What is EVP?

In the marketing world, brands and products have value propositions that capture what makes them a good choice for the target audience. In HR and recruitment, there’s EVP – meaning employee value proposition. But what is EVP and why does it deserve a slice of your limited time and attention as an SME recruiter?

What makes McDonalds McDonalds and not Burger King? Or Mastercard Mastercard and not Visa? Brand, of course, is the answer.

Within recruitment and HR, the exact same is true – but in our case, employer brand. Developing an employee value proposition is one of the core strategic activities under the employer branding umbrella.Let’s start with the definition of EVP – what is EVP and critically, what is EVP not. Then we’ll talk about why it’s worth small business recruiters investing time here. (Even when you have no spare time to invest!).

An EVP is a statement of the value you deliver for employees, including tangible stuff like holiday leave and less tangible stuff like your culture.

An employee value proposition summarises the total value employees receive in exchange for their work. It can also outline what value and behaviours you expect from your employees. EVP is the foundation of what the CIPD call the “psychological contract between employers and workers”.

In essence, your EVP captures the unique value you offer people when they work for you. In practice EVP is usually communicated through an internal-facing piece of written content, so everyone internally (employees; recruiters; HR; leaders) are on the same page.

EVP communicates what makes you, you, and shows why you’re a good match for your target candidates.

What is EVP NOT?

EVP is not just a list of benefits. It’s not a compliance thing. It’s more than “we offer ABC days holiday and pay XYZ”, for example.

But too often, this is what EVP becomes. Harvard Business Review summarise:

“The problem with most employer branding is that it is disconnected from the corporate brand and the core drivers of the business. It is typically managed by the HR department and too often becomes associated with superficial perks”

A good EVP captures the genuine essence of your organisation. Your DNA. It should connect your employee values with your organisational values; your brand with your employer brand. It’s a fundamental piece of strategic thinking.

Looking for employee value proposition examples?

It’s difficult to find EVP examples because an EVP is typically an internal-facing document, like a brand manifesto. Whatever you see communicated externally typically comes from and builds on this strategic foundation.

That said, organisations’ external employer branding activity can give you a good sense of their underlying EVP strategy. If you’re considering developing your EVP, start by looking at what’s out there in your space.

Imagine you’re a candidate, looking at tens of job adverts and careers sites:

Who stands out, versus who says the same things as everyone else?
Who gives you a strong sense of their unique culture and workplace?
Who tells you what they’re not, as well as what they are?
Who gives you a sense of the value only they can deliver?

Here’s a good tip from Peep Laja, CEO of market research platform Wynter, that can apply to developing an EVP:

“Strategy is about distinctive choices that position your organisation uniquely to win. How do you recognise a strategic choice? Well, is the opposite of your choice stupid? If it is, it is not really a strategic choice.

‘We’re about high quality’ – the opposite would be ‘competing on low quality’. That would be stupid, hence not a strategic choice.”

Good EVP examples will typically focus less on generic statements like “we care about our people” and more on specific, qualified, unique-to-them statements like “we have bi-weekly all-hands to ask our people how we can make work better for them”.

More broadly, this means looking at examples of EVP from other brands has limited usefulness. Sure, it’s reassuring to know what other people are doing. But ultimately, a great EVP is unique to you.

What are the benefits of an EVP for SMEs?

Improve employer branding ROI

The main benefit of an EVP is that it’s the foundation for more effective employer branding activity.

You can break employer branding into four main steps:

Defining your employer brand
Building your employer brand
Maintaining your employer brand
Protecting your employer brand

Creating your EVP comes under the first heading: it’s the foundation that underpins everything else you do. A good EVP is a springboard for more effective employer branding – and employer branding has enormous benefits for small businesses.

Like…

Attract more applications
Get more offers accepted
Improve quality of hire
Strengthen relationships with passive candidates
Hire faster
Cut advertising costs
Reduce agency reliance
Boost employee retention
Improve business performance

Ultimately, these benefits hinge on having a clear, well-defined EVP. If you jump ahead to stuff like building your careers site or asking employees to post ‘blind’ to LinkedIn, you risk spending time and money on stuff that isn’t consistent, authentic, and doesn’t actually drive value.

Like… finally convincing your CEO you need money for paid social, only to find your ads attract the wrong candidates, or don’t attract any candidates.
Or working with the local community to increase brand presence but choosing an issue that makes no sense for your organisation’s values.
Or turning up to a student careers fair where none of the attendees match your ideal candidate persona.

EVP acts as the guardrails, to help keep your time and money on-track. If you’re going to invest in employer branding, developing your EVP should be a top priority.

Make your job easier and faster

SME recruiters wear many hats and juggle many plates. You’re often learning new tasks on-the-go – tasks that might be totally new to you, if you’re from an agency background – and there’s always heaps more to do than time (or money) to do it.

Developing your EVP might be an upfront time investment, but ultimately it then makes everything else you do easier and faster.

- Writing job adverts? You’ve got a template for that.
- Tweaking your careers site? You know exactly what to write.
- Updating social media profiles. Done and dusted.
Telling candidates about the business? You’ve got this.

An EVP acts as a standardised resource to guide you whenever you communicate – so you’re confident, consistent, and fast. Rather than having to work out what to say every time, and often saying different things or forgetting things. An EVP gives you structure.

Future-proof as the organisation grows

One of the biggest challenges for growing organisations is building consistent, replicable processes and workflows.

Today, you might be one person handling office management, HR, and recruitment. Perhaps you already have a great idea of your EVP, even if that’s not codified in any formal way.

But tomorrow, you could be part of a team of two dedicated recruiters working alongside two HR people and 25 hiring managers. Or maybe you move onto another opportunity, taking your institutional knowledge with you.

Developing an EVP means creating a standardised resource that:

Empowers consistent processes for maximum effectiveness
Gives the organisation control and flexibility as it grows
Reduces the risk associated with a single person leaving
Cuts your time spend training new hires and managers

Ultimately, if your organisation is growing, you’ll eventually need to develop an EVP. And given the benefits of having one, that probably makes a lot of sense sooner rather than later.

Better hiring starts here 💪🏻

Employer branding is one of the most powerful recruitment strategies for small businesses, especially as headcount grows and hiring gets harder. It’s how you transition from endless admin and firefighting towards proactive recruitment that attracts the right talent to you.

EVP is one of the corner puzzle pieces: it gives you structure, shape, and strategy. It’s extremely hard to build a complete, coherent picture if you start in the middle. Ready to get started? Here are eight steps to developing your EVP.

Tribepad Gro is ready built, ready-to-go recruitment software for growing teams. With everything you need for better hiring, from attraction to onboarding and reporting. Take your recruitment to the next level.