Written by

Frank Aneke

Overview: When it comes to contest for top-tier talent, businesses are more like football clubs. The clubs with excellent management and best players win most of the time. These clubs have the capacity to attract top-notch players, retain them, and continue their success trajectory from season to season. Same principles apply to companies with strong employer brand backed by authentic employer value propositions. Such companies have the capacity to attract, recruit and retain top talents and maintain their winning streak in the marketplace.

In this edition, we will review six keys that could help you craft authentic employer value propositions (EVP) for your business. For a better understanding, it will be good to start with a definition: “Employer value propositions can be defined as clear and unambiguous attributes designed to provide insight and clarity around what talent must be willing to give your organisation in return for what they can get from your organisation. These propositions are designed to crystalise what kind of people thrive at your business and why they should care”. (Give & Get by Bryan Adams & Charlotte Marshall).

Below are six keys to consider in building authentic Employer Value Propositions (EVP):

1. Expounding the Give and Get of the employment deal: The principle of Give and Get in employment deal is one of the key ingredients in any authentic employer value propositions. The principle is based around showcasing strengths, benefits and opportunities within the context of what it takes to truly thrive and capitalise on what’s on offer at your business. This means your employer value propositions must encapsulate what you as the employer promises and delivers to the employee and what you expect from the employee in return. It is that simple.

2. Standing-out from The Crowd: To differentiate your EVP from others, you will need to look beyond your basic industry attributes and identify distinctive qualities that make your company great and different from the pack These distinctive qualities are what make your business special and attractive to prospective talents. The key objective here is to showcase those unique attributes in your EVP and position your business as the employer of choice in your industry.

3. Harmonising Competing Perspectives: When developing your business employer value propositions, it is imperative to be conscious of competing perspectives such as needs of the employer versus those of the employees. You should also consider what your business offers now as compared to what it hopes to offer in the future. It is equally important to ensure your EVP is designed to appeal to your different target audience even those in distant geographical locations.

4. Leveraging Current Strengths and Future Aspirations: Authentic employer value propositions should combine credible and proven strengths grounded in current employment experience and future aspirations endorsed by senior leadership. In other words, highlighting current strengths in your EVP holds credibility and trust while adding future aspirations projects your brand’s forward momentum and competitive edge well into the future.

5. Recognising Concrete Claims and Proof Points: Promoting all glorious employer value propositions to attract talent without considering your business capacity to deliver is never a good idea. Same as embellishing your EVP with half-truths instead of facts not only destroys credibility and trust, it ultimately undermines the key objective of the employer brand campaign. On the flip-side, it pays to populate your employer value propositions with verifiable claims backed with facts and figures.

6. Electing Your Core Positioning: The purpose of core positioning is to promote one overall attribute you want your target audience to associate with your company as an employer.  For instance, Microsoft’s corporate brand was their core purpose: “To help people and businesses throughout the world realise their full potential”. This core positioning also worked well for Microsoft employer brand core positioning.

Further to the above, to launch a successful employer branding campaign, it is important to first develop authentic employer value propositions that reflects true culture of your workplace and appeal to your target audience. Having said that, crafting employer value propositions and communicating them to target talents via employer branding campaign pays great dividends to companies that want to compete and win contest for top talents in their industry. It does not matter whether your business is small or a conglomerate. Many top talents make their employment choice based on established reputation of prospective employer and not on highest remuneration offer. Thanks for reading my blog.

In the next edition, we will start a 5-part debate: Advertising on Job Board Vs Contracting Recruitment Firm? Watch this space!!