EVP vs. Employer Brand: What’s the difference?

What is an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and how can it influence your Employer Brand?

Firstly, it helps to understand the difference between the two concepts. They are related, but whilst you are the architect of your EVP, an employer brand is more about your reputation and how others perceive you as an employer.

Let’s get into the detail.

What is an employer brand?

A company’s employer brand is what people think of your company as an employer. It’s influenced by the opinions of current and past employees, unsuccessful candidates, customers and partners. A strong employer brand – a reputation as a great place to work – can help attract and retain talent, cut recruitment costs and time to hire. 

If you are a company everyone wants to work for, top talent will be trying to get in front of you.

‘Employer branding’ is a long-term plan for how a company markets itself to potential job candidates – the messages it creates to stand out and appeal to potential employees with the skills it needs. Stronger employer branding is key to staying on top in the ‘war for talent’.

Employer branding harnesses the experience of working for the company and communicates the benefits through every touchpoint with candidates and employees – from your recruitment process through the induction and beyond.

What factors impact an employer brand?

It’s more than just the salary – even if you offer the best salaries in the market, relying on this alone won’t build that employer brand. 

People want to work at places where they know they will be valued, where they have good career prospects, where people are treated equally and fairly, where they can achieve a good lifestyle balance as well as where they are well rewarded.

And different types of employees place greater or lesser importance on those factors. Training may be key for entry level employees, whereas parent friendly practices and policies might appeal to another segment. Giving back and social value are often well regarded, as is openness and shared values.

Rewards, benefits, values, policies and practices are part of the Employee Value Proposition – or the ‘product’ that the employer brand is communicating. The EVP is the starting point when developing the employer brand.

What is an EVP?

In basic terms the EVP is what you get back in return for your work. It’s what the company promises, and what it expects from you. 

And while the EVP exists to facilitate good hires, it shouldn’t be thought of as purely an internal strategy. It’s part of the company’s overall advertising and encompasses both marketing and recruitment. To attract and retain good talent, your EVP needs to be intrinsically linked with the business’s focus and values.

Gartner suggests that an EVP encompasses five attributes: 
•    the quality of the workforce and the company as a community
•    the opportunities for career growth as well as the overall company outlook
•    the company’s commitments to quality and social responsibility (how the company can positively impact the world)
•    quality of work-life balance
•    Rewards, such as salary, bonuses and benefits, like paid holiday.

How to develop an EVP

In order to develop a good EVP that will attract the right calibre of people, you need to look at the other employers within your sector and make sure your ‘product’ – EVP is competitive. Are you paying market rate? Does your company have a solid diversity and inclusion strategy? How are you monitoring performance? What does a career path look like for your employees? 

It’s important to make development of your EVP an inclusive and collaborative process. Ask your employees what their experiences are, what they want and how you can improve.

What do they like about working for your company? What would they change? Do they feel connected to your mission?

Employee advocacy

By creating a compelling EVP, you are supporting development of your employer brand.

If employees love working for you, their experiences will lend veracity to the culture you’re advertising to potential recruits. And often, they will more than likely be happy to jump on board and support your branding efforts, enabling you to use real employee experience to bring the employer brand to life. 

Authentic stories, told by your people, will elevate the employer brand strategy and help communicate what a day in the life of an average employee is like.

In other words, hiring the right people for the job and the culture is a virtuous cycle – the more a company does it, the easier it becomes.
 

To read more about why you need a great EVP to attract top talent download our EVP whitepaper.

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