Employer branding is one of the core facets of an intelligent and well-designed talent management system. In the tight and competitive war for attracting qualified talent, especially post COVID-19, recruiters are realising the importance of delivering a strong candidate experience that resonates with most people.
While employer branding is surely being spoken of a lot in reference to how applicants perceive a brand before even considering applying for a job, the concept of employee value proposition (EVP) is often conflated with it. The two terms are often used interchangeably, making it difficult to draw a clear distinction between the two.
Employer Branding & Employee Value Proposition: What’s the Difference?
Let’s look into what each of these concepts stands for individually and the differences between them.
Employer Branding:
How a company projects itself in terms of values and performance – both to the current employees working there and the potential candidates outside the organisation – constitutes its perception. In essence, it is the brand image that is projected outside as ‘a place to work’.
The Employer Brand speaks about the company’s mission and vision as well as highlights the reasons that make it a favourable employment destination worth applying to and changing jobs for. It is a set of differentiating factors that are offered by a brand to its employees which give it a unique persona. A discrete set of actions taken on an ongoing basis that help spread a positive word about the employer, leads to building up of the employer brand over a period of time.
The Employer Brand speaks about the company’s mission and vision as well as highlights the reasons that make it a favourable employment destination worth applying to and changing jobs for.
For an organisation to nurture a successful employer brand, it is important that the world sees it and feels its reverberating presence. It is a phenomenon that becomes actualised as the organisation crafts and disseminates content on social media, their official website, or online forums where the message gets conveyed. A powerful employer brand will speak for itself through positive word-of-mouth reviews coming from the current employees and a thorough content strategy on their own social media pages.
This type of content not only pumps life into an organisation’s brand but also becomes the first touchpoint for qualified candidates in the process of applying for jobs.
Employee Value Proposition (EVP):
An Employee Value Proposition (EVP) encompasses all of the ways through which an organisation provides value to its current and future employees. Everything from fully functional office space to a chance to make impactful decisions and free lunches to providing meaningful recognition for one’s work, a company’s employee value proposition is a sum total of all the offerings that they have to give to their employees.
An Employee Value Proposition (EVP) encompasses all of the ways through which an organisation provides value to its current and future employees.
Defining a clear EVP sets an organisation on the path to discovering the best fit for open positions, considering the fact that the top talent automatically finds themselves gravitating towards a brand that has put serious efforts into developing a well-rounded EVP. However, every EVP is not attractive to the candidates.
If it has to appeal to the target hiring demographics, an EVP should provide genuine value and come up with ways to propel them in the right direction. Ideally, an EVP should answer the question – “Why should the right talent choose to work with us?” Half the battle is won when the organisation can come up with a valid answer for this.
EVP and Employer Branding: What’s the Difference?
EVP and employer branding have been a point of discussion in recent times because of the false perception that the two terms are different. The truth is that EVP and employer branding are phenomena that complement each other. Even though the concepts are distinct, they are closely related since both speak of an organisation as a favourable place of employment.
If employer branding is a set of persuasive reasons why the brand is ‘a great place to work with’, EVP is a set of concrete steps that the company has taken to make the above a reality.
Simply put, employer branding is a promise, which gets delivered through EVP that acts as an objective accounting of the strengths and opportunities of the organisation.
A company’s EVP is what it’s popular for. This is why it’s important to analyse it in order to be able to define the strengths and weaknesses and then use the same to build a strong employer brand accordingly.
As per the Randstad Employer Brand Research 2019, Amazon India came out to be the most ‘attractive employer brand’. Some of the reasons that contributed to this were their EVP such as the utilisation of the latest technologies, focus on the financial health of its employees, and a strong reputation. Amazon India’s strong EVP conferred upon them a solid brand image that makes them an attractive employer of choice.
EVP defines the brand’s identity through the perception of the employees working there, whereas employer brand is a series of steps taken to channel this identity to attract top talent.
EVP defines the brand’s identity through the perception of the employees working there, whereas employer brand is a series of steps taken to channel this identity to attract top talent. Click To TweetIn order to develop a strong employer branding strategy, it makes sense to conduct thorough research on its EVP by analysing the following factors:
- Salary and compensation,
- Corporate education,
- Workplace organisation,
- Other office perks, etc.
It is all about highlighting the real benefits that can be used later to market one’s employer brand.
To Sum Up:
EVP is how a company wants to be perceived as an employer which can be materialised by analysing current offerings. Employer branding strategy is how the organisation uses this data analysis in a creative way to attract talent.
And now it’s your turn! What is your opinion on the two talked-about HR phenomenon? Leave us a comment or get in touch with us – we would love to hear from you!
