Why Employee Value Proposition Matters

Why Employee Value Proposition Matters

The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is a marketing strategy adopted to present employees as an asset to clients.

A basic approach can be increasing the salary compared to other companies in the same industry while, on the other hand, it can be a mixture of benefits and rewards.

You should understand their value proposition if you own an employee or sales representative. This includes their pay, commission rates, hourly wages, and equity compensations.

There are many reasons why value propositions matter. Still, one primary reason is that it allows you to know what your salesperson is worth, giving them everything they require for peak performance and finding out if hiring them was a good ROI.

In today’s competitive business environment, workers are any firm's most essential resources, which sets it apart from its rivals. Employees are considered an organisation’s most significant source of competitive advantage. According to studies conducted by different researchers, 70% of businesses’ profits come from employee activities.

Therefore, HR and marketing teams must collaborate to create EVPs to communicate a company's unique selling points (USPs) to its 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 the key to building a culture of inclusion and respect.

An EVP is why we work with our clients to create positive employee experiences 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. 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 your skills 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 feel valued and 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. They become your brand's most effective marketing agents when they understand their uniqueness and value.

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 will most likely 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. Ensure your leaders strengthen 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 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 not as good at and develop skills and qualities to help you succeed.

Building a Culture of Inclusion

Once you've created an EVP, you must involve people in making 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 listen and are genuinely interested in what people 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, encompassing aspects like the notice period, salary, benefits, work environment, job security, and culture of your organisation. The definition includes various elements, including your organisation's compensation, benefits, work environment, job security, and culture.

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. Recognise their hard work with thoughtful rewards, like an award in crystal or other meaningful gifts, to show appreciation and encourage ongoing excellence.

Why Employee Value Proposition Matters

If the staff thinks your company is valuable, they want to work for you. But again, they may think differently about the worth of your firm.

When workers appreciate you as an employer, they consider your enterprise a school where they can learn and grow a career. On the other hand, when an employee looks at how much they get paid and other benefits from the business, it becomes just a place for earning income. This mentality creates a disconnection between workers and their employees.

In either case, though both perceptions would motivate them toward making their employers valuable places to be, any person’s view on what makes a company more critical will affect their perception of your establishment.

The Center for Creative Leadership researched employees’ views about their organisations’ values. According to this study, if workers see value within businesses because of relationships with managers, then such companies won’t be regarded as jobs by them. At the same time, many people are likely to quit working there if they feel like these two things aren’t related at all.

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 must create an environment where your employees perceive the business as valuable. If they don't, they won't behave accordingly.

How to Create Employee Value

An employee value proposition is one in which the workforce believes in its worth. It is a sentimental attachment between those within and without the organisation.

Employees who believe they are part of something greater are likelier to remain with and thrive in their company.

Employees who recognise that corporate ambitions outweigh personal aspirations become more dedicated to attaining them for the business. In this case scenario, performance will improve, increasing productivity and enhancing the firm’s profitability.

Consequently, such businesses become valuable for their staff members too.

How to Encourage Employees to See the Business as Valuable

If a company is seen as valuable by its employees, they will take action to make it more worthwhile.

There are four ways workers can perceive your business to be invaluable. The first is when they realise that the organisation best serves their interests.

It’s important to acknowledge that everybody has an agenda. Some staff members may appreciate job growth and development opportunities within your company, while others might consider themselves nothing more than tools you use for making money. You need to identify which agendas hold more significant sway over every person.

Secondly, employees can recognise value in terms of their career advancement opportunities provided by the firm or through other means related directly to professional growth.

People should always strive to improve themselves — this includes growing as professionals. Such personal evolution can only be achieved via one’s chosen vocation so long as it remains relevant within that particular industry at any given time.

For instance, successful businesses should offer chances to learn new skills alongside exposure to working on cutting-edge technologies, which foster staff development programs and create favourable conditions for career progression within such establishments.

