How to craft a meaningful EVP
By Hannah Jameson & Evelyn Jackson (CEO)
Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is the bridge that connects your organisation with the talent who wants to work for you. It defines who you are as an employer and what you’ll offer employees in return. However, for this connection to be effective, it has to be meaningful. When creating your EVP, make it authentic to inspire and truly capture the type of audience you’re after. You have to believe it, and so does your entire organisation.
Your EVP is the two-way promise between your business and the best talent.
Here at Corporate Crayon, we’ve been talking about all things EVP. Our CEO, Evelyn Jackson, recently spoke at The Future of People and Culture Forum in Sydney to discuss the impact and importance of a meaningful EVP. Today, we’re looking at the three overarching questions that construct the foundation of an EVP.
Know your audience
If you don’t know who you are talking to you. You’re talking to no one.
To understand your audience, your approach must be empathetic. For your EVP to be inspiring, you need to focus on your audience's feelings, emotions, pains and gains.
Your audience is who you’re talking to. Understanding your audience is critical. Find out who your ideal employees are. Are they more business-oriented, or do their passions lie elsewhere? What do they value? What are the opportunities they seek? How would you describe them as individuals? Understanding your audience in depth can be overwhelming, but it doesnt need to be. Here are a few ways to figure out what your people value.
Leadership Interviews
Stakeholder Workshops
Internal Talent Focus groups
External talent surveys
Empathy maps
Engagement survey results
When conducting this research in order to discover your audience, we recommend using an external source or taking yourself out of the scenario. All of these conversations need to be authentic and honest. This can be difficult to allow for when you’re in the room.
2. UNDERSTAND YOUR ORGANISATION
Once you’ve understood who your audience is, only then can you move on to knowing your organisation. While this may seem trivial, knowing your organisation is about understanding the following eight elements. The eight elements to understand for relevance and authenticity are:
Brand Purpose – Strong vision, organisational purpose & brand affinity.
Career Development – Clear pathways to learn and develop towards an employee’s professional ambition.
Connection – A connection to the leaders and team members through sociability and a sense of community.
Culture – An authentic culture with clear values.
Meaningful Work – Work that is aligned with an individual’s strengths, passions, and purpose.
Pay & Tangible Benefits – Competitive remuneration packages, including relevant benefits.
Recognition – Leader and peer recognition woven into the fabric of the organisation.
Work Environment – An environment fuelling empowerment and wellbeing.
You can understand your organisation by merging and bringing all of these pieces together. Only then can you create an authentic EVP and positive employee experience in your organisation.
3. DISCOVER what makes your organisation unique
If your organisation was posed with the question, what makes your organisation unique? Could you give an answer? You need to answer this on a deeper level to discover what’s different about your organisation.
How are you different from your competitors? Do you know what your competitive talent advantage is? What are other organisations doing well? Or not so well? What is it about your employee's experience that is different compared to your competitor's next door? Think of elements, like what’s your point of difference and what’s your competitive advantage? Consider looking outside your industry at what other companies are recruiting for based on similar skills, education, or experience.
What makes your organisation unique is what you want to convey to your audience, and how does this specifically complement your EVP? These two elements need to work together simultaneously to represent each other and increase connection.
execute your EVP
Once you’ve dived deep into these questions and EVP elements, it is only then that you can move on to executing an EVP. Your EVP has to be more than words. Not only do you need to tell your audience what your organisation is capable of, but you also need to show them.
How Corporate Crayon Can Help
Your EVP is a reflection of what your organisation is looking for. However, developing this internally can be a struggle. To create an EVP meaningful to your organisation and talent, allow our team to be your external experts.
At Corporate Crayon, we work with organisations to inspire work that matters, and our service of creating an employee value proposition is here to do just that. Contact us today to find out more.