For a long time, organisations have taken an approach to defining their employee value proposition (EVP) that is arguably misguided. Traditional EVP thinking has several major flaws that limit its effectiveness in attracting, retaining, and engaging talented employees. As an HR leader, it’s time to radically rethink how you conceptualise and implement the EVP.

The Problems with Traditional EVP Thinking

1. One-sided perspective: EVP has been shaped predominantly from the employer’s perspective on what they want to or can provide to employees, rather than truly understanding what employees value. And it’s often focused on people who are currently not part of the organisation, and have little knowledge or experience with the organisation.

2. Limited notion of value: The types of value that get considered for the EVP are often limited and take cues from external sources rather than employees themselves. Value has many dimensions beyond just compensation and benefits.

3. Passive exchange: EVP takes a narrow, one-way view of value as what an employee receives from the organisation. But there are employees don’t just want to gain or claim value, they want to create and contribute value too.

4. Assumption of organisational control: Traditional EVP thinking assumes the organisation holds all the power and responsibility for determining and delivering what is valuable to any employee.

A New, Employee-Centric Approach

To develop an authentic, motivating EVP, you can reorient your mindset with a few foundational principles, and applying the Value Exchange methods:

Start with current employees

The EVP should first and foremost resonate with current employees who choose to stay with the organisation. Systematically understand what they individually value. For desired new hire profiles, ask them directly rather than relying on generalised advice – that often comes from external advisors. The systematic approach can be taken with each individual who wishes to articulate what they value by doing the Value Exchange Ledger Activity we created.**

Literacy with a broader vocabulary of value

Collectively develop an expanded shared literacy of all potential value elements that could matter, regardless of source. Value is in the eye of the beholder, and with a new literacy, employee value propositions might be defined from a truly employee perspective of what is valuable. Don’t constrain value sought to only what the organisation can provide – this can have the effect of being the employer’s (offered) value proposition. A vocabulary of value elements can be acquired by playing with and exploring the Value Exchange Cards created to do the Value Exchange Ledger Activity.

Appreciate the multiple dimensions of value activity

Recognise that employees aren’t just receivers of value from the organisation. They innately want to co-create value by contributing and generating value for others. An appreciation of an EVP should consider all dimensions of value-related activity: what is contributed, what might be claimed, and what might be created for self or others. Conversations that take this multi-dimensional view can nudge problematic attitudes away from entitlement. The multiple dimensions of value activity can be explored in doing the Value Exchange Ledger Activity which has aspects of Value IN and Value OUT.

Shared responsibility for value activity

It’s perfectly reasonable that an organisation might only universally offer a limited set of value elements, given financial, ideological and functional constraints. It’s also perfectly reasonable that the value an employee wants, might need to be addressed by the employee themself outside the current employment situation. A conversation arising from the specifics of the Value Exchange Ledger and Value Creation Management methods can explore and assign appropriate responsibility for the value activities.

Individual value propositions

Employee value proposition should not be thought of as a generic, global offering within the organisation. Through local conversations, empowered team leaders can understand, negotiate and support individualised value propositions that maximise satisfaction and retention of each employee’s unique needs and talents. An employee’s individual value proposition can be visualised and articulated with their Value Exchange Ledger.

Ways Questo can help

To assist organisations in making this transformative shift, Questo offers targeted solutions that build value literacy and embed new processes.
• Value at Work Workshop provides teams with immersive training on two key methods – the Value Exchange Ledger and Value Creation Management – to develop a personal and shared literacy in value elements and understanding how to activate powerful value exchanges.
• Teach-the-Coach programme equips team leaders to have individualised value conversations at any point in the employee life-cycle using the Value Exchange Ledger method. By having authentic dialogues about what employees value contributing, claiming and creating, team leaders can co-create personalised value propositions tailored for each team member.

With Questo’s guidance, organisations have a powerful tool to deploy in overhauling their EVP approach from the ground up to be more employee-centric, data-driven and dynamic in today’s modern workplace.

Implementing a more comprehensive, employee-centric approach to defining value will lead to better employee engagement, stronger employment branding, and a more agile workforce that maximises the value they create for your organisation. Now is the time to evolve thinking on the EVP for the modern workplace.

** IMPORTANT: The value elements should NOT be used in an organisational survey (or such generalised data gathering approaches) as their meaning ONLY becomes apparent when each person expands on the particulars of any value element according to a specified context and point in time.

Author

Helen Palmer is Founder and Team Development Facilitator at Questo. She is also the creator of the Value Exchange methods. With insatiable curiosity, she helps teams embrace new possibilities. Her talent for reframing challenges sparks creative solutions. Helen pairs an exploratory approach with discipline, guiding people through ambiguity to action. Encouraging fun and perseverance, she’s a catalyst for learning and growth.