Your Employee Value Proposition is a public statement about what matters to you and plays a critical role in defining your culture.
Modern EVPs aren’t built from platitudes but embody an organisation’s personality. Your EVP is a public statement about what matters to you and plays a critical role in defining your culture. It must be authoritative, authentic, and reflect the lived experience of those who work with you.
In a post-covid world where meaning is as important as money, your EVP is a critical differentiator in the market. It’s a way to share your vision for your organisation, demonstrate your values and prove your commitment to continual improvement.
To seek out and retain the best talent, you must make your EVP personal.
Enable the “authentic self.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we think about work. A recent Gartner survey found that 65% of employees have changed how they feel about work and its role in their lives. In addition, over half of the 18,000 surveyed questioned the purpose of their jobs, with the same number searching for a position with a more significant societal intent.
Many of those writing about the “Great Resignation” suggest that money is the primary motivator for a move. While it’s a pressing issue for some, for jobseekers in high-demand industries such as tech who won’t struggle to find a new role, it’s just one of several factors.
“Employees increasingly want to bring their authentic selves to work,” says Gartner. “People want purpose in their lives — and that includes work. The more an employer limits those things, the higher the employee’s intent to leave.”
The great resignation results from a shift in priorities that can be best described as great refocus. Employees take a holistic view of an organisation and are interested in what the business stands for and its position on the critical challenges we face.
Your EVP can’t be inward-looking but outward focused. It should reflect that situation today and a vision for the future.
Over 70% of employees are interested in what their employer is doing to protect the planet. Two-thirds (62%) said they were “more likely” to work for a company with strong environmental policies.
A Deloitte survey found that 80% of employees say that policies on inclusion are vital to them when considering whether to apply for a role. Furthermore, 39% said they’d consider leaving their current employer for a more inclusive one.
Building a modern EVP
The results of the Gartner survey, and other research, highlight a shift in the employee value system. Employees want what Gartner describes as a “more human value proposition”.
A compelling EVP is critical to recruitment and retention, say researchers. “Employees have greater intention to stay when their organisations deliver an EVP including development value, social value and economic value.”
But what does a modern EVP look like?
A global study involving 2,000 knowledge workers, 500 HR directors and 500 employees found three core parts to a modern value proposition:
Employees overwhelmingly expect flexible options
Employees want to re-imagine how productivity is measured
Employees want to work with a diverse team
The results, published in the Harvard Business Review, echo our employees’ feedback and experience ourselves as an organisation.
People want to work somewhere that shares their views, values, and commitment to the issues that matter.
Creating an EVP with personality
EVPs (by nature, can be dictatorial), but to create something that makes people feel happy and content, you need to fundamentally look at things differently and focus on the characters within your team, treat them as humans rather than workers in a workplace. You may come out with something less prescriptive.
At Saragossa, we search for people with personality, ideas, and the ability to influence how we work. Crucial to that is their need to have empathy and understanding. Through experience, we know that these are the people who are accountable and take ownership of their work.
We reward the right people with an EVP that reflects our commitment to them. Our EVP is based on three pillars:
Providing a sense of security
Creating a sense of freedom
Having adventure and fun
Security is hugely important. We’re entrepreneurial and want risk-takers, but every employee has the support they need to thrive in their role. Every employee knows we have their back, which gives them the confidence and security to plan.
Security provides the basis for the freedom to choose. Our staff can choose what to wear, when they work and how best to achieve their targets. We know that encouraging our team to bring their personalities to work improves performance.
Salary and career progression are significant, but we all want a sense of adventure and the chance to experience new things as humans. We want to push our people to achieve more – because doing so enables us to grow.