Why Employee Value Proposition Matters
The Employee Value Proposition is a marketing strategy used to position an organisation’s employees as a benefit to clients. This strategy can be as simple as a higher salary than an industry competitor or as complex as a combination of benefits and perks.
If you have an employee or sales rep, you should know how important it is to understand their value proposition. This includes their salary or hourly wage, commission, benefits, equity compensation, bonuses, and other incentives.
There are multiple reasons why value propositions matter, but one of the biggest ones is that you’ll get a clear understanding of what your salesperson is worth, what they need to perform at their best, and whether or not you’re getting a good return on investment from your hiring decision.
In today’s competitive business climate, employees are an organisation’s most valuable asset. They are its primary source of competitive advantage. Research shows that 70% of a company’s profit is derived from the actions of its employees.
So, HR and Marketing teams must work together to develop employee value propositions that effectively communicate your organisation’s unique value proposition to your customers.
What Is an Employee Value Proposition?
The Employee Value Proposition is the skills and qualities that make someone unique and valuable in the workplace. It’s a short sentence, and it’s the key to building a culture of inclusion and respect.
An EVP is why we work with our clients to create positive experiences for employees and the foundation of our leadership development program. Every employee contributes to the company’s success and benefits from learning and sharing ideas. The EVP is the basis of the organisation’s culture and is the core of the program we develop for our clients.
To build an EVP, consider the skills and qualities you bring to the table. These might include skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, empathy, flexibility, collaboration, emotional intelligence, and leadership. Once you’ve identified the skills and qualities that make you stand out, you can focus on developing the skills you need to succeed at work.
Why EVPs Are Important
Building an EVP is one of the companies’ biggest drivers of culture change. When people understand how they add value to the company, they begin to feel valued and are less likely to leave.
Here’s how the EVP makes a difference:
It’s the first step in building a culture of inclusion. By defining what people do that makes them valuable, you uncover what you need to do to support them. People know what they can offer and how to be valued.
It helps employees identify themselves as team players. When you define an EVP, you help your people recognise what it means to be a contributing group member. This is important because we want to cultivate a sense of belonging among people, and an EVP does that.
You can start with your team and then expand to other employees.
A strong EVP builds trust and a sense of community within your organisation. Your employees are the most effective ambassadors for your company. When they understand how they are unique and valuable, they become the most effective marketing agents for your brand.
How to Create an Employee Value Proposition
Creating an EVP begins with your people, business, and customers. Your values are the foundation of your EVP. The fundamental beliefs and guiding principles make up your organisational culture.
What’s more, your values must be shared and reinforced by everyone in the organisation. Everyone needs to know what the company stands for and what it values.
Next, find out where your values are coming from. Look at who is most likely to share the values you are trying to instil. What kinds of people are you hiring? Who is the person who is most likely to align with the values you are seeking?
After identifying your values, make sure your leadership is reinforcing them. It’s easy for a leader to say something is essential without actually doing anything to demonstrate it. Make sure your leaders reinforce the values that are the foundation of the EVP.
Finally, make sure your values are reflected in your policies and procedures. When people know their rights and responsibilities, they are more likely to uphold the company’s values.
Defining Your Skills and Qualities
When you identify your skills and qualities, you can focus on building the skills and qualities most important for you to achieve at work.
Again, think about the skills and qualities that make you unique and valuable. Are you a good problem solver? Do you have the ability to collaborate and create a winning team? Is your communication clear and concise?
Now, look at the things that are holding you back. What things do you need to improve? What specific areas of the skills and qualities you want to achieve would help you succeed at work?
Identifying your skills and qualities helps you to become more accountable to yourself. You can see what you are good at and not as good at and develop skills and qualities that will help you succeed.
Building a Culture of Inclusion
Once you’ve created an EVP, you must get people involved in creating the culture. A strong EVP comes from all employees, not just from the people at the top.
To ensure that everyone feels like they belong, ask people on your team for their input. Ask for ideas on creating an inclusive culture and best communicate to others what it means to be a part of the team.
When you ask for ideas, you create an atmosphere of trust and acceptance because you are listening and genuinely interested in what people have to say. This kind of open-door policy is what helps to build an inclusive culture.
To create an inclusive environment, think about the type of people you want on your team and try to make sure they are represented on the team. This could mean promoting from within or recruiting people with different backgrounds and experiences.
