The Rise of the EVP
At the beginning of the week I was catching up with a client who asked that age old question “what are candidates looking for at the moment?” It’s something that I get asked at least five times a week and just like the Chinese Zodiac; each year there is something different…there was the Year of UI/UX, then the Year of Cyber Security and now the Year of AI, but I’ll go out on a limb and say this is also the Year of the EVP.
An EVP – your Employee Value Proposition, the very fundamentals as to why said Unicorn 360 recruiter who’s billed $750k in their last role, might join your organisation. Every agency has one to a certain extent. It will probably be discussed heavily during the interview process, but there are some agencies out there who I personally think are doing a fantastic job of putting this down on paper for candidates to peruse at their leisure. It makes sense given the information overload that typically happens during an interview environment. My grounding at Barton Mills has always been to provide as much detail as possible to a candidate prior to meeting a client. This approach has always gone down well but recently I’ve heard great feedback from candidates when a client has taken the time to put together an EVP document.
It’s a great opportunity to reinforce your business on a number of points:
- Culture
- Values
- Career Progression & Growth Plans
- L&D / Training offered
- Perks & Benefits
- Commission Structure
When I think about the agencies who do this effectively, I’ve noticed a common theme; they a) provide tangible evidence to back up what they say they do b) they aren’t afraid to give some of their IP “away”.
The first point is huge. Here’s an example, how many times have you heard a business say that they offer a flexible working environment? Brilliant. That’s what most recruiters want. But what the hell does that actually mean? Are there no core hours? Can I work from home? Or better yet can I work remotely whilst sipping Mimosas from the Bahamas? In this market, potential candidates want to know exactly what they are walking into. One of my clients states that “24% of their employees work from home at least one day a week”; another client says that “you can work 8 hours at any point between 7.30am and 6pm”. It’s this level of detail that candidates are responding to. Point 2, gone are the days of agencies hiding their commission, bonus and benefits for fear of losing their IP. Take pride in what you’re offering and share it from the start.
I’m not saying a business needs to hire the world’s finest marketing agency to put something together but when it comes to decision time, when a decent candidate has multiple offers in front of them (which they will!), like a good Tesco advert…. “every little helps”.
