Put purpose before people

You could be forgiven for thinking that an EVP is all about the people: do they feel valued, connected, rewarded and fulfilled? Certainly, in the hype of the Great Resignation, the buzz around ‘Quiet Quitters’ and the trend for more people post pandemic to find purpose and meaning in their work (preferably from home for part of the week), we could all be forgiven for thinking the scales have tipped in favour of the employee.

However, to view your EVP purely as a vehicle for employee attraction and retention, would be to view only the tip of an iceberg. It’s the part beneath you need to be concerned with. In our experience, a clear, effective, deeply embedded EVP is the gateway to improved business performance – in fact, it is often the trigger. And that’s because, maybe controversially, it should start with purpose and end with people. You then have a vehicle that drives business performance AND employee retention.

The idea that happy employees equal satisfied customers and higher profits was enshrined in the thinking behind the balanced scorecard by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in the early 1990s. The theory still holds, and the EVP brings that theory to life through a different, complimentary lens.

Any EVP model will tell you that employees need to believe in the organisation’s purpose and understand how they contribute to that. We would argue that the second half of that statement is at least as important (and perhaps harder for an organisation to achieve) as the first: an employee who cannot see how their actions contribute to the overall purpose and strategy is adrift, rudderless. In the day-to-day work of an employee this is what matters the most. It is hard to be engaged and fulfilled in your work if you cannot see how your actions have any impact, or you cannot fulfil your purpose because the culture and structure of your organisation gets in your way.

Fortunately, this employee desire for purpose is fully congruous with a successful organisation’s need for purpose. A clear purpose gives a clear direction and when understood, articulated and embedded throughout the organisation, this gives a competitive edge and provides a stable platform for growth. To embed that clear purpose throughout the organisation, you need to have meaningful individual objectives that link back up. You also need to ensure that your culture, structure, processes etc (i.e. your operating model) help, not hinder, the delivery of your purpose. You’ll know when your operating model is getting in the way because the “noise” will take over, manifesting in multiple conflicting initiatives, confused and unwieldy work practices, poor decision making and ultimately frustrated, unfulfilled staff and dissatisfied customers.

Having a clear purpose is therefore just the tip of the EVP iceberg. Below the water, you need to be ensuring your organisational purpose becomes a lived experience for everyone so that it drives the right decisions, actions and behaviour from the board room to the frontline.

With your purpose clear, you can then proceed to evaluate the other three areas of your EVP. Do you offer competitive terms and conditions, is there a strong sense of culture and community, and are there plenty of opportunities for growth and development?

The Four Components of an Employee Value Proposition

In summary

We’ve come full circle, starting with purpose and ending with personal growth and development, acknowledging that there is a natural and mutually beneficial relationship between purpose and people, driving organisational and personal growth.

If you are about to embark on an EVP revamp, first consider your purpose. Does it thread through the organisation like a stick of rock, aligning the actions of those on the frontline to those on the Board?

If not, you know where we are…

For more on how to define and embed your purpose from statement to intent through to priorities and outcomes, you might find an earlier article helpful.

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