Is Employee Value Proposition Same As Value Proposition?
An employee value proposition promises an employer’s benefit or service to an employee.
In business, the EVP is generally defined as the sum of the benefits or services you provide to your employees. The definition includes a range of elements, including the salary, benefits, work environment, job security, and culture of your organisation.
So, while your value proposition to customers is your product, your value proposition to employees is your employer’s product.
What’s the difference?
A product is a tangible good or service offered to someone. Your company’s employees are the customers of your product, so the value proposition to them is your product, too.
A customer’s value proposition to your company is that they perceive your company’s products or services as valuable or beneficial. Your employees’ value proposition to your company is that they perceive your company’s products or services as beneficial or valuable.
Why Is the Difference Important?
The difference is critical because, in general, customers perceive the benefits of your product or service much more positively than the benefits they offer your employees.
For example, a restaurant might offer free meals to its customers while providing a portion of food to employees.
So, how do you create an EVP that’s great for your customers and employees? It’s all about your perception of the value you offer.
Here are five steps to creating an EVP that resonates with both your customers and your employees:
1. Set your customer’s expectations
Create a vision of what your company’s customers want from you.
2. Empower your employees
Tell your employees what they need to know and be able to do to fulfil your customers’ needs.
3. Demonstrate your value
Empower your employees to take responsibility for demonstrating the benefits of your product to your customers.
4. Communicate the value of your EVP
The EVP is only as strong as the communication around it.
5. Reward and encourage your employees
Reward your employees for delivering the benefits of your EVP to your customers.
Why Employee Value Proposition Matters
Employees who perceive your business as valuable are more likely to want to work for you. However, they may perceive your company to be valuable for different reasons.
When an employee values the relationship with you, she will likely view the business as an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop professionally. Conversely, when the employee perceives the business as valuable for the pay and benefits, he is likelier to see the business as a job. This attitude can cause a disconnect between the business and the employee.
In both scenarios, employees will be motivated to make the business valuable, but each will have a unique reason. As a result, a person’s perception of the value of a business will affect how he views your business.
A study by The Center for Creative Leadership examined how employees perceived the value of their businesses. The researchers found that employees who perceived the value of their businesses to be more related to their relationship with their managers were less likely to see the company as a job and more likely to leave the business.
Why Employee Value Matters
Employees are the backbone of any organisation. They will behave accordingly if they perceive that the business is valuable.
To increase the chances of retaining top talent and promoting from within, you need to create an environment where your employees perceive that the business is valuable. If they don’t, they won’t behave accordingly.
How to Create Employee Value
Employee value proposition refers to the idea that the business is perceived as valuable by the people who make it happen. It’s an emotional connection between the people inside the business and the people outside the business.
When employees feel that they are part of something bigger, it’s more likely that they will want to stay and succeed at the organisation.
When an employee sees the company’s goals as more significant than his own, he becomes more invested in helping the business achieve those goals. If this happens, the employee is more likely to perform better and make the company more valuable.
In turn, the business becomes more valuable to the employee.
How to Encourage Employees to See the Business as Valuable
As mentioned, when employees perceive that the business is valuable, it’s more likely that they will engage in behaviours that make it more valuable to the company.
There are four ways in which employees can perceive that your business is valuable. The first is when they understand that the business serves their interests.
It’s essential to recognise that everyone has an agenda. Some employees may value the growth and learning of a job in your organisation. Others may see themselves as an asset you use to earn a paycheck. It’s up to you to figure out which of these agendas is more powerful for each individual.
The second way in which employees can perceive that the business is valuable is through their professional development.
Everyone needs to evolve and advance. It’s only natural to grow as an employee; you can achieve this evolution through a career. A successful company allows for professional development by providing opportunities to work with new technologies and gain new skills.
The third way employees can perceive that the business is valuable is by recognising its impact on the customers.
An employee’s ability to interact with the customer directly contributes to the business’s level of service. The quality of the service is dependent on the skill and knowledge of the employee.
The fourth way employees can perceive that the business is valuable is by understanding how their behaviour impacts the customers.
As employees interact with the customers, they get to know them. They become more knowledgeable about what the customers want and what the customers expect. By gaining this knowledge, the employees become more valuable to the customers.
How to Build the Relationship Between the Business and Its Employees
When an employee perceives that the business is valuable to him, it’s much more likely that he will want to remain and succeed at the company.
