Why EVP Is Important in Recruitment?

January 30, 2020

“The best workers do the best and the most work. But many companies do an awful job of finding and keeping them.”
Scott Keller and Mary Meaney (McKinsey)

If you are working as a tech recruiter in a large tech company or a startup, you are or will come across the question ‘How to attract and retain top tech candidates?’ Employment rates are high in every industry but when we talk about tech, power lies directly in the hands of the candidates. Software developers or programmers are no longer looking for companies but it’s the recruiters who are looking for quality candidates. Candidates are in a position to pick ‘where’ and with ‘whom’ to work. This puts immense pressure on recruiters and recruitment marketers to position their brands in a customer-centric and employee-friendly light.

One of the best ways to attract quality candidates is through leveraging a strong employee value proposition (EVP).

In the last few years recruitment has become identical with marketing. The way marketers work to retain and attract customers, recruiters appeal to targeted candidates with the use of employee value proposition, to make your company as their choice of employer. You can’t play much with job descriptions. The way you write a job description of a software developer will be similar to the competitor companies. EVP is one such area that allows you to be creative. Modern recruitment marketers must work in a way that transfers the buoyant and enthusiastic ambiance of your organization to potential candidates. All these attributes, especially the attributes which add value for your employees and potential employees form EVP for an organization.

EVP consists of all the monetary benefits you are offering to a potential candidate, educational & learning opportunities, vacation & benefits packages, company culture, and other benefits. EVP of a company depends on its size, type, and industry. EVP of a growing startup will be completely different from an established company. If you are working in a startup, which is set to make an impact on the industry, you can offer the benefits of learning from top experts that will help the employees to grow more and will ultimately increase their social circle.

Industry leaders can offer different assets to form strong EVP. The Employee value proposition depends on the role as well. If you are hiring for a senior backend engineer, your potential employee will be more interested in stability and benefits over learning opportunities like a junior engineer, who has just started his professional career.

Why is it Necessary?

Just like any other recruiter, you must be thinking ‘Why EVP is important when I can attract candidates with a good JD?’ You might not care about forming strong EVP but your future employees do. The EVP of a company not only position your brand in the industry but also works as a voice which speaks to your future employees about how their journey will be if they join XYZ organization. It gives them the idea about working in an ABC team, about their future team members, about projects they will be working on and other day-to-day activities.

EVP will not only help in the retention of a skilled employee but also helps your future employee to differentiate between your company and other companies in the industry.

Candidates think about;

• Why should I join the XYZ company?

• What will be the office ambiance?

• What are some special/unique benefits?

Surprisingly, you will be answering all these questions but through your EVP. If you don’t provide essential information to your potential candidates, you might lose a quality employee from entering into your company’s talent funnel.

How to Create a strong EVP?

Simple yet informative EVP considers everything. To create a well-positioned EVP work on below-given points;

Compensation: Includes salary & other benefits. Make this part more detailed as Stack Overflow survey says most of the developers look for compensation range in the very fast email.

Team: Rather than simply giving details about management & departments. Give a piece of crisp and impersonal information about individual team members which will entice candidates to work with them.

Growth: Write a piece of information on ‘How your company will be helpful in the growth of candidates’? Mention resources and mentorship & training programs.

Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction is much more important than a company name and image. Tell the candidates about how your company helps employees in maintaining family-work balance. Includes stories of ‘happy employees.’ Allude to the instances/projects which satisfied your employees’ hunger for challenges.