Employee Value Proposition: How We Build a Winning EVP
Valentin Hinov
21 March 2024
Most employers have thought about what employees and potential employees offer them—specific skills, experience, and qualifications that will help drive their business forward.
But have you ever stopped to think seriously about what you offer employees? What makes your company stand out as an employer of choice? Why employees choose to work with you over the competition?
Hint—it’s more complicated than, “We have a ping pong table in the break room”.
That’s the essence of your organization’s employee value proposition (EVP, for short). It’s a statement of the unique benefits and advantages that your company provides to its employees—going beyond salaries and benefits into the realm of culture, values, and opportunities for growth.
Interested in learning more? Stick with Thankbox as we share our insights on how you can build a strong employee value proposition that allows you to attract and retain top talent.
Elevate Your EVP With Thankbox!
What better way to set your company apart than by showing how much you value your employees? Create a Thankbox and make your reward system a collaborative effort.
What is an employee value proposition?
Essentially, an employee value proposition (or EVP) is a unique set of perks that an employee gets from a company in return for their skills, capabilities, and experience. Your EVP is a critical (but all-too-often underrated) aspect of your company’s employer branding and plays a critical role in:
Attracting top talent
Self-selecting for cultural fit
Engaging and retaining employees
So what makes a successful employee value proposition?
Well, it encompasses more than just compensation and benefits. These elements can include the company culture you offer, work environment, personal growth opportunities, promotions, and reward and recognition schemes.
For example, companies like Nike pride themselves in developing an EVP that emphases teamwork, innovation, open communication, growth opportunities, and a commitment to making a positive impact on society.
5 key components for creating an amazing employee value proposition
Something to remember is that the specific elements of a successful EVP will vary from company to company, depending on their unique characteristics and employee needs.
However, here are five essential components to get you started:
1. Rewards and benefits
Unsurprisingly, the rewards and benefits you offer are the first component of a solid employee value proposition. Payment is the biggest and most obvious reward—but what will set your EVP apart is offering rewards that go beyond pay.
Thankbox directly supports this important EVP pillar by enabling your whole team to celebrate individual and group achievements in a meaningful and collaborative way. It’s the perfect tool to show appreciation and recognise employee milestones and achievements, directly contributing to a positive EVP by making employees feel valued.
In addition to our personalised e-cards, you can reward outstanding achievement with a bouquet of flowers and our digital gift cards (with a selection of 700+ retailers) to make the surprise even more special.
To help you evaluate the success of your rewards and benefits, a helpful HR metric to track is your benefit utilisation rate.
For example, let’s say Thankbox is one of your unique employee benefits. Your HR department can monitor the benefit utilisation rate by tracking how frequently employees use Thankbox to acknowledge their peers. This way, you’ll be able to understand the perceived value of your different employee benefits, including peer recognition platforms.
2. Workplace stability
When we refer to workplace stability, we’re talking about providing a sense of career security that enables employees to work in a confident and motivated way. This is where your company’s advancement opportunities, learning, and personal development initiatives come into play.
Consider offering:
Mentorships
Training programs
Career advancement opportunities
Continued education benefits
Workplace stability is so important for employee satisfaction and retention. When employees feel secure in their jobs and see potential for growth, they're more likely to stay with the company long-term.
But don’t take our word for it—job security is consistently ranked as the top retention reason by employees in surveys and studies.
3. Work-life balance
In today’s fast-paced world, achieving a healthy work-life balance is paramount. An EVP that prioritises flexibility through hybrid work options, flexible working hours, paid time off, and generous holiday policies can greatly enhance job satisfaction and employee well-being.
This component of your EVP is meant to address the diverse needs and lifestyles of employees, contributing to a supportive and understanding workplace culture. So, to make it work, you’ll need to be familiar with your employees' unique needs and preferences.
Some ideas to promote work-life balance in your company include:
Unlimited PTO (although you need to be careful to execute this in an employee-centric way)
Flexible schedules including remote work options and flexible hours
Generous structured holiday policies
Encouraging employees to take breaks and disconnect
4. Working environment
A major component of a successful employee value proposition is a positive work environment with an inclusive company culture that aligns with employees’ values. By emphasising diversity, equity, inclusion, transparent communication and a culture of appreciation, you can create a fulfilling environment for your employees.
Fortunately, Thankbox reinforces a positive company culture of appreciation, teamwork, and community engagement by facilitating peer-to-peer recognition and group gift collections. Your employees will be able to actively participate in celebrating their colleagues’ successes, helping to strengthen bonds in the workplace.
Elevate Your EVP With Thankbox!
What better way to set your company apart than by showing how much you value your employees? Create a Thankbox and make your reward system a collaborative effort.
5. Respect
The respect component of a successful EVP transcends mere workplace etiquette or behavioural policies. It’s supposed to signify your company’s commitment to fostering an environment where every employee feels heard and treated fairly, regardless of their position.
Respectful workplaces implement channels for open and honest communication, where employees feel safe to express their ideas, concerns and feedback without fear of retribution. But that’s not all, you should also ensure that your leaders and people managers are well-trained in the appropriate leadership styles to manage diverse teams effectively to build more trust in the workplace.
Best practices for creating your employee value proposition
Here are a few tips to help you develop an attractive EVP for your company that aligns with your mission and helps you keep your employees on board.
Consider what makes your company unique: To give you initial direction, you’ll need to brainstorm what your company’s unique offerings are. Think about what you can offer employees that other companies can’t.
Investigate your employees’ needs: As your EVP should aim to meet your employees' expectations and aspirations, understanding what their needs are is important. Of course, they will have varying needs, but by collecting feedback through surveys you’ll know which employees will benefit from specific offerings.
Make sure your EVP and company values and goals align: A strong EVP will align with your company’s unique mission, values, and goals. So, make sure to consistently reflect this in your company culture, policies, and the way you support employee development.
Stay authentic: Ultimately, if you want to build and maintain trust with your employees, you need to create an EVP that’s authentic, transparent, and in line with your stated values. For example, if you highlight a healthy work-life balance in your job listings, you need to make sure you actually follow through on your promises.
Wrapping up
All in all, crafting an amazing employee value proposition requires an in-depth understanding of your employee needs, organisational goals, and a little bit of market dynamics.
By customising your rewards packages, aligning them with company objectives, and fostering transparent communication, you can create a compelling value proposition that sets them apart in the talent market.
But let’s not forget, that an EVP that incorporates regular employee appreciation boosts morale and reinforces your company’s appreciation for your workforce.
So, create a Thankbox today and watch your workplace light up!
Images: Cover | Woman with a cat | Team high fives | Company values on a whiteboard
