Attracting top candidates in an increasingly competitive talent market relies upon several variables, but one which many employers fail to measure and improve is their Employer Value Proposition (EVP). In a climate where a candidate can disregard your company after a quick Google search, employers are ignoring their EVP at their peril.
What is an EVP anyway? There are myriad definitions, but in my experience the most effective explanation is that the EVP consists of five elements; culture, benefits, compensation, career and environment. In essence the EVP answers the question ‘what’s in it for the candidate if they work here over somewhere else?’.
Research shows that employers who prioritise their brand and value proposition are a whopping 250% more likely to rate their talent acquisition efforts as ‘highly effective’, and 130% more likely to see increased employee engagement. What steps should you be taking to see the same results?
Ask your employees
It stands to reason that the best talent wants to work for the best organisations, but how do candidates decide what makes an organisation attractive? In order to begin measuring how effective your company is to prospective talent, it’s a great idea to conduct an internal survey. What attracted your top performers? What makes them stay? Is there anything missing that they’d like to see your company offer? Anonymise results so that employees feel able to be as honest as possible. Another idea is to analyse the number of employee referrals you receive. If no one recommends working for you, there’s likely to be a good reason why.
Once you have the results, act upon them. It’s easy to get complacent if your recruitment is currently going well and your top performers are happy, but what happens in 6 months or a year when you’re struggling to fill a business-critical role?
Review your reviews
Employer review sites such as Glassdoor are invaluable sources of information for prospective candidates. Scour the internet for reviews about your company from a candidate’s perspective; would you want to work there if you were a passive candidate?
Owning the conversation is a great way to turn around any negative reviews your organisation may have; 62% of job seekers trust a company more after seeing them respond to an online review. Candidates rate not knowing what it’s like to work at an organisation as their #1 obstacle – providing a healthy candidate resource pack will ensure your company has a significant advantage over competitors.
Rate your recruiter
How well is your recruiter communicating your EVP? Do they understand your culture, the ins and outs of your team’s dynamics and know what constitutes your ideal hire? One of the fastest ways to tarnish an EVP is to make bad hires – your existing team morale will suffer, retention will fall, and dissatisfied or disappointed hires will leave poor reviews for your next candidate to read.
Asking new hires for feedback on their candidate experience can be valuable, but even more illuminating is the feedback from unsuccessful candidates – they’ve nothing to lose by telling you the truth about any negatives.
Finding a recruitment partner who will accurately and professionally represent your EVP is no mean feat, and won’t be found through traditional contingency models; with 6 other employers to represent as well as you, how well do you really think a contingent recruiter will embody your values?
Solutions Driven offers a refreshing alternative. Exclusive-only recruitment means our recruiters become an extension of your team. They’ll take the time to fully understand and even suggest improvements to your EVP in order to attract the best passive candidates the market has to offer.
