‘Systems’ – a chink in your EVP’s armour
Will Innes
Talent Industry Leader. Employer Brand and People Experience. Hiring, engagement and mobility. Talent Tech. Growth and Business Leadership. Service and Value Proposition creation. Coach & Mentor.
Ask people in an organisation what they think the underlying strengths of their Employer Value Proposition are and, 99 times out of 100 (the first time you ask), you get the typical ..the smart people, the collaborative culture or the fact that it’s a flexible employer. Table stakes stuff.
I have come to learn that whilst all these reasons feel genuinely true to the people that tick those fields in surveys, or give those responses in interviews - it's that systems and processes (informal and formal processes / systemised ways to 'get stuff done') have an enormous, and often overlooked, impact on the employee experience. For example, the process of getting a new plan approved - if it causes frustration, the employee may attribute it to poor management (they disempowered me) or communication (it went quiet for months and then it fizzled out with no explanation). So, ‘systems’ and how things work in the company can easily be overlooked. This is a danger if you rely too heavily on engagement data in your EVP research – I saw this a few months ago with a company indexing high in ‘empowerment’ and ‘pace’, and not alarmingly low on ‘systems and tech to do the role’….but the focus groups revealed how the ONE, MAJOR AND CONSISTENT bug bear was the slow and non-transparent approvals process….it completely eroded trust in leaders and caused enormous frustration in the teams. Enough for some key performers to leave (didn't always show in in exit data either).
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I saw this quote yesterday and it really reminded me. ?I believe, and see almost daily, that companies can have amazing ‘talent’ or high profile leaders, but it does not guarantee success. The bigger determiner, may well be the systems - seems logical, it’s like have a fast car but no map. Or no wheels (!)
Bringing it back to EVP - and this is really important if you are building things in-house is the need to probe beyond the ‘IT systems’ and tech. This is baked into the TQ process because we know it matters - but I’d encourage you to make sure you understand ‘how work gets done’, the experience of working, which in turn contributes significantly to pillars like culture. It’s often missed in EVPs and as I’ve pointed to, is a major major driver of the experience people have daily - so you gotta get it right!
If you want to talk about EVP and Employer Brand Strategy, give me a shout.
Talent protagonist with relentless empathy | Talent Marketing | Sourcing | Recruitment | Talent Mobility & Management
1 年Great read which reinforces the critical importance of an EVP framework covering the hard and soft elements of the employee experience. If the right people don't do their best work while employeed, attraction becomes a band-aid. Good read Leah, Claudia, Carl.
I Help Organisations Create Powerful EVPs | Employer Brand | Employee Value Proposition | Ex Boots, BAE Systems and Currys | Advocacy | Employee Experience | Culture | Talent Attraction |
1 年Fantastic reflections!
Senior Manager - Talent Acquisition and Recruitment Marketing at Worley | Finding amazing people who share Worley's values and our goal for delivering sustainable change
1 年interesting perspective Will. I hadn't thing about EVP in this way before :)
Fractional CPO | Leadership Development Facilitator & Coach | Experience Designer | Keynote Speaker | GAICD
1 年Love this piece Will! And as a huge James Clear fan, this systems approach to success, across anything, is critical. It always boils down to uncovering the day-to-day experience for our employees. So often orgs make a statement, their EVP, values, purpose, business strategy and the day-to-day experience is in such stark contrast. And frankly employees are now calling BS!
Talent & workforce expert - strategy, leadership, operating model, technology, experience | Skills & Skills-based organisations researcher | Writer | Speaker | Founder & CEO, TQSolutions
1 年Will Innes - great read - systems are essentially a proxy for 'how work gets done here' and there are macro systems (policies, process, bureaucracy, hierarchy) and then there are micro systems (leader specific, team specific, relationships, trust levels, communications, work allocation, performance management etc). Both are important, but I suspect the micro systems have the biggest impact on the day to day employee experience.