Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) and Human Resources leaders are faced with challenges that all feel urgent: improving employee satisfaction scores, increasing employee retention, and attracting high-quality talent. The solution to all of these challenges lies in how organizations deliver on their Employer Value Proposition (EVP).
The EVP is a series of commitments about what employees can expect while working at a company. It can include promises of career growth, work-life balance, and company values.
Signs Your EVP Needs Attention:
- High turnover across the company or specific departments
- Low employee satisfaction survey results
- Difficulty hiring new talent
Strong employer brands help teams achieve success in each of these areas.
What makes a strong employer brand, internally and externally?
Built on the EVP, an employer brand is how people see your company as a place to work, both internally (current employees) and externally (potential new hires).
- Internal employer branding focuses on the employee experience within your organization. Internal branding is key for satisfaction, retention, and advocacy.
- External employer branding focuses on how your company is perceived by potential job seekers and the general public. Your organization’s external reputation should attract the right-fit candidates organically.
A strong employer brand reflects your company’s culture, values, and current employees’ overall experience. When these align, it creates a reputation that attracts and retains top talent (because their workplace expectations are being met or exceeded within the organization).
A common marketing saying is that “brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” A strong employer brand improves the likelihood that current employees speak positively about your company with others.
How to Strengthen Your EVP to Attract Top Talent
An EVP should clearly outline both the hard and soft benefits of working at your company, from compensation packages to culture, flexibility, and a sense of purpose. If either are lacking, it’s difficult to attract, satisfy, or retain the talent you need.
Try one or all of these to improve your EVP and enhance your employer brand:
Evaluate your compensation package
These tangible (salary or healthcare) and intangible (flexibility or culture) benefits should match or exceed your competition.
Analyze employee feedback
Your latest employee survey already tells you what you need to know. Use this data to clarify what’s valuable to your team.
Celebrate your people
Demonstrate employee recognition internally and externally. The way you acknowledge team members tells candidates a lot about your values.
Empower and reward employee advocates
Identify enthusiastic, respected employees who can share what it’s like to work at your company. Incentivize them with referral bonuses to speak highly of your company with their network.
Create a content strategy
Publish regular content around what makes your company special and distinct. Leverage your employees to tell these stories for you.
Close the loop with candidates
Ask applicants what drew them to your company and what might lead them to choose another one. Use these insights to alter your EVP or narrow your target candidate pool.
Today’s candidates are savvy. They form impressions of your company across dozens of touchpoints. If you can influence those touchpoints with the strongest elements of your EVP, the right candidates will find you. When you deliver on the strongest elements of your EVP, the right-fit candidates find you.
Your employer brand lives in the stories your employees tell, in every candidate interaction, and in how your company fulfills the promises from your EVP.
