Employer Value Proposition: your ticket to attracting and retaining top talent

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Blog by Puneet Sachdev, Human Capital Expert from Singularity Labs

The Context

The number of innovative fintech SMEs based in Scotland has grown by over 60% from 72 to 119 over the last twelve months. Add to this the explosion of Fintech in London and the ease of workforce mobility, you have a ‘people’ challenge at hand. And this is not withstanding the number of tech companies that are continuing to grow in verticals like digital healthcare, retail etc. 

What was inside is now outside. Now, Glassdoor lets any employee publicly rate their CEO, LinkedIn allows your competitors to pillage your top talent, and news outlets regularly publish stories exposing the internal workings of companies. In such a context, the culture of the organisation becomes one of the key sources of competitive advantage. 

The Employer Value Proposition

One of the first steps is to get clear on who you are as an employer and your value proposition to potential and existing employees. In HR jargon, you create an Employer Value Proposition (EVP). It is the ‘dating profile’ of your company to attract the right people and then keep the talent you have agonised to acquire. Easier said than done and easily side stepped as ‘soft’ and ‘fuzzy’. Not only does this ‘soft’ and ‘fuzzy’ have a quantified impact on performance but it is powering the growth of organisations. Here is a slightly dated (2016) Deloitte human trends report on culture but the tenants still hold true. 

The EVP is the complete experience of working in your organisation. It’s the summarisation of the culture and values you embody, what employees can expect from you - such as learning, career opportunities, benefits, recognition etc. It is the ‘why’ you are creating to attract and retain talent at every level of the organisation. It is the core of your employer brand that defines your positioning, what you stand for as an and the source code for the work environment that you will build internally. Your dating profile! 

Gartner says: ‘When you invest in developing and delivering a strong EVP, you can attract significant talent and boost employee engagement. For example, your organisation can reduce the compensation premium by 50% and reach 50% deeper into the labor market when candidates view an EVP as attractive. Organisations that effectively deliver on their EVP can decrease annual employee turnover by just under 70% and increase new hire commitment by nearly 30%’

Here are five main areas to consider as part of developing your employer value proposition. There can be more, but here is what I believe are core: 

1.The culture - how things get done in your company. In this guide, you articulate various things about your company for e.g. who you are as an organisation i.e. your vision and mission, your exponential purpose, the journey so far, the team, values, your development philosophy, testimonials from employees, and so much more. You can start with your elevator pitch of why your company matters, and why they should be excited to be a part of it. 

Think about this as your illustrated storybook that an employee can read and get a good sense of a) what it's like to work at your company b) how to integrate themselves into the company in their early days c) behavioural do’s and don'ts guidelines i.e. the code of conduct / values d) what does success look like e) rituals and practices. This should instill pride and inspiration into the hearts of those who read it for the first time or the 100th time. 

2. Development Opportunities - a major driver for keeping the workforce motivated, especially the top talent. Here you can include the a) your development philosophy b) skills development opportunities employees have be it access to online learning, events etc. c) career development opportunities i.e. future career options that employees may have with you as you continue to grow e.g. movement from product development to customer success etc. 

3. Rewards and Recognition - this will cover the financial and non-financial compensation / benefits as well as the practices you have in place for recognising employees for the great work they do. Here you can think of including a) the competitiveness of your compensation package, health benefits, vacation b) other benefits such as onsite yoga, vouchers for different services etc. c) recognition such as ‘best team performance’, ‘extra miler’, ‘display of organisational values’ etc. d) employee referral scheme if you have one.

4.The Quality of Work - here you define elements that are intrinsically baked into the nature of the work at your organisation, such as a) the ability to innovate on the job b) getting to work on interesting projects c) balancing work with non-work priorities and flexible working / remote working d) whether the work environment is collaborative and team orientated e) the quality and approachability of the company’s management f) the quality of the other employees within the company.

5.Social Impact - the current workforce is getting more and more concerned about the ethical profile of companies they consider working for or are working for. They are concerned about sustainability and employment practices. Social impact or CSR (corporate social responsibility) as it is also known, is now an important aspect of the employer brand. This is worth considering. 

At the simplest level companies tend to have VTO’s i.e volunteer time off, create an internal CSR group driven by employees who choose a cause to get behind for the year and then find ways to support the cause. You get as creative with this as you want to. The 2019 Deloitte Human Trends review makes a clear case for the social enterprise 

Suggested: what is not often spoken about, but if done right, I believe add to the competitive advantage in attracting the right talent - the explicit communication of Employee Data protection policies and practices. As companies embrace people analytics and AI based applications, a lot more employee data will be generated. And with GDPR growing in its veracity and statutory impact, employees will have greater awareness of data and the mishandling impact. It is worth considering your approach to employee data. 

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions or clarifications. 

Me and my colleagues at Singularity Labs specialise in designing interventions that solve People and Culture challenges and help creating engaging and High Performing Environments. We have worked across multiple industries and geographies and more recently with growing tech companies such as Nucleus Financial (Fintech) and Craneware (Healthcare Tech). Get in touch with for a no-obligation consultation about your people and culture aspirations. https://www.linkedin.com/in/puneetsachdevpro/