Do you have an EVP for your employee?

In the face of ever rising competitiveness, having a dedicated and productive workforce to power growth objectives is an asset that all corporates dream of. But keeping existing employees motivated and attracting fresh talent to the organisation is a challenge that is hard to meet without a well-planned Employee Value Proposition (EVP). An EVP is the complete offering a company makes to its prospective and current employees in return for their best efforts and assures employees of stability, transparency and engagement at every stage.

An EVP goes beyond pay and benefits and looks at all the non-financial aspects that attract, retain and motivate employees and the reasons former employees would speak well of the company. It considers how the company is perceived before, during and after employment and is in sync with the company’s goals, strategy and culture, which results in happy employees translating to happy customers.

An effective Employee Value
Proposition framework tailor­ed to suit a particular organisation or a set segment of talent will efficiently deal with major challenges facing the corporates in the dynamic world, such as automation, re-skilling, employee morale and performance anxiety — including fear.

An effective EVP strategy has two main advantages over the traditional employee engagement tools as it takes a broader 360-degree view of the relationship, beginning well before a new hire comes onboard and goes all the way through to his or her time as a former employee and carry forward the relationship between the company and the employee through an alumni programme, etc.

Developing an effective EVP has at its core the basic question, “What would attract the best talent, motivate them to give their best at work and then choose to stay with a company?” We consider this at five different lifecycle stages.

Starting with what we call ‘Decision Day’, which is the point at which an employee has been given the offer letter and he/she has decided to join the organisation. This is the start of the relationship with the employee and therefore engagement has to begin at this point.

The next stage we focus on is the ‘First Day’ – which is the day the employee joins the organisation. This is a critical stage as the employee experiences the organisation for the first time, in person. The next stage, which is really the majority of the lifecycle, is what we term as ‘Every Day’. Here we consider how organisations are engaging their employees every day across recognition and engagement touch points.

The other focus in our EVP strategy is ‘Achievement Day’. Here we consider how an organisation is celebrating with the employee on achieving company and personal milestones. The final, critical stage, which most organisations don’t focus on, is what we call ‘Referral Day’ which is when the employee has left the organisation — so the exit interview, the on-going engagement post-resignation — how are we keeping him/her loyal to the brand and leveraging his/her loyalty.

Awards and recognitions

Implementing the recogniti­on strategy early and exploring all available opportunities for awards and recognitions, such as service anniversary, result-based recognition, sales and performance-based incentives, 360-degree communications, regular meetings, events and individual and/or group travel are some of the approa­ches that an organisation can adopt.

Peer-to-peer recognition has maximum impact on employees and at the same time reinforces core corporate values. All these factors hold the key to developing an EVP strategy that delivers maximum benefit for the employee as well as the company.

By putting the onus of providing attentive and supportive managers, work-life balance, teamwork, a promising future and other reasonable requirements for a good job on the company, an EVP helps in creating ‘engaged’ employees. And by focusing on the three-pronged approach to building a happier workplace — recognise, celebrate and engage — corporates can promote a culture of recognition, create a happier workplace and ensure loyalty and commitment.

When the leadership of an organisation commits to working towards the ultimate EVP, which is ‘happiness’, it stands to gain from the positive engage­ment of happier workers, like
attracting and retaining key talent, creating a strong people brand and reinvigorating disenchanted workers. A well-formed EVP strategy will be a win-win for all as employers can count on a highly motivated, committed employee willing to go the extra mile, and employees enjoy the experience of a meaningful and fulfilling job.

(The writer is managing director, BI Worldwide India)