The start of the year is a perfect time to define your organization’s objectives and priorities. As you’re doing so, don’t overlook the importance of honing a strong employer value proposition (EVP) to guide your hiring and retention efforts.
What is an Employer Value Proposition (EVP)?
In simple terms, an EVP flows from your overall corporate mission and vision, but pertains more specifically to how you show up for job seekers and employees. It extends your brand. It tells candidates your organizational values, what they can expect in working for you, and why they should consider it. Think of your EVP as a ‘front door greeting’ to job seekers—one that can also play a key role in the retention of strong employees.
Why Should Your Organization Have an EVP?
Imagine how you would want a candidate to feel after investigating a role at your company. When it’s a great fit, you’d hope for that ‘Eureka!’ moment where they realize, “I can see myself there!” This is the feeling you want your EVP to evoke in the right candidates.
A thoughtful EVP is a key factor in setting yourself apart from competitors. It’s the truth about the unique ways in which your company is a great place to work. It’s your organization’s HR brand. If you develop a strong and easily communicable EVP, it can also serve as the template your current employees use as they talk about working for you. This will create a more dedicated workforce who can become your strongest evangelists.
In a fiscal sense, this satisfaction can also lead to less costly recruiting efforts as referrals and word of mouth from employee advocates go to work for you. Your current employees can become some of your strongest HR marketing tools, which is especially powerful in times of increasingly competitive job markets.
Examples of Powerful EVPs
When you consider organizations with inspiring EVPs, Trader Joe’s is a great place to start. This chain with over 500 stores in the United States has elevated what it means to work in the grocery business. They have extended their ‘food as fun’ brand into a clear statement of what it would be like to work in their stores. A visit to the Trader Joe’s ‘Careers’ page evokes a sense of people-centered purpose. They lead with ‘who our crew is’, followed by who Trader Joe’s is. They start by defining their culture, with the hope that job candidates can see themselves in that picture, and then they focus on benefits that can be hard to find in other retail workplaces—like paid time off, health insurance, career advancement, and a 401K.
Another great example is Canva, the Australia-based online digital and visual design company. Canva employs a dedicated HR website called “Life at Canva.” Their values are clear. They call it ‘The Canva Magic,’ aimed at those who want to be a ‘Canvanaut.’ Their EVP starts like this:
“It’s hard to explain what makes life at Canva so special, but there’s no doubt our values-led culture plays a huge role in empowering our team to do the best work of their lives.
Our culture is unique, human centric and a little bit magical. It’s continually evolving over time, because every single Canvanaut plays an active role in shaping the Canva magic.”
Even more than the words used to convey Canva’s EVP, their job site incorporates colorful photos of employees that show collaboration, community service, team-building, and idea generation. They evoke a sense of inclusion and belonging. This highly visual depiction tells the EVP story in a simple, powerful way. The photos and videos spotlight diversity and unique perspectives, sustainability, growth, and social good. You see bright images of work, but also life outside of work. The right job-seekers can find themselves in that story.
Considerations As You Craft Your EVP
According to Gartner, a compelling EVP should, at minimum, include details on competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, growth opportunities, a positive work culture, work-life balance, alignment with company values and a clear career path.
Beyond that, though, remember that job seekers of all ages (not just Millennials and Gen Z!) want to be sure your company aligns with their core values. Inherent in that is the almost intangible idea of ‘fit’. So as you craft an EVP to attract people with the best fit, here are some basics to guide you:
- Take inventory of what your top performers value most about working for you. Through conducting employee forums, focus groups, and surveys, you’ll be able to glean from your current staff what they love about your workplace. Use this feedback to create strong value messaging. It should resonate with job seekers exploring a role at your organization.
- Get a clues from your brand team. Chances are, your marketing and brand team already has invested time and resources into the ‘front door’ of your virtual presence. They’ve compiled a website to attract customers with your company’s unique offerings. This is an excellent place to start!. When people search for your organization online, what shows up? Ask your marketing team about website keywords and other content that they know resonate with your company’s customer base. The same aspects that make your organization stand out to external customers will also resonate with job seekers who align with your mission.
- Humble brag! Do you have a generous time-off policy and value flexibility? Perhaps you have a culture that prioritizes diversity and inclusion beyond lip service? Put those things front and center in your EVP. Forward-thinking companies have unique benefits, pay, cultures, and visions. So, promote those! What sets your policies apart will resonate with the people you want to attract.
- Use various channels to tout it. Your website, social media, job postings, and internal communications are the first impressions you give candidates. Create a boilerplate of how you want to appear. Use it in all your interactions with potential hires. Also, communicate your EVP internally so it is used by employees when they are talking about your organization or sharing on social media. Consistency across all your candidate touchpoints will provide a way to ring this powerful message loud and proud.
- Be authentic. Perhaps most of all, keep it real. No organization can be all things to all people. When you stay true to the EVP, it shows. Following your mission and vision makes it authentic. You know who you are; don’t be afraid to walk that talk proudly.
In short, a strong, well-crafted EVP will resonate with the people you want to attract. Ideally, it will also create a more engaged workforce.
As Amazon’s Jeff Bezos said “your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Think about your EVP in this way. It’s what you’d like to have your employees and job candidates say about your organization, whether you can hear them or not.