An Employee Value Proposition is essential to attract candidates and maintain top employees. Any employee likely knows their job description, project flow, and the name of their immediate manager. They may even be able to properly articulate your company's mission statement. But an employee value proposition isn’t about a company’s value for the industry – it’s about value for their employees.
An EVP is a roadmap to ensure employee engagement. It sets the tone for your workplace culture, so it should offer a broader picture that goes beyond a simple list of benefits and rewards. Consider a job description is a list of plot points, an EVP the full story. This is information that will both attract candidates and empower existing employees to envision what their career offers and what opportunities await. The result? Engagement: effective investment in your people and their rewards programmes, alongside a shared vision.
5 things your EVP needs right now
1. A clear mission statement
This is the explicit account of your value system, crafted to demonstrate the importance of both the company’s work and personnel. A mission statement is an elevator pitch, and like an elevator pitch, if you can’t tell potential employees about your values in three sentences, you likely don’t know them.
Position your mission statement so it will be seen by employees and potential hires. Consider it the first line of your dating profile, information that could make or break a potential relationship. The value of personnel is named and supported with evidence by CocaCola’s mission statement. Unilever offers a great example, keeping it simple by beginning statements with ‘We are’ and ‘We believe.’
2. Highlighted rewards and benefits
Rewards and benefits are investments that count among a global organisation’s highest spend, so you want to get them right, and more importantly, get the information to your employees to maximise the return on those investments. An EVP that makes rewards and benefits clear will allow for better ROI on the highest-stakes investment a company makes: its people. Rewards and benefits should be simple for a candidate to see during an initial engagement with a company. They should also be easy for an employee to find and for an employer to access data and insights to report on ROI back to stakeholders.
A clear presentation of benefits with easy-access links to details – like educational materials, links to vendor sites, or PDF policy docs – means less confusion and more uptake and engagement. Let’s look at an example from, PwC breaks down benefits into categories that are easy to navigate, allowing both potential hires and long-term employees to see what’s available. Starbucks similarly offers an overview of their benefits and rewards.
3. Hot button issues employees are curious about today
If a mission statement is evergreen, this part of an EVP will change as employee priorities shift. (And they will shift!) In the post-pandemic workforce, these issues include remote work and vacation. You can read about current country-specific desires for employee rewards and benefits in our whitepaper on Global Benefits.
4. Availability in different formats and on multiple platforms
The first place a candidate or employee will most likely encounter your EVP is on your website. There’s no doubt a video is the most effective medium, but not everyone will be able to play sound or have the data available to stream a video. Make sure your EVP ‘pitch’ can be viewed properly on a phone, tablet, and desktop. If an employee can’t see things clearly, they become frustrated, and your organisation wastes that spend.
Similarly, the details of an EVP shouldn’t sit on a webpage, shared drive, or in a handbook, but be proactively communicated. Town halls in-office and online presentations get the information in front of your employees, but focus should be finding effective and agile ways to communicate information about benefits. Information should be readily available and accessible. The goal of an EVP is to get as many employees as possible to take advantage of the rewards and benefits in which your company has invested.
5. Concrete examples of how employees are valued
A value proposition starts with an evergreen, all-encompassing mission statement. A successful EVP includes examples that demonstrate that mission in action.
One of the most effective ways to present an EVP is to show how your rewards and benefits work for an employee’s unique needs via a hyper-personalisation of their reward packages. No two individuals are the same, and each employee will bring unique needs that can be addressed by a reward programme. This means understanding needs and priorities on both company-wide and individual levels. By providing diverse examples, you demonstrate to employees how rewards and benefits you offer are tailored to a value proposition that fits individual needs.
Evaluate you existing programs to support setting up, maintaining, and evolving your EVP
An EVP is only as strong as the value it adds, so ensure that your value proposition resonates with employee needs. Collecting data about which benefits are being used can reveal which programmes are most impactful for your employees, and where there are gaps. Evaluate your data collection regularly. How are you analysing employees' needs? Is data collected via interviews, surveys, or casual chats?
A digital platform makes tracking and responding to shifting employee needs much easier. Real-time data helps to identify what your employees need. This allows you to pivot your EVP to keep it robust and relevant.
Put rewards and benefits at the core
An Employee Value Proposition is your company's wrap-around support for employees, promoting engagement, growth, and longevity. Rewards and benefits are at the heart of your EVP. If you’ve used intel and data to create a hyper-personalised rewards and benefits experience for employees, they deserve to know about it. This is a huge investment, and it’s a risk for your company if you don’t get it right. When an employee feels the benefits of an EVP, they become an ambassador for the rewards as well as a testament to your EVP’s lived value.
Looking to learn more about way to effectively communicate with employees?Discover more in our guide.
