Employee Value Proposition: How to Deliver Your EVP to Attract & Retain Top Performers

February 28, 2022

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Decades ago, nobody paid any attention to cultivating an employee value proposition because all the power was in the hands of employers.

All of that has changed. Today, power has shifted into the hands of employees, and it will remain with them for some time.

Therefore, because the success of your organisation starts with talented people, your most important role as a leader is to give them a reason to join your cause, a reason to stay, and a reason to engage.

This is a task that only a strong employee brand and a compelling EVP can accomplish for you. A strong EVP will not only bring you the crème de la crème, but it will also create an operating environment that inspires your people to do great things.

And so, if you’ve been following the EVP series and taking the needed steps to cultivate a compelling employee value proposition using our 5D Implementation Model, great job! It’s a strategic move that promises high dividends.

*The 5D Implementation Model is Workforce Africa’s proprietary EVP development framework. For a quick recap on the model, please view our article on 5 Fundamental Steps for an Exceptional Employee Value Proposition

If you’ve completed stage 1: Diagnosed your current EVP and stage 2 & 3: Designed and developed your new EVP, congratulations! You should have now successfully drawn up a compelling and sustainable employee value proposition.

An authentic, well-defined employee value proposition is the foundation to a strong employer brand— the core factor your organisation needs to attract significant talent and boost employee engagement.

However, even the best EVP is pointless unless it is well communicated. Therefore, in this article, we’ll walk you through the 4th stage of the EVP development process: Delivery.

**If you haven’t completed the second and third stages, How to Design & Develop an Employee Value Proposition that Works, we recommend you do. Building an EVP is a systematic process that must be followed strictly to ensure that your organisation gets the best results.

Delivering Your EVP to Attract & Retain Top Performers

Contrary to what we’ve seen many organisations do, simply drawing up a list of well-thought-out value propositions is not all there is to cultivate a strong EVP.

Instead, to compete effectively in today’s talent-driven market, you must start talking about “why” top talent should come work with your organisation.

To stand out to top performers, you must share your organisation’s compelling story that highlights the unique combination of support, benefits, and perks, as well as the organisation’s purpose, mission, and values.

This will take some effort on your part. But it’s worth it! A growing body of research proves that organisations that effectively deliver on their EVP can decrease annual employee turnover by under 70% and increase new hire commitment by nearly 30%.

So, to prevent your well-developed EVP from merely sitting on the “HR shelf”, your take-off point is the creation of an extensive internal and external communications program to explain the EVP to existing and targeted employees.

Using Different Internal and External Communication Channels to Deliver Your EVP

Since your EVP is essentially your USP for your target and existing employees, don’t just talk about your EVP on the careers page on your website, you’ve got to promote it like a product, both within your organisation and to your external audience.

How to promote your EVP internally

Far too often, employers design the perfect value proposition on paper but fail to communicate it and make the elements relevant to the personal experiences of their employees. This mistake will cause your EVP to end up dead-on-arrival.

Remember that an EVP is not a statement that your publicity team makes about your organisation; it is the honest statement your employees make about what it’s like to work with your organisation.

Thus, a written EVP that is not aligned with the experience of your employees is no EVP at all. It’s just hype.

For example, suppose you claim to support work-life balance or ongoing development but do not provide training, career progression, study leave or flexible working hours, in that case, the reality of your workplace does not match your promise.

If your EVP is not real to your existing employees (if your organisation neglects to make your employees feel appreciated for the work they deliver), whatever efforts you’ve invested in building a compelling EVP will never achieve the desired outcomes.

Your organisation might continue to experience high talent turnover and low talent attraction.

The antidote to this is simple: Bring your EVP alive in-house! Implement it. Make it the truth, the reality of your employees, and watch the magic happen!

When your EVP is activated in-house, it will all by itself build brand ambassadors among your employees.

The stories of your brand ambassadors then become the content that you use to promote your EVP and employer brand via your company blogs, newsletters, email, town halls, and internal communication tools.

It is vital to keep your internal EVP communications going continuously because existing employees should be constantly reminded that it’s awesome to work at your company. This is what makes talent retention possible.

Your EVP promotion should also be included throughout the recruitment and onboarding, and internal promotions process. This ensures that every member of your workforce understands what the organisation offers them in return for their efforts and contribution.

Also, make sure you are reviewing your EVP regularly. If there are specific initiatives that you have that the team isn’t engaging with – cut them. Then, identify what your employees would appreciate more.

Lastly, it is crucial to promote your EVP so that it is not seen as an HR initiative but as an organisational initiative. This will give more clout to the campaign.

How to promote your EVP externally

To externally promote your EVP, leverage the power of stories: Very few things are as powerful as an authentic testimonial!

The fact is that any company can make an empty EVP claim. And while there may be some unquestioning audience still in the labour market, top performers are savvier than that.

They are usually able to detect empty self-promotion. This is where providing actual opinions of your EVP from your employees can be the golden ticket.

Therefore, be sure to back up the powerful taglines that you’ve coined to communicate your EVP with the honest testimonial of your employees.

Promote these EVP stories across social media, such as LinkedIn pages, website careers page, job postings, recruiting videos and employee referral programs.

Get your brand ambassadors to promote your employer brand using their social media platforms to improve your reach and deepen the impact.

Consistency is the key when communicating your EVP and building your brand, both internally and externally. Keep the messages uniform across all channels.

How Employee Value Proposition Delivery Works in Practice: The Case Study of Poju PLC

After developing the EVP for Poju Plc., we communicated it to existing and potential employees. We wanted people to come away with clear ideas on how they would benefit from working in the organisation and (for potential employees) why this beat the value proposition of Poju’s competitors.

To achieve this, we continued to hold brainstorming sessions with the EVP Project Team/Committee and the HR team on practical ways of announcing and communicating the EVP message.

With the collaboration drawn from those meetings, we created a document to inform the HR department of the proposed methods for spreading the message internally and externally.

We utilised written media to support the verbal message by including the EVP in company emails, intranet and social media platforms, newsletters, recruitment adverts, performance development materials and posters placed around different gathering points in the office.

These were all effective ways of ensuring that the EVP strategy wasn’t restricted to just the HR department. The communication strategy was also included in the recruitment, onboarding, internal promotions, and exit stage communique.

In Summary,

Now that you have answered the question of why a highly talented person should choose to work in your organisation, it’s time to spread the word.

Promote it internally and externally using the devices, mediums, and tools available in the year you are in!

Finally, we advise that you continue to review your EVP from time to time to ensure it remains relevant and is brought to life throughout your employees’ day-to-day experience.

The final step in the EVP creation process is the driving of your value proposition. Here’s the link to the article: How to weave your EVP into your organisation’s DNA

If you need an excellent guide to help you develop your Employee Value Proposition, you can access our EVP series here: