It’s often said that defining a company’s culture or an employee value proposition is like nailing jelly to a wall.
However, among the many things the pandemic has affected and caused us to focus on is how to lead, manage and create engagement in an environment where work is increasingly conducted from outside the office.
Coming up with a culture that will hold us all – despite where we work – is the accelerated challenge that leaders and HR professionals now face.
The commercial power of values – carefully designed, articulated, embedded and lived – is indisputable. A study based on more than 1,000 firms in the Great Places to Work database revealed a strong positive correlation between corporate financial performance and the extent to which employees believed their company’s espoused values were practiced.
Getting it right is the hard part. Here are 3 tips to help you get there:
Can you reduce your EVP or culture down to 3 words? If you walked around the office today – would your employees be able to articulate the essential essence of what your culture or employer brand stands for?
It is vital that you hone your culture into an easily accessible sound bite. Keep it simple and succinct.
One of the best examples of this approach is from the early Vodafone days, where the EVP was stated as Red, Rock Solid and Restless (see here for more info). This renowned brand statement was integrated, clearly defined and importantly, remembered.
View your EVP as the one central organising principle in your business. Link everything back to it; your reward and recognition schemes, performance management and measurement, customer experience. Rather than reinvent the wheel and layer system upon system – make your EVP your guiding north star.
Given an EVP is an internal proposition - when creating or adapting EVP’s we are often held captive by established organisation norms and ways of thinking and behaving. Opening up your EVP for outside scrutiny and feedback can help you align to the market and build an EVP that works.
Copyright 2022 Robin Elliott
For further assistance on nailing your EVP contact ElliottHR today.