Recently, when working with one of my clients, I was asked whether promoting the client’s EVP both internally and externally still made sense in today’s labor market. The premise was whether the EVP I had helped the company design and implement more than a decade ago — and which had been tweaked often over the years — still made sense as a recruitment and retention tool.
My answer was a resounding yes, with a few important caveats. I pushed them on what tweaks had been made over the years and the factors that drove the changes. I asked if they made the tweaks using data or had engaged the workforce to test new messages and themes behind the changes. Did they have enough new information to take a fresh look at the EVP and again align with the needs of the business and their people?
It is not unusual for an organization to maintain a program that appears to be working and not to embrace the need for change — or worse, ignore new information and realities. The most fundamental change for employees is the recognition that the EVP is now more of an exchange, emphasizing the shift from an almost paternalistic “This is what we will give you to come to work here” to “This is the ‘deal’ where you as an employee have options, a career and life advantages. In exchange, we as the employer receive your best work.” There is an underlying message of working together in today’s approach, which is partially driven by the tight job market and partially driven by what new cohorts of employees are looking for in their career positions.
Most organizations that have been in business for any amount of time and with any sizable employee population spend time and resources on providing some package of compensation, benefits and career opportunities. That package is an investment by the employer, but the question is, how many have taken the time to truly test if this "exchange" is what the employees are seeking?
Our premise when working with our clients is that the employee exchange should be viewed as any other investment, and it should include the same amount of rigor that the business would apply to any other meaningful investment. Why? For most employers, the full exchange amounts to the most significant investment it will make: in its people. So, we would expect that the business would spend the necessary time and effort researching and choosing the best mix of investments for the employee population with the best promise of return on that investment, and then set appropriate measures for validating the return.
One approach to follow is the RESCUED system:
• Review the demographics and overall people data so you are using data to help make informed decisions.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the current program, especially employees' usage of aspects of the value exchange, and examine the data within core demographics, job roles, tenure and location.
• Survey programs offered by peers in the same industry and in the same geographic area.
• Choose goals for recruitment, retention and employee participation as well as productivity, if appropriate. Metrics are a sound way to communicate and test impact.
• Understand the segments of the program that are developing as well as how employees would engage the various program elements (including which might be administered in-house and which might be better outsourced).
• Establish and implement a year-round internal (and external, if recruitment is a goal) communications program. The overall program and the “new language” around the exchange needs to be led by senior leadership and not viewed as an HR-only initiative.
• Determine program effectiveness, and set a schedule for program adjustments (milestones) to keep the program fresh and on point.
In the last few years, we have seen employee rewards programs expand beyond the original four or five spokes or buckets to seven or eight. This gives organizations an opportunity to highlight aspects — such as social consciousness programs and workplace flexibility that appeal to certain population segments — that might have been incorporated (and perhaps buried) within other spokes. Expanding the categories in many cases entails no additional administration, but it affords an opportunity to appeal to employees in new and different ways.
The days of set-it-and-forget-it EVPs are long past. Maximizing the return on investment for these programs today and into the future means making these programs more dynamic and helping them evolve in return-driven, effective and measurable ways.
