Often mentioned, but rarely shared, we’re going to give you the inside track on all things EVP.

Employer Value Propositions have become the focus of attention for Talent Acquisition professionals around the world. So what makes an EVP such a critical element in any modern talent management strategy?

A well-defined and articulated EVP provides the necessary foundations to create a strong employer brand that will:

• differentiate you from your competitors, giving you a critical advantage in talent acquisition;
• reduce recruitment costs and effort by creating a magnetic effect that will bring the best candidates to you;
• improve retention and engagement by creating a sense of unity and shared purpose throughout your business;
• create advocacy amongst employees, encouraging them to share their experiences with others;
• create a favourable impression with customers and business stakeholders, who will feel proud to be associated with a business that offers such a great experience to its employees.

You only get one shot at creating your EVP. It needs to be right and it needs to show your business in its best light. Do it right and you’ll reap great benefits.

But in our experience, there’s often confusion around what an EVP actually is – and what it should do! For example, we often see people interchanging the terms, inferring that their EVP and Employer Brand are one and the same. But this is incorrect. They’re two different things!

The difference between an EVP and an Employer Brand.

The EVP is the set of factors and supporting evidence that articulate what makes an employment experience unique. It’s what it’s really like to work for your organisation.

The Employer Brand is the creative articulation of the EVP, and the accumulated sentiment and emotion that this generates. It’s what people think it’s like to work for your organisation.

The difference between Values and an EVP.

Similarly, we often see people interchanging Values with EVP. Again, two different things.

The EVP is the set of core attributes that make your business an attractive place to join and stay. Values are the principles of behaviour that underpin your organisational behaviours.

Values can contribute to your EVP – having a strong, values-led culture can be seen as a positive thing. But Values in isolation do not make people join and stay with an organisation.

What’s the right way to present an EVP?

To confuse things further, different experts present EVPs in different ways. Some like to present a bullet pointed-list of attributes. Others produce a creatively written piece of narrative to bring the core attributes to life.

There are problems with both of these approaches. Producing a bullet pointed list of your core selling points tells people what you have to offer, but it doesn’t explain how it will benefit them or how it will make them feel – both crucial functions of a strong EVP.

It’s really important that you understand how to create an emotional connection with your audience. And to do this we need to show them how they will feel if they take up the employment offer. Likewise, producing a creative piece of narrative is an effective way of summarising an EVP. But in isolation, it can feel somewhat glib and hollow.

The claims made in an EVP need to be substantiated. So any narrative needs to be underpinned with clear examples of where the claim has emerged from, and ideally verbatim quotes from genuine employees to support the claims. Without this, the narrative could be simply viewed as a corporate platitude that’s not to be trusted.

An EVP framework makes your EVP work harder.

We’ve established that an EVP statement or bullet points won’t do everything you need in isolation. You need something that’s more robust. That’s why we create a framework in 6 steps.

This EVP framework is for your use internally, and doesn’t need to be shared externally. It’s more of a guide, or an instruction book. We follow a mantra that’s used a lot in the movies – “show, don’t tell”. We encourage our clients to use their EVP framework discreetly as their inspiration, bringing the pillars to life through great, creative storytelling.

Think of it like the storyboard for your movie.
The EVP framework helps you to understand what makes your workplace unique, and the kinds of stories that you should be developing for individual audiences. It should be the touchstone for every piece of employment communication that you produce. But it shouldn’t be published in isolation. However, sharing the story of your EVP with employees internally through workshops and face-to-face sessions can help you gain that all important engagement – so people internally want to share their experiences of what’s great about working with you!

Our EVP framework contains 6 elements.

We’ve provided real-life examples of each element, but each comes from a different organisation’s EVP to allow them anonymity.

Step 1 – Collecting & analysing proof points and verbatim quotes.

Analysis of well researched proof points and verbatim quotes, extracted from a wide range of internal data sources such as focus groups and engagement surveys, and external sources such as audience surveys give the fi rm foundations from which to build your EVP pillars.

Step 2 – Creating your EVP pillars.

Our many proof points are then grouped under a series of between 4 and 6 core themes – these are known as our EVP pillars – the universal truths that we can call upon for all of our future content.

Step 3 – Creating Employee Experience Statements.

We then give thought to how these pillars translate into employee experience statements. What do these attributes mean for employees? How will they benefit them? How do they make an employee feel? This “layer” helps us to understand how we are going to create that all important emotional reaction in our target audiences.

Step 4 – Creating your EVP statement.

We often then summarise the pillars in an elevator pitch – the EVP statement.

Step 5 – Creating your corporate communications framework.

It’s then a good idea to place this into a wider corporate communications framework, showing how it sits in relation to the Values, Vision, Mission, Purpose and Consumer Promise statements.
This helps to ensure that the EVP is harmonious with all company communications. It’s often helpful to share this with the Marketing and HR teams, to re-assure them that all communications are working in harmony together.

Step 6 – Developing a message matrix for each target audience.

Finally, we look to develop an audience message matrix, showing the relative strengths of each of our pillars with individual talent audiences. This helps us to make sure we are using the strongest most relevant messaging at all times and provides a more “personalised” EVP.

A 6 step approach is rooted in research, to give authenticity, and is flexible enough to be moulded across different territories and business areas. This robust framework now becomes the touchstone guide for future employer communications. It ensures that your subsequent content highlights the core truths about your organisation to the right audiences, and maximises the opportunities for attracting and engaging the right talent.
It brings clarity and focus to your storytelling, helping to elevate your messages above those of the competition.

So, now you know what to do to create a robust, bulletproof EVP framework that will help to engage and attract new talent and create a strong sense of pride and belonging within your organisation.

Source: https://employerbrandingmadeeasy.com/