An introduction to Employee Value Proposition and why it’s important.
Strap yourself in, this is my first monthly newsletter on Employee Value Proposition, or EVP. It probably makes sense by kicking off with explaining:
- Who the hell I am, and
- What the hell is EVP?
I’m Joe. Hi.
I’m founder of this website, and have a passion for helping people find their happiness at work. More on me here.
I’ve been working in Recruitment, Talent Acquisition, whatever you want to call it, since 2012. These were the heady days when London was preparing for a ‘sham’ Olympics, our Prime Minister had left their daughter in a pub, and this Forbes article was gearing up for Millennials staying in their job less than 4 years! Imagine!
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If you could have told this naïve 24 year old walking into his local Reed Recruiter in Epsom that 11 years later he’d be launching his own business in employee engagement, he would have laughed, laughed a lot.
But throughout my fledgling talent career, finding happiness in the work I’m doing had become increasingly important.
In areas outside of work, 2012 was a time where I wasn’t particularly happy. I used work as a place to keep the outside world locked out and focus on something that I can control, something that makes me happy. Looking back now, in a much happier place outside of work, I’m very fortunate to have maintained happiness at work.
I’m not the first to point this out, but we spend 25% of our week at work. Yes, it’s almost cliché now to say ‘we spend more time at work than we do with our family and friends’, and shoot me now for stating the bleeding obvious but…
“If we spend this much time at work, why shouldn’t we be happy doing it?”
I’m so pleased that now the work I do doesn’t just impact my own happiness, but I have the opportunity to make a direct impact on others’ happiness at work.
To be able to do this, I’ve continuously researched what exactly makes happiness at work a reality. When can people care less about finding ‘work-life balance’ because their work is so fun it’s an extension of life, rather than an alternative?
Please note I’m not here to preach, or as naïve to suggest that work has all of the answers, or that you should ‘just be’ happy at work.
I also appreciate there’s a plethora of opinions on what makes the world of work better, from debates on perks like free fruit to discussions on the future of the 4-day work week.
That debate is often thoroughly enjoyable and insightful, and the truth is for every post on ‘working from home is the way forward,’ there are as many on ‘the office is where it’s at,’ and it’s highlighted that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to employee happiness.
This is why I aim to help individuals understand where happiness at work exists. That’s where Employee Value Proposition (EVP) comes in.
EVP deliberately takes an employee lead approach to understanding what’s really important to employees, and how they perceive their employer delivers on what’s important to them.
It’s designed holistically to help put things in perspective, to give more insight into ‘what is making people happy’, or more importantly ‘what can improve employee happiness at work’.
There has been a lot of research in this space, and one of the earlier definitions came from an employer branding expert Brett Minchington, who describes EVP simply here:
“EVP is the balance of rewards and benefits that are received by employees in return for their performance in the workplace”
I believe this is a better way of looking at happiness at work than work-life balance. Work-life balance is narrow in that it takes a see-saw approach in that you either work too much, too little, or just right (maybe more a three bears approach!?)
Actually, if you find a win-win approach, and balance ‘what you get from work’ with ‘what you put in’, not only you will be happier, your employer will be too!
Using EVP not only helps bring employees and employers closer together to find where that balance lies, the results of building an EVP can be used to improve Employer Branding, create a better benefits suite, and improve engagement and retention.
It’s proven that happy, engaged employees are more productive and produce better results – here are some stats:
- 78% of candidates say the overall candidate experience they receive is an indicator of how a company values its people. – CareerBuilder
- Organizations with a strong employer brand have a 28% lower turnover rate than those with a weak employer brand. – LinkedIn
- Companies with a strong employer brand see a 43% decrease in cost per hire. – LinkedIn
- Employees who understand and connect with their company’s EVP are 5 times more likely to remain in their job than employees who don’t connect with it. – Gartner
- A strong employer brand reduces the likelihood of employees leaving a company within the first six months by 40%. – LinkedIn
- 89% of employers think employees leave because of money, while 88% of employees actually leave because of something else – lack of appreciation, lack of development opportunities, and dissatisfaction with company culture. A strong EVP addresses these issues. – Gallup
- Organizations with a well-defined EVP are twice as likely to report effective leadership, three times more likely to report higher levels of employee engagement, and six times more likely to report a strong sense of direction. – Gartner
As important as this data is, I ran my own poll and found that 36% of respondents hadn’t even heard of EVP, meaning there’s a huge number of organisations who are missing out on all of these incredible benefits of EVP and the employer branding you can create from it.
Armed with these figures, and my passion and positivity in this space, I’m on a mission to spread the word of EVP through CHEER! (Championing Happiness, Employee Engagement, and Results)
With my previous employers and this business, I work with leaders to put EVP in action, and I’ve been fortunate to see first hand how far EVP can go to improve retention, engagement, productivity and results.
I firmly believe that EVP will shape the future of work.
I invite you to join me on this journey where together we’ll find out how we can improve happiness at work.
Whether you agree or disagree, I welcome your engagement. Let’s explore the EVP way together!
Thank you for Reading
Joe