EVP- Here’s our offer

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HR is a endemic with buzzwords, TWAs, and jargon. As far as the mental eye can see. HR is also known for fads- a high turnover of new and interesting ideas that don’t deliver. Is EVP one of these? Maybe. But it is an interesting frame of reference to help us ask the question, what do we have, that people want?

EVP

What is an Employee Value Proposition?  Much has been written on the subject, and much of it is focused on employee branding.  While I’m not opposed to employee branding as proposition, it’s perhaps too simplistic, as it only factors in the positives, or what can be spun into positives. For this discussion I’m going to focus not just on the positives, but also the potential negatives, because you should too.

At its heart, the EVP is total package offered to the employee, what will the employee receive in return for their labour.  An employment agreement is a long term deal that sells work for X, what is X? other than money?

The financials

This is the obvious one- how much you pay? What other financial benefits do you offer?  What can you put in front of employees to entice them to sign, or encourage them to stay? 

For pay (including any contingent pay), you need to at least know where this is, relative to market.  Do you pay the average, below the average, or above?  Ideally you have will policy across the board (e.g. 100%, 105%, 95%) or targeted policy (100% for most, 110% for key positions), but this generally relies upon you have remuneration market data.  If you don’t have the data, do your best to get an educated guess- what are recruiters telling you about your rates, where do other comparable job ads appear to put themselves on the job boards. 

There are also other financial, indirect benefits you may offer, such as additional leave healthcare, superannuation, and/or staff discounts that form part of the total financial package.  What people stand to gain, or stand to lose, is part of the total financial prospect. 

If you are looking at enhancing your prospects in this area, it’s perhaps best to look at what are the biggest encouragers (or biggest discourages) to people.   If you’re struggling to compete on pay (either high turnover of key staff, struggling hire good people) that’s an important place to start. Otherwise, start with cheap wins with good returns- staff discounts is a good place to start.  You could get creative with the benefits people value, but don’t claim often-  many companies offer during employment life insurance for this reason- it’s a nice to have, and you (hopefully) don’t have to pay it often.

Work flexibility

In 2019, working from home options was a positive benefit that some companies could consider as an aspect of their EVP that might distinguish them from their competitors.  These days (at least for white-collar professionals) it’s less a benefit if you offer it, but a negative if you don’t.   Work arrangements are not limited to location, but also flexibility on hours of work (e.g. flexible around daycare or school pickups), or even potentially travel. 

This doesn’t mean you have to be flexible, because not all work can be (dentist can’t take their work home), but when appraising your EVP, look at your flexibility, how does it compare with your competitors and what options you might have.

The work

The work that an employee does plays a big part in the EVP.  This can be divided into the reward they get from the work they current do, or the career enhancements that will result from the experience they are receiving. 

 The first is best exemplified by the organisations who pay poorly but the work is highly rewarding.  There is a big range- from entertainment, healthcare, childcare, foreign affairs, journalism- all where the nature of the work in highly engaging to those people.  There is a flipside to this- dull and dreary work is perceived as a negative, which needs to be balanced against, typically with pay.

The second is where the work is not rewarding, the learning from the work is highly valued.  Key examples are internships, where the pay is negligible, the conditions are awful, and the work is dull, but the long-term benefits are strong.

The values and the purpose of the company

This is different from the work above.  Some organisations have significant and meaningful purposes, that are valued by current and prospective employees, for example, not-for-profits such as tackling social or environmental issues.  But not everyone is on the front line of this work, most people are performing standard work (accounts, call centre, even HR) that is otherwise indistinguishable from other organisations.  The difference is that the ultimate fruits of their labour goes to an outcome they value.

There is again an inverse to this.  Some organization’s (fortunately not many) have values or purposes that are negatively perceived; tobacco companies historically were an example of this.  Again often these negatives need to be off-set.

Analysing and acting

So what can you do?  First you need to measure your EVP.  Unfortunately this is not easily done because it’s not as homogenous as we would like to pretend it is.  Every department and role is different, and the weight of the value will vary by the individual- to give a very simple example- a 25 year old will see the benefit of career growth very differently from a 65 year old.  Whether you quantify it or not is up to you, but the important thing is mapping it.

Secondly it should inform all of your HR processes- almost all of what you do in HR should take into consideration who people value working in their jobs. At a minimum, it should be integrated into your recruitment and job ads, if not your interview structures. It also informs your performance processes, and your L&D.  At its heart, EVP is what employees get for the work they do, and should be taken into consideration when we act of what we give people, and when we manage what they give us.

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