EVPs simply aren’t meant to be boring. Because…uninspiring much? 🥱
Obviously, we’re all about taking a rainbow approach here – which is why we ran a webinar on the topic. We rounded up some of the industry’s most creative, clever and colourful folk and got allll the tips on avoiding vanilla EVPs.
Check out the legendary lineup of talent (we know) 👇🏼
Quila Cervelli – Sportsbet’s Employer Branding & DE&I Manager
Will Innes – General Manager: Employer Brand & Experience Practice, TQ Solutions
Christine Shaw – Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant, Barwon Health
Ella Cullen – Employer Brand Leader, Immutable
Want to know what the EVP experts are up to, how you can make your own EVP ‘pop’ (even when you’re a lone ranger) and how to measure your success?
It’s right here 👇🏼🌈
What’s working (and what’s not)?
Ella and her team have been smashing it with LinkedIn, increasing their following by 88% in the past 3 months* (wow). She puts this down to a ‘strategy of regularly updating brand awareness, employee-centric content and really showcasing the amazing people at Immutable.’
Noted.
At the same time, she’s aware that engagement overall has dropped slightly across most social media platforms (let’s face it: there’s a lot of content out there). This has prompted Ella to shift her focus to ‘become an educator…[and] let people know about Web3.’
Meanwhile, Christine is capitalising on peoples’ changing priorities post-pandemic to use Barwon Health’s EVP to attract staff.
‘We’ve noticed a huge growth in regional Victoria, so…we’ve been trying to focus on that attraction to moving to the region and the career opportunities…available at Barwon Health,’ she says.
No doubt, it’s a tough time to be in healthcare – but our ‘glass is half full’ Christine just concentrates on turning those negatives into positives.
‘This is our big time in the healthcare sector to showcase how amazing it is,’ she says enthusiastically. ‘There’s never been a focus on [the industry] like there is now, so we really have to take advantage of that.’
*As at the webinar (July, 2022)
Rolling out your EVP (even when you don’t have help)
All our webinar speakers use a mix of in-house and agency resources, depending on campaigns, timeframes and workloads.
But what about when you’re running solo and don’t have that luxury?
Will says it’s about increasing stakeholder engagement, so that other people in the business actually understand your end goal.
‘As soon as you put it in their language and talk about what you’re trying to achieve – the outcomes, the experience you want to create – we have these ‘I’m sure we could do more to help’ [responses],’ he tells us. ‘It’s that importance of taking people on the journey and educating [which] goes a long way to supporting your business case.’
Quila’s top tip? Get a Canva subscription.
‘Canva makes everyone look like a hero,’ she says. ‘I literally film things on my phone or take photos and then just pop it up there – maybe add some filter, some font, some text and voila. That’s my trade secret!’
Where we’re heading and what we need to change
So after getting through the past 3 years, where to from here? And how should EVPs change to fit into the new normal?
Will says it’s all about putting humans first.
‘EVPs need to give people the answers for much more personal, human things,’ he believes. ‘Things like ‘Am I going to be respected?’, ‘How are you going to look after me when the kids are sick?’ or ‘How’s it going to feel to interact with leaders and managers?
‘It’s [using] that human lens to pivot how we understand EVP, how we do the messaging and how we tell the stories.’
Meanwhile, Christine’s quest for healthcare heroes will centre on personalisation.
‘We really segment the market and target what it is that particular area needs,’ she explains. ‘We work and do surveys to get the right wording [that’s] going to attract people.’
Her employer branding advice?
‘Try and have consistent branding because people will get to know your brand and it will stand out as you go,’ she states. ‘[But] that brand takes a long time to build – so don’t change things really quickly.
‘It’s important to think about it as a long-term strategy, not a quick fix.’
Measuring success
Colourful EVP or not, you gotta know which tactics are bearing fruit. And Ella reckons data is truly king (queen) here.
‘Data measurement is key…[and] I really like to see those metrics,’ she says firmly. ‘I think that’s the biggest case for building budget and also building out key measurements of success for employer brand.
‘It’s being able to show a return on investment…so execs can see it in layman’s terms. [Things like] the quality of the hire, where that hire is coming from…and really trying to understand where that brand has been in the market.’
And Will chimes in with a saucy analogy we love.
‘Ultimately, EVPs and every organisation has a really core DNA and a special sauce,’ he tells us. ‘I think it’s the job of the research and strategy to really define that secret sauce. What is the blend of how people experience it, the culture, the way you offer pathways – whatever it is, you’ve really got to understand that special sauce.
‘I don’t think it’s about barraging the market with everything. I think it’s being really clear on your strategy…on what it means for different user groups and then injecting things like creativity, experimentation and fun into what we do…otherwise it’s very easy to slip into [an EVP] that’s vanilla.’
That’s a flavourless sauce we’d rather leave alone, thanks.
Raring up for a rainbow EVP
Steering away from vanilla comes down to knowing your employer brand, understanding your market and being open to change. Nail those and it’ll be near impossible not to splash colour all over your EVP!
Want more of this? Find your sense of EVP energy by checking out the entire ‘How to develop an EVP that isn’t vanilla’ webinar here.
