Your culture is not one aspect of your EVP game; it is the game!

The impact of talent bottlenecks on organisations is real. According to?Randstad Sourceright’s 2022 Talent Trends Report ,?a quarter of business leaders said profitability declined as a direct result of the labor shortage and that they've been forced to reduce their level of service to customers because of it.?The latest edition of the Deloitte CFO Sentiment (that surveyed senior financial executives in Australian companies) reflects a similar trend. Most CFOs rated 'securing and retaining key talent' as the #1 risk that concerns them over the next 12 months.

Having a compelling Employee Value Propostion is no longer a 'nice-to-have' but a 'must-have' for most businesses, especially those that have serious growth and expansion plans. Unfortunately, most organisations in Australia, especially in South Australia are well behind the curve when it comes to focusing on what it takes to become 'Employers of Choice'. In some cases, resources and money dedicated to enhancing the EVP, is unfocused and often misguided.

This article aims to address the critical levers that contribute to creating & sustaining a compelling EVP and guide organisational leaders on what to prioritise, if they want to attract & retain key talent, both over the short-term and long-term.

#1. Company culture is not part of your 'Employee Value Proposition' (EVP). Your culture is what determines your EVP in the first place!

Before we dive in, it is important to understand what 'EVP' and culture mean.

Employee Value Proposition (EVP) encapsulates everything from how an organisation describes what it is like to work for them on their website/ job adverts, through to how someone describes the experience of working for a company to their friends. It’s the balance of tangible and intangible benefits, representing why someone would choose to work at one organisation over another.

Company culture is determined by the values and beliefs that guide and define the way in which a group of people behave and operate together. Culture is primarily the reflection of the values, beliefs, and behaviours of the leadership group. (In the case of listed companies, this includes the values & beliefs of board members, investors, etc)

What the leadership group in a company values (i.e. considers important or critical) determines how resources are allocated, what areas get most focus or least focus. For instance, when leaders of a company value efficiency, they will invest in high-performing systems, technology and processes that drive efficiency. Conversations on efficiency will happen often, and people will be held accountable for driving efficiency.

Similarly, how much employees get paid, what tangible benefits and intangible benefits (such as flexibility, well-being, work-life balance, quality of relationships, etc) exist, and how much resources are allocated for staff development/engagement within an organisation depends on what the leadership group values.

Having a compelling EVP and becoming an employer of choice, begins with having a reality check on the current culture of an organisation and the real, underlying values of the leadership group (please refer to the last section of this article, on how to measure both culture and leadership values in tangible terms against key business imperatives).

#2 EVP is the promise, but your culture is the reality. A successful EVP is one that reflects truth

Your Marketing/PR/HR team might be able to come up with a compelling EVP 'promise' (the benefits and opportunities of working at your organisation). It can be competitive, attractive, and have all the right ingredients to attract key talent.

But, ultimately what determines whether people stay and for how long, comes down to the lived experience of your employees. If the EVP promises are not reflected in your culture, it quickly erodes trust and further derails your employer brand.

While carefully crafted job descriptions and employer-branding videos might be useful as promotional tools, they are no match to real-life employee sentiments, authentic stories, reviews, and referrals. Your employees are your biggest brand ambassadors, just like your customers. They reflect the truth and if the truth is not appealing, then your organisation is in trouble. Any effort towards crafting and marketing your EVP has to be aligned with understanding and improving your company culture.

#3 Investing in your culture gives you the maximum ROI from an EVP perspective (both in the short-term and in the long-term)

A compelling EVP is not necessarily one that is lavish but one that focuses on what really matters. In today's context, organisational leaders have a plethora of benefits to choose from. Be it lifestyle benefits, profit-sharing schemes, wellness programs, offering Flexi-working, investing in upskilling programs, etc. However, every employer has limited resources and has to make critical decisions on what to offer - and focus on maximising ROI.

Ever heard of anyone quitting their job because they didn't have profit-sharing options or gym memberships? Most likely, NOT! But people quit all the time, because they feel undervalued, or don't have a supportive manager, or feel burned out by the long hours & constant change, or they feel looked down upon for opting for Flexi-working, etc. Having extra frills is optional, but not necessary to become top employers.

In the context of benefits that really matter, it is important to consider 'hygiene factors' (factors that de-motivate people when not present) and 'Motivators' (factors that motivate people to stay/work harder/boost motivation). It is not to be understood as 'Hygiene factors' are all that matter but having them in place is key to removing dissatisfaction.

The best part is that most of the things in the 'Motivators' category do not require significant financial investment, but a commitment to building the right workplace culture! Yet, these are the very factors that differentiate best employers from the rest.

The above picture is a comprehensive (but not exhaustive) representation of what really matters from a motivational perspective. (It is derived from the research of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Richard Barrett's 7 levels of motivators, and Herzberg's two-factor theory for employee motivation).

Most organisations have the basics in place, but what differentiates an 'Employer of choice' is whether or not you have the right culture to support higher-level needs that are emerging as most important for employees of the current era.

So, where do you begin when it comes to building a strong culture and a compelling EVP?

The following three steps, if done well, will ensure you are playing the right and most effective game in creating an outstanding EVP and culture.

Step 1: Understand what your target workforce wants. Your EVP and company culture MUST resonate with the kind of workforce you want to attract, retain, and develop in your organisation. The easiest way to do this, is to ask your employees what is working in the current culture, what isn't and what they want to experience in the desired culture.

The perfect tool to assess this and get the data to forge a targeted, measurable path towards your optimal culture and EVP is the 'Barrett Culture Assessment'. It also gives you the much-needed 'reality check' of how your culture and EVP stack up together. You can also find out how your organisation is doing within your industry (the tool provides industry benchmark data) and ascertain the strength of your EVP against peers/competitors.

A sample screenshot of the culture assessment is given below for reference:

Step 2: Identifying key focus areas and taking action: Once you have this data, the next most important step is to identify the top 2-3 areas to focus on and invest in, that will make a major difference to your employee experience and EVP (20% of the things that will make 80% of the difference and maximise ROI). Most importantly, the leadership group needs to commit to taking tangible action against the key focus areas.

Step 3: Measurement, accountability, and continuous improvement: You can measure if your culture needle is moving by conducting a yearly assessment. This is useful to not only measure progress but identify emerging focus areas and hold all stakeholders accountable for the desired outcomes.

As rightly put by Lou Gerstner, the Chairman and CEO of IBM, "I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game — it is the game.?In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value."

Question is, are you in the game?

After all, winning the talent game is critical to realising your strategic objectives and goals.

If you found this article useful and would like to stay on top of more actionable strategies & tips on how to attract and retain top talent, please subscribe to this newsletter.

At Think Stride, we help our clients successfully measure, develop and build the desired culture and EVP. If this is a priority for you and you'd like to understand more, you can reach me at [email protected].

#evp #employeeexperience #warfortalent #employerofchoice #culture #recruitment #talentattraction #talentretention #southaustralia #australia

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About the author

Madhu is the Director and Principal Consultant at Think Stride, a specialist advisory firm that helps leaders and organisations attract and retain top talent, and build winning cultures.

She is a credentialled executive coach, change practitioner, and is certified in proven culture & leadership diagnostics. Alongside supporting her clients, she also partners with universities in South Australia to deliver evidence-based leadership programs as part of their executive education and post-graduate offerings.

Previously, she worked for PwC and HSBC Bank specialising in the areas of cultural transformation, talent & leadership development, and diversity & inclusion. She is a member of the Forbes Coach Council and a two-time finalist for the 'Australian Coach of the Year Award' given by the International Coaching Guild.