Why Do Your Employees Prefer to Work with You?

Just as customers have expectations of a company's brand, an employee has expectations of a company's brand. Just as the Customer Value Proposition (CVP) describes the value of a company's products or services to a consumer, the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) describes the value to an employee of what they receive from the organization in return for their work - tangible, intangible and reputational.

When we work with organizations on employee engagement, we often conduct what we call "Engagement Summits". At these summits, we review the results of the company's employee engagement surveys, discuss suggestions for improvement and develop action plans. One of the key components of what we do at these summits is to discuss the organization's Employee Value Proposition-EVP. We start by asking organizational leaders, "Why would someone choose to work with you?". Most leaders answer, "We pay higher salaries than competitors in the market", "We have a well-known and respected name", "We receive the employer of choice award every year" or "We have a lot of open positions, that's why". Some managers look at each other, laugh a little uncomfortably and say, "Well, to tell you the truth, we don't know that". In both cases, few managers are able to define what the Employee Value Propositions are, which are the foundations of employee engagement.

To give you an example, I would like to talk about a study that our business partner Decisionwise conducted with two companies in the US before the pandemic. I am sure this example will be of interest to you. The first of these companies, which took steps by analyzing their EVPs well, was a fast food chain with branches in 400 locations, and the other was a luxury restaurant chain with 150 branches. Decisionwise's surveys and focus groups in this study showed that the biggest thing that fast food workers saw as a value was the company's flexible work schedule.

This allowed them to fulfill their family, school and other social obligations.Theyalsosaw the ability to relate and socialize with co-workers while doing their jobs, and a 50% discount on lunch once a week (a benefit that cost about 78 cents per employee per week) as other important values. Upscale restaurant employees, on the other hand, were interested in completely different factors, such as opportunities for growth, development and advancement; the trust of their managers; community support; and satisfied customers.

Once the leaders at the fast food chain understood their EVP (Employee Value Proposition), they started a project, taking into account that most of their employees were young and mobile savvy. To facilitate scheduling of working hours, they launched a scheduling application (App) that their employees could access from home on their phones. In addition, they implemented a recruitment referral program that pays employees $100 per accurate recruitment referral. Thus, they solved the recruitment problem by bringing together their network of friends and family in the same place. They expanded their discounted meal program to one meal for every 4-hour shift. This has significantly increased employee engagement and retention rates.

On the other hand, the luxury restaurant chain also looked at its EVP and found that the value proposition differed according to job descriptions - for example, they found that the majority of waiters, who make up a significant portion of the working population, fell into two categories: Students and single parents. For this group, it was extremely important to have enough working hours to pay the bills, but also to have a flexible work schedule.

Restaurant chain management recognized this and responded to this need. Restaurant managers and assistant managers outside this group valued career development, training and advancement opportunities. For this latter group, the company has implemented a comprehensive executive training program that has significantly reduced turnover.