Flexibility used to be a way for some companies to attract top talent when they couldn’t compete on salaries, but now it feels like companies both large and small are having to find newer and more creative ways to distinguish themselves as a place where high performers really want to work.
However, many companies aren’t doing themselves any favours in terms of defining their Employee Value Proposition. And even if they are defining it well, they are probably not making it a really visible sales tool for attracting prospective employees.
Your Employee Value Proposition is arguably more important than your Client Value Proposition and yet it doesn’t always get the same level as internal love and external promotion as the Client Value Proposition.
And a quick recap of why it’s so important to get this right…
Attracting and retaining the right talent leads to:
- Increased productivity and therefore increased profits
- Reduced staff turnover costs (approximately 2.5 a person’s salary to replace them)
- Reduced sick leave costs
- Reduced mental health leave costs
Regardless of the external market, attracting and retaining great talent should always be at the forefront of any company’s objectives.
So what should be included in your Employee Value Proposition?
Your key culture indicators
High performers want to work with other high performers, so clearly articulating your high performance culture is a must.
And remember that high performance culture includes the foundations of psychological safety and accountability.
It also includes an outcomes-based approach to achieving goals.
High performers hate being judged on “looking busy”. They love to have clarity on overall goals and then let their results speak for themselves.
Your hybrid policy
Be clear on this – just saying you’re “flexible” is highly ambiguous and will cost of lot of energy credits for everyone involved if it’s not clearly spelled out.
One person might take “flexible” to mean that you never have to set foot in an office, while the company line is in fact 3 days in the office.
What are the exact conditions where your company has decided that people can work from home / anywhere? Is there scope for exceptions?
Professional development
High performers want to access to the latest information on how to achieve more with less effort, and any other training and coaching on how to advance their effectiveness to enhance their career.
This obviously includes ways to increase their technical skills, but that shouldn’t be the whole offering of professional development.
Many people also add in here what they call “soft skills”. We call these “effectiveness skills”. Quite frankly, there is nothing soft about these skills. In fact, these are probably the harder skills to learn as there is increasingly more science behind these skills. This includes areas such as (but definitely not limited to):
- Outcomes-based leadership skills
- Influencing skills – neuroscience is key here
- The neuroscience of optimal performance without burnout – people are tired of being tired so having access to coaching to enable people to do their best work without using any unnecessary cognitive energy is fast becoming a key part of a company’s employee value proposition.
- How to use neuroscience to develop a high performance mindset and avoid mental health problems.
Career Progression
Career progression can include a number of factors around how people can progress their careers in the future. It might include the ability to move up the ranks, or between divisions, leadership opportunities, or opportunities to work in different offices.
Other perks
Gym memberships, yoga classes, mental health days, personal development allowances – whatever you offer – spell it out.
Of course if these “other perks” are the highlights of what you are offering, these are definitely not enough.
“Other perks” is last on this list for a reason!
Many companies are doing so many great things, but they haven’t clearly articulated these great things into an Employee Value Proposition.
So firstly define it, and then promote it!
If you would like further help with developing your Employee Value Proposition to attract and retain the best people for your business, book your performance call with us now.
