Is it Time to Update Your Employee Value Proposition?

Employer priorities are changing. Gartner recently summarized that while the focus on growth and technology remains high, there is a new focus and prioritization of workforce-related issues. According to Gartner, the focus on workforce solutions has risen by 32% to become the third most important priority for CEOs and other executives, rising from 5th place in 2020 to overtake financial and corporate concerns. ?

What does this mean??

In the short term, with a talent war playing out in the background, it means that we need to be paying greater attention to employee experience. This could mean flexible work models, remote and hybrid workspaces, greater investment in diversity and inclusion, etc. ??

In the long term, we have to reexamine and possibly redefine some of the core tenets of the employee-employer relationship. We need to offer our employees a new value proposition that encompasses their evolving needs.??

We've been through this before?

When the IT industry first exploded out of California in the early 2000s, it changed the way we think of work. Many early workspace innovations like in-house childcare, health and wellness facilities, and non-compartmentalized workspaces, were truly revolutionary and first introduced by IT leaders like Microsoft and later, Google. ?

You may think of these innovations as obvious now but when they were first introduced, there was genuine excitement. I remember reading about Google’s new office space that would have “play areas” for adults to relax and about the kind of investment Google was willing to make to keep their staff engaged. Most people’s idea of the workplace was limited to cubicles and corner offices, whereas the kind of amenities that Google was offering was extraordinary. And if you were a young job seeker at the time, looking to launch into an IT and tech career, Google was the place to be. ??

Google wasn’t the only company to get innovative with its employee engagement. Many tech companies at the time, staffed by fresh graduates and led by young executives, were vying with each other to provide the most attractive workplace experiences. Yoga classes, recreation rooms, gourmet cafeterias... ?

It wasn’t only about fun. These innovations were driven by the realization that the new generation of workers wanted something new from their workplace experience and, to keep engagement high, change was necessary. ?

The idea was to create genuinely livable spaces that employees could treat as a home away from home. A place that they didn’t associate with the drudgery or discomfort of a traditional office. There were child care centers to help young professionals juggle work with parenting. There were mental health services?to help employees manage stress. Gym facilities encouraged employees to stay fit. Working at these new-generation companies meant that employees didn’t have to treat their jobs as an unfortunate necessity to life but as a welcome part of it. ?

What do our people need today??

Today, we are witnessing another generational shift in employee needs. Though the change was already underway before 2020, it was accelerated by the global pandemic. As we went into lockdowns and work-from-home became a norm, we realized just how much work-life balance mattered to good health. The blurring of lines between work and home had become a stressor. ?

Despite attempts in the last decade or so, to modernize the way we work, employee engagement has not improved. Throwing more money at the problem or offering more superficial benefits has not had the intended effect. ?

Many employees today don't want work to be a home away from home. They want to be able to keep these two parts of their life separate and distinct. They want greater flexibility in their work so that they can invest quality time in their personal lives. The lockdowns also made it clear that not every job needed to be done in the office, not every commute was essential. What is essential is spending time with family, cultivating a life outside the office, and becoming a more well-rounded individual. A move towards greater humanization of the workforce, what Gartner calls the Human Deal.?

“The reinvented EVP, or the human deal, centers around the employee’s emotional response to deeper connections, radical flexibility, personal growth, holistic wellbeing and shared purpose.” (Gartner, 2022)?

In response to the rising importance of workforce-related issues with business leaders and the need to change the way we engage with our employees, Gartner academics have suggested a reinvention of the employee value proposition, which moves away from traditional metrics of engagement. ?

Three ideas, in particular, stood out to me from the proposals that were made in their paper. According to the authors, if we were to talk about developing an employee value proposition today, these are the ideas it would be built around—?

Radical flexibility? ?

Employee empowerment and autonomy directly relate to engagement. By giving employees the option of radical flexibility with the way they craft their roles, employers can empower them to make choices that are better suited to their lives. This means going beyond when and where they work, to potentially include whom they work with, what they work on, and how much they work.?

Naturally, with this degree of freedom, it’s also important to set well-established boundaries in advance and tailor flexibility to your organizational limits. Not every role can be equally flexible. Neither can every organization. As a recruitment firm that conducts a majority of operations online and across multiple time zones, I can give my employees flexibility with their work. But with greater flexibility comes the need for greater collaboration. My team can’t operate at full efficiency without systems in place that ensures they have access to all the information and personnel they need to succeed. Therefore, with every investment I make in flexibility, I also need to invest in effective communication and collaboration.?

That being said, the pandemic made it clear that flexibility is an option for a lot of roles. If you don’t capitalize on this shift, talent will look elsewhere for opportunities that are better suited to their needs.?

Personal growth?and holistic well-being?

For many of us, the lockdown was also a period of learning. Some of it was?driven by necessity as we grappled with new tech and remote working norms. Other skills were more focused on our interests?and passions. If you, as an employer, offer personal development and personal growth training that compliments the usual technical training, you will be able to get ahead?in the talent-sourcing race.??

Take the upskilling initiatives beyond the professional space by offering learning in skills they can use in their personal lives or by developing along avenues defined by non-traditional career paths.?

Shared purpose? ?

The pandemic made all of us rethink our choices and revisit our purpose. Why are we doing what we do and what is it worth, in the end? Those employers who have invested the time and energy to develop a shared purpose for their organization, one that addresses a need beyond that of simply providing compensation or a good ROI to shareholders, are far more likely to engage and align their people to higher delivery performance. ?

Employees want to know what you stand for and why they should work for you. If you can’t answer these questions with a higher purpose that syncs with theirs, they will go work for a company that can.?

Conclusion?

Replacing the employment contract mindset with a human deal mindset will be one of the biggest challenges faced by leaders over the next few years. We cannot win the war for talent by offering perks and benefits alone. For better or worse, the pandemic changed this approach forever. Our thinking needs to evolve.??

When leaders reframe the attributes of the traditional EVP around the whole person’s identity and life experience, they make employees feel understood, give them autonomy and individual value, and the sense that they are being invested in. If we can generate these emotions in our people everybody wins—our businesses and the human beings that help us succeed.?