topics include Employer Value Proposition
That, of course, would depend on how you define ‘EVP’ or, to expound in full ‘Employer Value Proposition’ …although, you must have noticed that some individuals and organisations prefer to say ‘Employee Value Proposition’. What’s worrying about this is that both phrases seem to be used to mean the same thing. Which begs the questions that introduce this piece. There are lots of oft-cited definitions of Employer Brand and EVP, some academic, some practical; some tied inextricably to business goals, some more on the soft and fluffy side. To us, the Employer Value Proposition is the concise articulation of those elements of the Employer Brand that encapsulate the best of ‘what’s in it for you, here.’ The Employee Value Proposition is what the living and breathing individual chooses to select as important and pivotal in the decision-making process, from what is being offered. People are at once the same and oh, so different. They don’t sit comfortably packaged. Therefore they want a different combination of things. The Employer Brand is a 360 degree representation of ‘working here – warts and all’. And of course there are warts. (You’re fundamentally human aren’t you?) To pretend they don’t exist is deceitful. To be up front in acknowledging them is sensible, and where possible, to attempt to do something about them is equally so. Isn’t there an argument for saying it could be quite intelligent to recognise them within the articulation of your brand?
topics include Economic Environment, Employer Brand, Peer Group Views
Nick Holker, founder of Peer Group Communications and a regular contributor to Ri5 describes how some of the world's best-known employer brands have been hit (some fatally) by the credit crisis. Click here to see the full article September 2008 - Ri5 article.
topics include Employer Brand, Recruitment Marketing
Our sister company, ThirtyThree, hit its 10-year birthday a couple of weeks ago. ThirtyThree does not state its mission, print its values or emblazon its EVP on every available surface – real or virtual. But integral to the ThirtyThree culture is a genuine desire to celebrate successes and significant events, never missing an opportunity to acknowledge the part played by everybody in the company to make it what it is.
The 10-year birthday was no exception: to mark this significant occasion, but without any pomp, circumstance or unnecessary huff and puff, the directors were at the front door of the office in Clerkenwell from 8.30am to welcome every staff member with an individual birthday cake and a glass of champagne. This got me thinking about ThirtyThree's employer brand and why it is such a great place to work.
From Peer Group’s perspective, as a separate company working in partnership with ThirtyThree – so conjoined but not completely integral if you like – words that immediately spring to mind are respect, decency, autonomy, humour, collaboration, support, empathy; it’s a pretty safe bet that ThirtyThree’s employees would say exactly the same. Of course, you would hope that a business that spends most of its time advising others on how best to communicate with existing and target employees to be pretty good at doing it for themselves, but so often in our industry, the 'cobbler's children' rule applies and agency owners miss the point that the advice they give to others has relevance ‘at home’. Understanding the attitudes, motivations and behaviours of your employees is one of the basic starting points for engaging with your people; leading by example (with people clearly happy to follow that lead), being consistent and sharing in success are all pretty good indicators of an organisation in tune with its workforce. It's obviously easier to achieve in an SME business like ours, but I wonder how many larger corporates could learn a thing or two from this very simple example?