Building the relationship between the business and its employees begins by connecting with the employees’ needs. It would help if you created a culture that values each of your employees. When employees feel appreciated for their work, they’ll likely feel valued by the business.
The next step is to help the employees understand how the business can benefit them. Your employees are more likely to feel that the business is valuable if they can see the business as serving their interests.
Finally, sharing the company’s vision and mission with the employees is essential. You can do this in many different ways. It’s a good idea to start by conducting informal meetings where you can discuss the business in greater detail.
Once the employees feel that the business is valuable to them, they’ll act accordingly.
How To Get the Employee Value Proposition Right
It’s no secret that businesses struggle with employee engagement. When they’re not engaged, they’re not productive. When they’re not productive, their company suffers. And when their company suffers, they suffer too.
Engagement is critical for success and growth. And while engagement is hard to measure, the most common ways to measure employee engagement have proven inaccurate.
So, what does employee engagement look like? It’s an employee’s perception of their job, company, and career — their sense of connection to their work and employer. That connection is a crucial driver of productivity and success, but it isn’t easy to accurately assess.
The only proven way to assess employee engagement is through employee surveys.
But employee surveys are only one way to measure engagement. Employee surveys are an imperfect measurement tool. The problem is that they’re based on employees’ self-reporting of engagement. However, this is a two-way street, and survey results are inherently flawed.
What does this mean? Employee surveys are only accurate if employees are truthful. And, as we all know, employees are often not truthful.
This doesn’t just apply to survey data. Employee surveys are also susceptible to social desirability bias. Employees are more likely to respond positively to survey questions that elicit favourable responses, like “I’m proud to work here.” This isn’t to say that employee surveys don’t have value. They do.
The key is to use employee surveys in conjunction with other methods, such as interviews and observations. Combined, these three tools can give us a much clearer picture of employee engagement and how to improve it.
How do you get the employee value proposition right? Here are three tips:
Make sure your surveys are accurate.
Employee surveys should be a part of a comprehensive assessment of employee engagement.
Engagement is more than just surveys, however. So, what should you include in a comprehensive engagement assessment?
- How well do you understand your employees’ perceptions of their jobs, the company, and careers?
- What can you do to help them grow and develop?
- Do they feel valued?
- Do they feel challenged?
- Do they feel connected to their coworkers and the company?
- Do they feel personally fulfilled?
- How are they progressing professionally?
- Are they satisfied with the quality of their work life?
- What do you expect from them?
Do you clearly understand how your employees perceive their jobs, the company, and their career? Without that clarity, creating a meaningful strategy to improve employee engagement is impossible. And, without engagement, your company will never succeed. Don’t rely on one method of measurement. Employees often don’t tell you the truth.
Employee surveys have the potential to paint an incomplete picture of your employee’s perceptions of the company, the job, and their career. Because of this, it’s crucial to complement employee surveys with additional measurement methods.
The most reliable way to measure employee engagement is through face-to-face or telephone interviews. Why? Interviews provide a more accurate picture of an employee’s perception of the company, the job, and the career.
Interviewing is a great way to validate the responses to employee surveys. But it’s not always practical. So, how else can you get a more accurate picture of employee engagement?
Observing the workplace.
The most crucial factor in assessing employee engagement is the actual workplace experience, both on a day-to-day and long-term basis.
So, what’s the best way to observe the workplace?
1. Visit the workplace.
This is the first step toward better understanding how your employees perceive the workplace, the job, and career. What you see in person will be different from what you see on screen, so it’s essential to visit the workplace firsthand.
2. Talk to your employees.
You’ll learn more about your employees by asking about their workplace experience. This allows you to understand what they’re talking about.
Ask them about their thoughts on the company, the job, and the career. Ask them about the good, the bad, and the ugly. How did they feel about their coworkers and the company culture? What specific areas of improvement would they like to see the company make?
3. Observe your employees.
When you get back to the office, do more than watch. As a manager, you have the opportunity to participate in the daily activities of your team. Take notes, ask questions, and pay attention to your employees’ actions.
Conclusion
I assume you’re reading this because you’re looking for ways to increase your profits. I argue that the most profitable businesses aren’t just based on increasing profit.
Instead, they are based on increasing employee value. In other words, they offer employees a great work environment, salary, and package. They also allow them to grow their careers and develop new skills.
Visit my website to learn more about Employee Value Proposition.
