected the bank’s culture and offering an insight into what makes it a great place to work.
The motto of the EVP was, “Join Today. Create Tomorrow”.
The initiative put current employees front and centre throughout the site, using them in videos, photography and blog posts to best articulate Bank of Ireland’s learning and development offering, career opportunities and rewards and benefits, as well as its inclusion and diversity efforts.
Here is an example of a video BOI created as part of their EVP
This type of employee-centred approach to an EVP is a fantastic example of how other companies in Ireland can put together an engaging, successful and cost-effective inbound hiring process.
Conclusion
58% of Irish HR Managers say that their top priority for 2020 is talent management. Are you part of that cohort? If so, you have a good chance of winning the war for talent.
Just remember to keep your employer branding and EVP genuine and true. There is nothing worse than a new employee starting a job only to realise the company culture, vision and values are not what they expected. This type of experience will lead to high turnover rates, which can be very costly for a company.
Hopefully our guide will help strengthen your Employee Value Proposition, employer branding strategy and retention rate.
Are you wondering how your own EVP is impacting your Financial hires? I would welcome a call on +353 (0)1 699 4530 or email paul@engagepeople.ie.
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