Introduction

Awesome. All right, guys. Well, then it’s. Let’s not wait any longer. Let me share my screen, and then we can kick off our 30 minutes of EVP knowledge. All right, so there we go. Well, first of all, I’m super, super excited, to host today our first out of three employer branding session, over employer running series. And this is actually about all about defining your 2024 ATP. And we must say this is a bit of a passion, passion project for us because we just love sharing all of our knowledge and to empower HR and recruitment, to create an amazing employer, branding and popular companies. Also to find this perfect match with candidates. Because, guys, it is possible still in today’s world. So let’s start before we start. You can as already mentioned, you can leave your questions in a private jet or, in the comments of your, obviously theme events, because at the end of those 30 minutes, we’re going to cover two of your questions. If you have more questions or your question is not covered, then at the end of the session, you’ll be able to book a 50 minutes, free sparring session, with me to go over your questions and to maybe cover some of the, topics, that you would like to cover with me.

Who is Donja Laarhoven (your awesome speaker)?

Then a bit about me. So nice to meet all of you guys. I’m so happy, that there’s, a big group of enthusiasts in here today. So, a bit about me. My name is Donia. I’m the co-founder and CEO of The Employer and my EVP. I, we are proud, proud Air Technology Awards finalist last year and, in 22, I actually got selected for the FDA talent of the year awards, which was also a great nomination. And together with a team of nine brilliant minds, we are currently covering Europe and Australia into creating for employers. And over time we have facilitated facilitated 85 EVP programs for companies like for example, Hunkemöller, Motor Tickets, etc.

What the #%$@ is an EVP?

So before we start, important to say and mention. You cannot attract talent if there’s nothing attractive about you, about you, defined about you. And this sounds may be simple, but it’s not in today’s reality. Because what actually is an EVP? We know. And because of all the the customers that we’ve been working with, we noticed that a lot of professionals are still struggling. What is an EVP is it’s super detailed.

Well, let me make it easy for you and let’s exercise. So get this, get your, comments, comments ready because I’m just going to ask you one simple question, because also often we hear, I don’t have an EVP. What is an EVP?

Let me tell you that today is a special day, because both Booking.com and Airbnb are going to offer you the most amazing job in the world, your dream job. And just if you have to decide within a split second for who of these two companies would you choose? Would it be Booking.com or Airbnb and give me your reason in the chat please, so that I can cover a few of the answers. Booking.com or Airbnb. Right, I see comments. Airbnb because of the negative publicity about booking during corona times, but one. Or Airbnb because of their products. Love their platform. Good one. Yeah. Well of course guys, every answer is correct. There is just no right or wrong in this. But what I want you to do, what I want to make you realize, is that every company has an employer, brands and an EVP, even if you don’t know it or if you didn’t focus on it because, oh, I actually see some good ones work closely with book. And yet, even if you have an Airbnb invested, I think it’s correct. Even if you haven’t worked there, there is a sentiment about what it would be like to work for a certain company because, you know, someone that works there because you’ve read something on the news, it doesn’t matter what it is, but it is important to understand that this sentiment is being being made visible online. Right.

So what is an EVP? There’s no loan, and we actually hate 99% of the descriptions there are to be found in EVP because in short, it’s just really easy. It’s about the art of showing why talent should work, should work for you and not your competitors. And this is just this needs to be visible in just four seconds. And why four seconds is because we are all part of the swipe culture nowadays. And when, when when someone, looks at something online, you only have four seconds to convince them to read further to click through. So in just four seconds, you need to make sure that they understand why they should want to work for you. And this is what an EVP in today’s world is all about.

So when EVP is the sweet spot between, on the one hand, what your talent needs. So who is your team? And actually what is the definition of your persona? What is their purpose and does your company match with this purpose and what are the conditions that they actually require, and do you match with that? On the other hand, your employer brands or your brands? What is the positioning of your company? What do you actually want to show also as an external brand? And what is also your external value proposition? It’s really important to incorporate that. And then last but definitely not least is your internal identity. So what is your current goal to actually all about. Because you can make amazing promise promises on the outside. But if your pure culture is something different, then you will lose your talent anyways. Also, never forget to include your company strategy because you might, for example, look down on us for today’s reality. But in a year’s time, your company strategy is moving somewhere else. So you also always need to incorporate this. And the nice one that I added to the mix is pros and cons, because people always tend to focus on the pros of their company culture and company strategy. But sometimes, the magic goes into just highlighting the negative sides of your business.

