What is an EVP?

As a recruiter, it’s easy to always think about the recruiting process from the company's perspective. But what about the candidates’ perspective? What is it that actually convinces them to apply to your company? In this article, we’ll explain what an EVP is and how it can be the deciding factor in a candidates’ decision making process.

What is an EVP?

EVP stands for Employee Value Proposition (EVP). The EVP is the sum of all benefits that make your company attractive as an employer for a specific target group and differentiate you from your competitors.

These benefits should also be authentic, meaning they are accessible and can benefit the average employee on a normal work day (for example, free coffee and tea on a daily basis).

The EVP is an important part of your employer branding strategy. The EVP is the answer to the questions "What do our employees get out of working for us?" or "What do we offer our employees?"

The EVP is made up of five main components:

1. Compensation

2. Culture

3. Job tasks

4. Career opportunities

5. Other benefits

Where should I advertise my EVP?

A short summary of the EVP should be found in every job advertisement. The benefits listed should be in line with the target group for that specific job ad.

Screenshot: Example of Talention's EVP on our job ads

It should also be a focus point on your career page. On your career page, the benefits listed should be more general so that they are applicable to multiple target groups.

Screenshot: Example of Talention's EVP on our career page

Additionally, your EVP should be highlighted at as many contact points as possible that a candidate has with your employer brand.

EVP and candidate personas

In order to create your EVP, you need to first understand your target candidate persona. Candidate personas are ideal candidate profiles for a particular job. They are a fictional, yet realistic description of the optimal candidate. For more specifics on candidate personas, check out our article here.

Creating a candidate personas will help you to create attractive job advertisements and to plan how to best describe your EVP. First, you need to ask questions like:

Which target groups do you look for the most?

Which positions would you like to fill in the future?

Which target group would you like to concentrate on with your employer brand?

Once you’ve decided on a candidate persona, you can get more specific with your questions:

In your opinion, what are the reasons why your ideal candidate should work for you?

Which central benefits can be focused on for your employer brand?

EVP examples

In regards to the five components listed above, here are a few examples of the EVP that may apply to your company:

Professional development opportunities

External training and further education

Additional company benefits (e.g. company pension scheme)

Special payments (e.g. Christmas bonus / holiday bonus)

Company child care / day care center

Company gym or subsidized fitness offers

Leisure activities / Company sports

Performance-related pay / bonuses

In general, it’s important to consider what benefits your company offers that will help you to stand out from competitors and help you to win over your target groups.

Screenshot: Example of an EVP from Mister Spex on their career page

At Talention, we offer workshops on EVP management as an element of our customer success process. In such a workshop, we would help you to determine what benefits are unique to your company and how you can implement them into your employer branding strategy.

Would you like to learn more about EVP management? We will gladly show you further best practice examples and how you can implement employer branding strategies with the Talention software. You can request a demo here and someone will get in touch with you shortly. Request a demo now.