9 Steps to Create a Compelling Employee Value Proposition
Quick look: Employee value propositions (EVPs) describe “what’s in it” for a company’s staff—whether it’s compensation, benefits, company culture, or professional development opportunities. These statements can help attract and retain top talent but must be carefully crafted to maximize their impact. Here, explore nine essential steps to creating an EVP and how a professional employer organization (PEO) can help busy businesses perfect theirs.
Today’s top talent isn’t looking for just any job—they want to work for organizations that provide benefits, perks, and opportunities that support their holistic growth and well-being.
These rising demands make small businesses’ employee value proposition (EVP) incredibly important. In a competitive hiring market, creating and communicating this statement that reflects what you can offer to candidates can give your company the edge it needs to stand out from its larger counterparts.
What is an EVP?
An employee value proposition (EVP) is the unique set of benefits, rewards, and experiences an organization offers its staff in exchange for their skills, capabilities, and contributions.
To a potential employee, an EVP is an incentive to choose one company over another, and it defines why current workers decide to stay.
Common components of an EVP include:
- Compensation: Salary, bonuses, and other financial rewards.
- Professional development opportunities: Mentorship programs, reskilling and upskilling initiatives, and learning and development opportunities.
- Work-life balance: Flexible work options and wellness-focused programs.
- Company culture: Workplace atmosphere, leadership style, communication methods, community involvement, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
- Employee recognition: Acknowledging employees’ hard work.
- Workplace environment: Tools and resources, on-site amenities, and safety measures.
The power of an EVP
An effective EVP attracts job seekers to your business, including passive candidates, who could switch companies if the right opportunity arises and may be higher-quality hires than active job seekers who often want a new role quickly.
Well-crafted EVPs also help strengthen employer branding by fostering a positive reputation and encouraging employee engagement. Per Gartner, employees who report positive feelings about work are 65% more likely to be satisfied with their EVP.
How to create an employee value proposition: 9 key steps
To build an effective EVP, it’s essential to blend your company’s core values with what workers want and what sets you apart from your competition. Doing so is crucial for attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent.
The EVP process is ongoing, spanning from surveying current employees to measuring its long-term performance. Business leaders should consider the following nine best practices as they develop their EVP:
1. Understand your employees’ current experience
An EVP is all about what your business can offer to employees, and a natural starting point in the development process is to get a sense of what your current staff enjoys and potential areas for improvement. This information can be gathered by conducting:
- Employee surveys: Gather feedback on employees’ experiences, motivations, and reasons for staying or leaving your organization.
- Exit interviews: Analyze exit interviews to help understand why workers leave and highlight gaps in your current EVP.
- Stay interviews: Talk to long-tenured staff to discover what keeps them loyal to the company.
2. Evaluate competitor offerings
Ultimately, your business must be competitive to attract and retain top talent—and your EVP is a tool to help you achieve that.
Research your competitors’ EVPs to gauge their compensation, benefits, company culture, professional development opportunities, and more. This will help you understand where your business stands in the market, what differentiates you from others, and where you could improve.
3. Identify employee needs and company strengths
Based on your findings from steps 1 and 2, identify what your employees (and potential candidates) value most. These factors can likely be grouped under the common components of an EVP outlined above (compensation, professional development opportunities, work-life balance, company culture, employee recognition, and workplace environment). Next, determine which of your company’s offerings align with what your workers and job seekers want the most.
4. Align the EVP with the company’s values and culture
In addition to outlining “what’s in it” for your employees, your EVP should reflect your company’s core values and culture. Brainstorm how your business’s mission and strategic goals align with the experience you want to provide your workforce.
5. Develop the EVP statement
The EVP statement should clearly and compellingly communicate what makes your organization unique as an employer. It should summarize what it’s like to work at your business, your company’s commitments to DEI, the organization’s core values, employee benefit offerings, awards and accolades, etc.
6. Test and refine the EVP
Now that you’ve crafted your EVP statement, it’s time to see if it strikes a chord with your employees.
Business leaders can pilot the EVP with focus groups, allowing a small number of employees or new hires to provide feedback on if the statement resonates and feels authentic. Next, adjust the EVP as needed based on the response received.
7. Communicate the EVP
Congratulations, you’ve finalized your EVP! Now, your human resources (HR) team must communicate it internally and externally to maximize its impact:
- Internally: Share the EVP with current employees via town halls, newsletters, and your company intranet. Additionally, ensure leadership supports and champions it. These tactics will help motivate existing staff.
- Externally: Incorporate the EVP into recruitment materials, job descriptions, corporate social media posts, and your career website. Doing so will help attract potential candidates who align with your company’s values and offerings.
8. Ensure consistency and alignment
Examine where your EVP is communicated and confirm it’s represented consistently across all platforms and during each stage of the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to retention.
Business leaders should also verify that the organization’s employee experience reflects the EVP statement. If these two don’t align, the company’s reputation can be damaged.
9. Measure and adapt
Like any other facet of HR, the key to EVP success lies in measuring its performance and adjusting it as needed.
You may continue to survey employees to determine what aspects of their employee experience are most important to them. Business leaders may also analyze HR metrics, like retention rates and performance data, to determine the EVP’s impact.
As the company grows and employee needs evolve, HR teams should also modify the EVP to relevant and authentic.
Craft a winning EVP with a PEO
An EVP is essential to growing and retaining a skilled workforce— but it’s only as valuable as how thoughtfully it’s created, how clearly and powerfully it’s conveyed, and how methodically it’s monitored.
However, despite the critical need to appeal to and retain top talent, some small businesses may find they lack the resources to research, develop, communicate, and monitor their EVP. That’s where a professional employer organization (PEO) can help.
When you partner with a PEO, a type of HR outsourcing firm, you can count on them to help effectively tell your business’s story—to the right people, at the right time. For example, ExtensisHR’s recruiting professionals assist with creating impactful job advertisements and explaining companies’ offerings to candidates.
Additionally, a PEO like ExtensisHR provides access to Fortune 500-level employee benefits, further enhancing your EVP and helping you appeal to and secure the talent you need to succeed.
How can our HR experts help you hone your EVP? Explore our PEO solution today, or contact us to learn more.
