What is EVP? The "Voice of Reason"

Developing an Employee Value Proposition: A Six-Part Framework What do I get? Your EVP is more than transactional Developing an employee value proposition (EVP) means understanding what makes your organisation attractive as an employer, and finding a distinctive way to communicate it. But how do you build an EVP that goes beyond a generic list of benefits, values and promises? I've developed an employee value proposition framework built around six questions. Together, they he

Introduction to a series on developing your EVP to produce a simple a proposition, without missing anything crucial Why do I reject complexity in Employer Value Proposition? If the proposition is complex, the audience won’t get it. If the evidence and framework behind the proposition are complex, your stakeholders won’t understand it. If the tools for, and expressions of, the proposition are complex, they won’t get used. Simple is good because simple is memorable, understand

The biggest cost of working from home might be the conversations you never have. Barclays want to move everyone from a minimum of two days in the office to four. Their employees aren’t thrilled. We all know what you gain from working from home. Time. No commute expenses. Greater freedom to blend work and life. But what do you lose? A lot of it comes down to human connection. For some things, there isn't a substitute for being in the same room as someone else. I know this from

A strong employer brand does more than tell people what they will get. It tells them something about who they will be, and that’s an important distinction. Most employer propositions still concentrate heavily on the rational exchange: pay, benefits, flexibility, development, progression, meaningful work. All of those matter. They help someone decide whether an opportunity is worth considering. But brands become more powerful when they move beyond: “What will I get from workin

“I want to work for them because working there says something I like about me.” That, to me, is what an employer brand should be aiming to achieve. Much less about selling a company harder, and the “what-you-get”s. Much more helping the right people recognise themselves in it and the “what-you-feel”s. The best consumer brands have always understood this. We don’t only choose products because of what they do. We choose them because of what they represent, and because being ass

Employee surveys should give employers a clear understanding of what matters most to their people. Often, they do the opposite. You may well be left with a nagging feeling that the most useful insights remain hidden somewhere in the data. Sometimes, the analysis produces so many scores, comparisons, charts and demographic breakdowns that it becomes difficult to see what really matters. And now there is another challenge. AI can generate a slick-looking survey report in second

IF you're worried that defining your EVP needs to be a long and expensive process that requires lots of time from lots of people - then there is another way. It's an Agile EVP, and it comes, faster and cheaper, but because it's based on what's already agreed, it's just as robust. Interested? Drop me a line!

I attended EB Uncut this week, the brilliant Unconference organised by EB Space (i.e. largely by the awesome Claire de Souza). There was a great range of topics to discuss, and some remarkable diversions from script, leading us all to consider our own mortality. But, you know, in a good way. Naturally, AI was a sub topic. In the in-house branding and agency roles that everyone in the room was from, the possible short-cuts and benefits that AI affords us cannot be ignored. AI

Reviewing employers has been outsourced to AI A lot of my work involves looking at employer brands. How they show up. What they say. What candidates might reasonably believe about them. That used to be fairly manual. Careers sites, LinkedIn, employee stories, review sites, job ads, annual reports, leadership interviews, bits of corporate comms that accidentally say quite a lot about what it is like to work there. It could be tedious at times, but it kept a roof over my head.

That is to say, that how it gets to the outputs you desire is unknown. What it also means is that it doesn’t always do the same thing in the same way. That’s by design. It’s deciding on a case-by-case basis that this – the prompt – probably means this, and I can probably interpret this – the source/fodder – like that. That means that, with the exact same prompt and source/fodder, it might go about the task in a different way, and you might then get a different emphasis. A lot

AI tools are shaping how candidates understand employers, often from thin data and category language. EVP specificity matters more than ever. What you will find in this piece: a first-hand account of how AI tools summarise employers, why they tend to produce the same flattering, category-generic portrait regardless of the actual source material, and what that means if your employer brand relies on being distinctively you. Why it matters now: candidates are increasingly resear

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year upskilling myself in data. And I’ve really enjoyed being able to apply new skills. And it’s given me new perspectives too. Slow Down In terms of a biggest single learning point, I’d say it has been to slow down. So, when looking at data that means: Understand the data, what it contains and what it doesn’t. Do you understand all that is in there? Have you decided what you are doing with missing or erroneous data? Have you got a way t

A problem with Traditional EVPs Your EVP should be what sets you apart from your competitors. It’s the reality of what you are, placed in terms that your audience will respond to, expressed in a way that your competitors are not. It needs to be pretty bold. However… EVPs often fail to deliver. Not due to a lack of effort or engagement, but because the process takes you down a path of insight/scrutinise/launch. That scrutiny in traditional EVP - an “all-up testing” approach -

For a lot of my working career, speed has been the priority. There’s been a need to react, to deliver, to make sure this lands in Q2, to make sure the invoice is sent this month. All of those remain valid priorities. But when everything you do must be done at pace, it drives a certain set of behaviours. The measure – how quick the work is completed – becomes a target. Once the target is set, that’s the priority. Quality, completeness of considerations, stretching beyond the s

Too often, EVP is mistaken for a branding exercise — a catchy phrase or a benefits list. But when done right, it’s far more powerful: a strategic tool that helps solve people problems before they become business problems. Whether you’re an instinctive advocate or a sceptic, it’s time to reframe EVP as the engine of organisational performance. Finding the Value For some, an Employer Value Proposition, their EVP, is a very natural concept. It’s instinctively what they would do

When careers are longer, progression is less linear, and certainty is increasingly elusive, aspiration isn’t a luxury in your EVP, it’s a...

Piecing it together, all over the world Global employer brands often aim for consistency—but in a world of cultural nuance, shifting...

Enyclopedia Data is everywhere. Anyone can gather insights. Knowledge has been democratised. And let me be clear, all of those go into...

Agile EVP process I found the EB Space EB Uncut Unconference really refreshing and inspiring. There was a lot of honesty in the room, and...

Does a change in langue equal less ambition? Language evolves. Take the word “terrific”. It’s meaning has changed from “inspiring...