Thirdly, workers may see how important an enterprise becomes by looking at its effect on the clients they serve or support.

The level of service rendered by a business largely depends on employee skill sets for customer needs to be met during interactions between these two parties. 

Fourthly, employees get knowledge about customers by associating with them during work and hence, they know more about what they want and expect from goods produced or services offered; gaining insight into this area makes staff indispensable to buyers.

How to Build the Relationship Between the Business and Its Employees

If workers feel that the business is essential to them, they will likely not want to leave and will work hard for it.

It would be best to determine what the employees need to develop a connection between the business and its employees. Ensure you have a culture that appreciates all your staff members. When workers are recognised for their contribution, they feel valued by the company.

Then, help staff understand how this establishment can benefit them. The more employees perceive it as serving their interests, the more likely they see such an organisation as valuable.

Lastly, let your workers know what vision or mission our company holds. You can use any method here, starting with casual meetings where we can talk about this enterprise more deeply. 

After this happens, every individual working for us will start acting differently because now each individual knows what’s in it for them if they work hard.

How To Get the Employee Value Proposition Right

It's not unknown that businesses face difficulties with employee engagement. They're unproductive when they are not engaged; the company suffers when it is them that are unproductive, and when the company suffers, they suffer too.

Engagement is essential for success and growth. However, the most common ways to measure employee engagement have proven inaccurate, although they are hard to measure.

So, what does employee engagement look like? It is an employee's job, company and career — their perception of their work and employer. This connection drives productivity and success but cannot be quickly evaluated.

Employee surveys are the only methodology proven to evaluate employee engagement.

Nonetheless, employee surveys represent just one way of measuring commitment. As a measurement tool, employee surveys are flawed because they rely on employees' self-reporting about their levels of engagement. Nevertheless, this cuts both ways, so survey findings are wrong by definition.

What does this mean? If employees aren't honest, these surveys won't be reliable either.

This does not only apply to survey data; there is also social desirability bias about staff questionnaires. Employees tend to give more positive responses when asked questions designed to elicit positive responses like “I'm proud to work here.” Employee surveys have value but can be compromised by bias.

The solution lies in using interviews, observations, and staff questionnaires; these three methods will provide us with a much clearer picture of how engaged employees are and what needs to be done to improve things.

How do you get the employee value proposition right? Here are three tips:

Make sure your surveys are accurate.

Employee surveys should be part of a comprehensive employee engagement assessment. However, there is more to engagement than surveys alone. So, what should you put in a thorough evaluation for engagement?

• How well do you know what your employees think about their jobs, organisation, and careers?
• What can you do to help them grow professionally or personally?
• Do they feel appreciated by others?
• Do they find their work challenging enough?
• Do they have good relationships with colleagues at work, outside, and within the company?
• Are they happy with themselves on a personal level? Or, are there areas where this may be lacking, such as self-esteem issues, etc?
• What steps are being taken towards career development among staff members?
• Is there anything wrong with employee quality of work-life satisfaction levels?

What do expect from staff members, both individually and collectively, in terms of output, etc

How clear are you about your staff’s perception of their jobs vis-à-vis those of other organisations? This is the starting point for any meaningful strategy to enhance employee involvement – without which no business can thrive. Don’t rely on one measure only; people often lie when asked direct questions.

Employee survey results might not fully account for how employees perceive the organisation, job or career. Therefore, it is essential to supplement these surveys with other measurement forms.

Face-to-face interviews or telephone conversations remain the most reliable method for gauging levels of commitment among workers. Why so? The answer lies in the fact that interviews accurately reflect an individual’s view on matters relating to employer brand recognition vis-à-vis positions held within respective companies.

Interviews serve as an excellent way to validate responses obtained during employee questionnaires. However, this approach may only sometimes be feasible given the logistical constraints associated with large numbers involved, thus making it impractical sometimes but still worth trying.

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 your 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 observe 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.