By 2020 the global war for talent will go to another level of competitiveness. Organizations of all kinds are riding the uncertain wave of global economic disruption that’s being driven by automation, climate change, migration, #MeToo, and other complex factors. Whether you’re running a small business, a global charity, or a scrappy food-tech startup, you probably need highly skilled employees and the fact is that there aren’t enough of them to meet the global need in pretty much any industry. Only the organizations that provide a compelling and differentiated employer brand – or “Employee/Employer Value Proposition” – will have a chance of winning the war for talent. Here are three things that need to be in an employee value proposition.
What is an employee value proposition?
Here’s a very strong definition from Medium’s Kristina Martic of an Employee Value Proposition (EVP), which is mostly synonymous with an “Employer Value Proposition” or “Employer Brand”.
Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is a solution for attracting talent in a highly competitive job market. In order to make yourself their employer of choice, you have to be able to trigger your perfect candidates’ interest by differentiating your company from your competitors.
Simply put, Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is a compelling answer to the following candidate’s questions:
“Why should I work for your company instead of somewhere else? What’s in it for me?”
“Why is your company a great place to work at? What can you offer me that other companies can’t?”
By bringing to life these three ideas as part of your employee value proposition, your organization can differentiate itself in the market.
Purpose >>> $$$
The ability of your enterprise to increase shareholder value isn’t enough to attract and retain top talent. With the number of choices available to high potential employees, companies need to have a purpose that blends making money with social and environmental good. The story goes that Millennials and Gen Z represent the generations that demand purpose from their employer – most would take a pay cut to work for a socially conscious organization and evaluate an organization’s environmental and social track record before accepting an offer. The data show that every generation wants to work for an organization that makes a positive impact in the world (Baby Boomers have the deepest sense of working-with-purpose, according to this study).
Employers around the world are making the same connections that Henry Ford did over a century ago, argues Fast Company’s J.T. O’Donnell: “In other words, job seekers are making a consumer decision, too: If you aren’t good enough to work for, why buy anything from you?” When an organization’s purpose is clear and authentic then the employees become powerful marketing and recruitment tools, which is best evidenced by companies like Virgin, Banca Etica and Tentree International.
Infinite learning
How people develop and grow in your organization can be an incredible differentiator. Companies like Amazon and Accenture are throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at re-training employees whose skills will soon become obsolete. Simply put, there isn’t enough talent to meet global employment needs and work is changing more rapidly than ever, which means that great employers have creative, flexible and kick-ass ways for their talent to continuously improve technical and human skills.
During her appearance on Jacob Morgan’s “Future of Work” podcast, former SAP Executive Vice President of People, Jenny Dearborn, expertly outlined the case for having strong internal learning paths for employees:
That’s what the strategic talent plan is. Just like a product line and a corroboration never wants to be surprised and product R&D takes years of investment before you see the fruition of a product in market. That’s a seven, five, three-year process.
And aligned with that, there’s a talent strategy, and then aligned to the talent strategy is your learning and development plans, because we could say we know in seven years from now I’m going to need 10,000 data scientists but as I go around the world, I noticed that every other company is needing data scientists also.
…
For me to hire the volume that I need at my company and the answer is likely not. So we can go role by role and we can track which roles we’ll grow and shrink, and what is the talent that’s coming online to be able to pull into those roles which is why you say well, I’m going to bet that these roles, I’m going to get them externally so I will go to talent acquisition for that.
For these roles, or for these percent of these roles, I’m going to have to get them internally which means I need a very robust three year learning transformation plan to get this population ready to become that type of human. It’s not a quarter by quarter reactive thing. It’s a long-term strategic play.
If one of my staff members leaves Vancity after building multiple new skills through a variety of compelling formal, project-based and social learning experiences, they will spread the word about how they became so awesome. Telling their story and showcasing their talent helps to advance Vancity’s value proposition.
One-size-fit-one employee experience
Whether we’re customizing a social platform or choosing our path through Amazon’s omni-channel experience, all of us expect some level of personalization in our experiences with organizations and their applications. The employee experience is no different. Study after study finds that a one-size-fits-all approach to recruitment, learning and benefits and other aspects of talent development doesn’t work. Organizations need to make time for people to learn how they want and when they want.
“Due to the complex nature of our jobs, most people have different learning needs at work, which means it’s also essential for L&D programs to be personalized to each learner,” says VP of People and Workplace at Tile, Lissa Minkin. Personalization – through tactics like bite-sized digital content, scalable coaching platforms and peer-to-peer learning communities – is the future of Learning and Development and a one-size-fits-one philosophy can apply to employee benefits, role-customization and succession planning, too. It’s an essential piece of a compelling EVP.
—
This article was originally published on August 7, 2019.