If you want to attract the best people to your organisation — and keep them — you need a stellar EVP. With nearly 7 in 10 companies reporting talent shortages and difficulty hiring, it’s never been more important to nail your EVP.
Before Beamible was the modern workforce design platform that it is now, it was a jobs marketplace connecting senior skilled talent with flexible work. During that time, we had the benefit of talking to talent everywhere.
There’s one question that we received more than any other: Why would this be a great business to join?
When you post a role, this is a key opportunity to showcase your company and its brand to potential employees and a wider audience. It must stand out in today’s tight talent market.
We want to help you tell your company’s story as effectively as possible so we’ve put together some practical advice for building out your Employee Value Proposition - and the technology that’s going to enable you to be an employer of choice.
What is an EVP
EVP stands for Employee Value Proposition (or some say Employer Value Proposition). It is the balance of rewards and benefits that a company offers its employees in exchange for their skills, capabilities and experience.
Your EVP combines tangible and intangible factors like your company values and culture or rewards and opportunities, that explain to prospective talent why they should come work for you. It’s what makes you stand out as a place someone wants to work.
While an EVP is very much like marketing your organisation to those searching for jobs, you’ll only retain those people if you deliver on your promises. An EVP needs to be genuine and unique to your business but more on that later.
Why an EVP
An EVP gives you a competitive advantage in attracting (and retaining) talent for your business.
Engagement with your brand starts from the moment a prospective employee reads your job ad. If this process is managed thoughtfully then, regardless of whether they get the role, you have the opportunity to win over another advocate to sing your praises.
But it isn’t just about advocacy - it’s about creating a workplace where people thrive. It’s about approaching the future of work differently. It’s about designing roles sustainably, giving people flexibility to work how they need to, empowering management with the right tools, fostering a culture of empathy and positivity - then telling that story.
The businesses who are getting ahead are moving away from the classic work model with toxic hustle culture, and moving toward a balance human experience.
As a result, they are opening up their businesses to an incredible pool of talent not on the everyday market — talent who want and need to work differently. This is becoming a big part of their EVP and, judging by the calibre of talent they are bringing into their businesses, it’s working.
Developing your EVP
Anything that makes your business a great place to work forms part of your EVP. Simple! Think about your business as a whole and what you can offer in comparison to your competitors.
[Download our Beamible EVP Wheel to spark some ideas!](If you get stuck, try chatting with 3 people in the organisation about why they like working there.)
Once you feel like you’re getting a handle on what your EVP features are, for each one of them, ask yourself these two questions:
- 1. Is it genuine? You have to be able to deliver on what you say. The stress test is talking to current employees to find out what they would say about your business. If it does not line up with what you have on paper then it’s time to re-evaluate.
- 2. Does it make you unique? Your EVP is made up of lots of different components, many of which will exist in other organisations. You need to find the one or two things that make you, well, you. These are the features and values that you should really be highlighting (and nurturing).
- 3. Are you in tune with what talent are looking for? Things are changing all the time and staying competitive in the talent market means having a finger on the pulse at all times and adjusting where necessary.
If you get stuck, try chatting with 3 people in the organisation about why they like working there and what they feel is missing. You might be surprised by what you hear.
How to bring your EVP to life
Your EVP should be felt by potential and existing employees at every single interaction with your business. If what you say is genuine, you can’t help but feel it — your business will literally exude it.
Here are some ways you can ensure potential employees start to understand what you’re about — at every stage of the job process:
Job application stage
Let the job ad tell the story
Make sure you take the time to include some of the key components of your EVP in your job ad. You can write it as a separate section or simply thread it throughout the whole ad.
For example. We’re looking for someone who has genuine integrity and compassion — our two core values — and one of the key reasons all our clients are extremely loyal, the shortest tenure being 6 years (and going strong).
Asking current employees to write a couple of sentences about why it’s great to work at your business can also be very powerful and nice and easy to include at the end of your ad, just before asking someone to apply.
And don’t be afraid to ask someone in marketing or brand to work on this with you — they can make words sing!
Bring it to life with video
At Beam, we find that videos are a fantastic way to bring a company’s EVP to life and show off the work environment.
And the good news? Casual is better — the Hiring Manager or someone from the team having a chat in to a video phone is often far more compelling than a corporate video (we can include that too if you have one!).
This video can be included in your job ad, shared on social media and of course on your website. (Bonus: engagement with videos on social media is always quite high — which increases the audience size for your job ad and company.)
Interview stage
The way you treat applicants says a lot about your company, your EVP and the way you treat your people. It’s also becoming clear that talent are fed up with unnecessarily long, cumbersome interviews so make sure your organisation is paying attention.
As with many things in life, communication is key. This can be as simple as keeping talent in the loop on your process — and interview times (especially if there are delays). It’s also important to let someone know when they haven’t made the shortlist — and a quick call when someone has just missed out is the chance to make a believer for life!
Remember they are all brand advocates (or dare we say detractors) in the making. And people share stories. Be direct and honest, even if it is not good news.
If you do want to make an offer to someone, then being prepared to act is also important — otherwise your competitors might just sneak in before you. This all feeds in to your EVP as it shows you value someone’s time, understand the importance of securing top talent, can make decisions quickly and are a smart operator.
Onboarding
Have an onboarding doc/welcome pack that talks to your EVP and all the great things on offer. The first few days, or even months, at your organisation act as that first impression to your new employee.
Set the right tone from the start. It’s an exciting time.
And forever and beyond
Remember, if your EVP is genuine then it should naturally filter through everything that you do — just keep checking in that it is still relevant and as strong as it can be.
There are always new things happening that might just be your point of difference. Don’t just set and forget with an EVP!
It’s also to important to make sure you’re equipping every level of management with the tools and technology they need to support modern working needs.
What talent are looking for in an EVP
This is changing all of the time so it’s best to do your own research. You could set a Google alert for ‘EVP best practices’ or ‘What talent want’ to keep information coming in as and when it’s relevant.
You should also be asking your people what they think. What do they love about your business? What do they feel they aren’t getting that they might get elsewhere? What drives them?
If you need some help, get in touch with our team. Our consultants can help you refine your EVP and Beamible can help you deliver.
