The impact that an authentic, credible and favourable Employee Value Proposition (EVP) can have on staff retention and employee engagement is now indisputable within HR circles. According to Glassdoor, companies with employee engagement programmes achieve a 26 per cent greater year-on-year increase in annual company revenue, compared to those who do not have formal programmes. Meanwhile, in the US, the Workplace Research Foundation found that increasing employee engagement investments by ten per cent can increase profits by $2,400 per employee, per year.
While HR Directors have, for some years, put great resources into improving their organisations’ EVP – often with great success – very few create a separate, tailored and compelling Candidate Value Proposition (CVP). As more sophisticated approaches to candidate sourcing emerge, an organisations’ CVP will be the key differentiator to winning the war for talent.
Just a few short years ago, leading external recruiters and in-house resourcing teams gained a competitive edge by revolutionising candidate sourcing methods. Professionals were trained in the discipline of deep-web searching, constructing and utilising complex bullion strings to reach passive candidates who were invisible to the competition. Today, this skill is close to obsolete for leading recruiters thanks to the prevalence of tools which undertake comprehensive searches with only a couple of keywords and a tap on a screen. Such tools will even highlight those candidates most susceptible to a new role.
Allow me to make a bold statement – in less than three years’ time, all aspects of candidate identification will be fully automated by leading practitioners. However, while a more technologically level playing field may be viewed by a threat to some (the ability to identify the best passive talent in the market no longer being an advantage), the digitisation of recruitment offers an opportunity to increase the value that recruiters can provide.
The key differentiator tomorrow will be the ability to engage in a meaningful, credible and compelling way with talent. And this goes beyond creating a strong EVP; today’s HR Directors must hone and deliver an utterly compelling CVP.
Unlike traditional EVPs, CVPs recognise, understand and respond to individual target market demographics. According to Deloitte, CEOs and HR leaders now recognise that culture drives people’s behaviour, innovation, and customer service with 82 per cent of respondents to the latest Global Human Capital Trends report believing that culture is potentially a competitive advantage. However, culture is a complex concept. When you consider a multinational pharmaceutical organisation, for example, the communication methods used to attract R&D specialists in Switzerland will differ from those which may be more effective in engaging with sales professionals in London. Similarly, messages used to attract millennials and gen-z candidates should reflect the drivers and desires of younger workers. The value that organisations provide to these different demographics may be radically different so a static value proposition tailored to employees rather than candidates is ineffective at best – particularly if that passive talent is now widely acceptable. Differentiation as an employer in the technological age rests on an ability to fine-tune the art of communication.
HR Directors must recognise the game is changing and adapt in response. And while investing in candidate identification tools will enable HR Directors to keep up with the competition, to get ahead hirers must focus their resources on true added value. A single, static employer brand is no longer enough to attract and engage with dynamic and diverse audiences with increasingly high expectations. Technology offers the gift of time, allowing recruiters to get back to doing what they do best – communicating.
