Employee value propositions, or EVPs, are a great way to attract potential talent to your company. But how do you develop one? Employees are the foundation of a company, and should play a vital role in the foundation of your EVP. Learn how to create your own EVP, and download our employee survey template to get you started.
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An employee value proposition (or EVP) is an incredibly helpful tool in your search for new talent. This statement can be used to show potential prospects what your company offers in terms of growth opportunities, benefits, company culture, and more. An EVP can be highlighted on your website, on job postings, and anywhere that potential prospects may be searching.
An employee value proposition is a written description of the benefits that your company provides to your employees. This can be used on job postings, career pages, social media, and other recruiting tools to help you attract talent. An EVP should go beyond simply outlining your employer health benefits, paid time off, and retirement account offerings. This statement should tell potential employees the best parts of working for your company and help shape your brand as an employer. A great EVP will truly encapsulate your company culture, telling prospective employees why they should want to join your team and help attract, develop, and retain top talent.
EVPs that come directly from executives at the top, or from HR, can risk sounding contrived and lack authenticity. This is why we suggest you go straight to the source and create your foundation based on what your employees think! We have created a handy template to conduct a values survey with your employees.
This template includes questions that cover a range of topics, from volunteer opportunities to compensation. You can use these questions to guide you in building your own EVP survey to find meaningful insights about what employees value about your company, attract talent who resonate with those values, and set a direction for future decisions to promote and expand on these values.
This survey template is a list of questions that can be used as a jumping-off point to create your own survey for your employees. These questions were designed to get your wheels turning. You should be sure to include questions that make sense for your company. For example, if your employees work in the office, you should ask questions about the facilities, as the work environment and location could be an important draw for employees. If all or some of your team works from home, you could ask them how they foster relationships with coworkers while working remotely.
These questions can be used to create your own online form to survey employees. We recommend choosing between 25 and 30 questions and asking questions in a short answer format as you may uncover benefits that you didn’t know were valuable for your employees. There are many free or inexpensive survey platforms available online. Some platforms even allow your employees to fill out the forms anonymously, which gives employees an opportunity to share insights about current levels of engagement transparently.
Be sure to not only survey your long-time employees but new hires as well. You can also create a separate survey for past employees if you are still in contact with them. This will give you the most well-rounded vision of what your employees find to be the most valuable aspects of their job, your company as a whole, and the perks that are offered.
After your employees complete the survey, take a look at what the most common answers are. What makes the most people happy about your company? Of course, there will be some more unique answers, but those small fragments will not build you a strong foundation for your EVP. After taking into consideration everyone’s answers, you are now ready to lay out your EVP!
Now that you’re equipped with feedback for your team, it’s time to outline and draft your EVP. In written form, an EVP doesn’t need to be longer than one or two paragraphs. Many brands are also creating short video versions of EVPs, which allows you to encapsulate your culture with audio and visual elements as well. This is a great option if you have the resources to do so!
Keep the information concise to hold the attention of prospective employees while giving them a good idea of what it’s like to work for your company. Using the survey answers as a guide, be sure to include your core pillars, values, and any other information you think people should know before applying to join your growing team. What would make people want to work for you over a different employer? Include the benefits or attributes that are the most important to your people.
Finally, be sure to show your EVP to coworkers before using it externally. Ask for honest feedback to ensure it’s an accurate reflection of your employer brand. This is a reflection of your company as a whole, so the more opinions you get, the better picture you will paint. The act of taking and running with employee opinions and suggestions is a great way to show that you value your employees and their ideas, helping to reduce employee turnover.