And one of the most amazing examples, I think, is one of for Bushnell, they were really struggling, with hiring Bozeman’s. So what they actually did is they define their persona and their needs. So what people, their employees and their best employees loved what actually ability to work outside and to be in the open, open air all the time. The internal identity also shows that a lot of people that left the company were actually, hating the weather. And this is in the Netherlands, of course, a big issue because it rains a lot. But then within a few brilliant minds came together and actually came up with the fact that people that love the outside and go outside, even during that weather, are dog owners. So they actually made a whole positioning around it, and they actually targeted dog owners to become the next performance for this company. And this has been their most successful, campaign ever. So highlighting the negative sides of your business, or maybe something that you just cannot overcome and just make it large and big can even make, do the trick for you.

Why are EVPs so important?

So why do we need an EVP? Well it’s easy. The global talent shortages today, guys will continue to grow. So we’re looking at 3% now in 2020 of a back in 2020 and 2030. So in only seven years time it will triple. So this talent shortage will continue to grow. Then on top of that, younger generations are in demand within our current of talent markets and they are also completely focused online. So 91% of millennials are actually active on social media and 75%. So that’s three quarters of the labor market in 2025, which is only in one year and three months, will occupy 75% of the workforce. Then also 79% of jobseekers actually use social media and the online world in their job search for at least one hour. So you need to be visible where your persona and your talents is actually looking. Then also 64% of those people that use social media and the online rules will simply not apply if they don’t like what they see. So that can also be a lack of, content or EVP, because maybe your competitor is doing it better and your competitor, they did see. So the question is not. And let me be clear if you need an EVP, but how fast you can correct one. And speed is of essence here. So if you are expecting lengthy EVP programs in your company, then we and this is not your masterclass.

What are good and bad examples of an EVP?

I can tell you that because the reality of the day, based on 112th employer scandals that we performed, is that 93% of the EVP that we’ve scanned have was outdated or undefined. And 82% of the content that was actually used to support this EVP was just commercial content that they decided to also copy paste in their employer branding purposes. So some examples of what that could look like. So what you want to see, if you only have those four seconds to convince your target group, you want to have people go to emotion because they need to have a reason to click through. So in this example, you might be craving for sandwiches and ice and some food, but definitely not. So you have no idea what this company is all about, what the culture is like, and if you actually belong to the people in this company.

What good looks like. It’s an example like this. You see people, you see a vibe. There’s video available and in the tagline you immediately see that there is a part of innovation. It’s about your future. So it’s about me as a job seeker. It’s with these and it’s about design. And I immediately have an idea of an innovative future here. Another great example. But as you can immediately see in a split second, it’s trying to attract a completely different target group. But it’s a great EVP because all the problem lovers, outspoken introverts, quiet rockstars here feel supported and it might want to belong with this company. So it’s another angle, but an amazing way of just in a split second. Make it clear about what your company culture is all about. And another one I love is move the Rock from like, because it says something about movements. We all know that the activation in the sports element of this company is incorporated in this EVP, and because of the world, it immediately says an international scope. And you actually know that you are going to drive their purpose. And then you might think, okay, all these examples are big companies with big budgets. But today we are going to explain to you how you can do the same trick and make the same magic happen for your company.

Results from having a strong EVP

Because what is a strong EVP? It doesn’t only enable you to attract your. Your your ideal candidates. Of course you can attract and you can match with your ideal candidates. You will be different than your competitors and that’s really important. You can align actually with the purpose of your job seekers. And on top of that, you are able to improve the number and quality of applicants, and you can reduce your cost per high, something that your management team will be truly passionate about. And but also critical in today’s in the in the in today’s stealth markets is to retain people because a strong EVP makes people proud and gives them a sense of belonging. So it results in to your best simply staying high productivity in a lower turnover. And you really create brands and visitors that share the words and words for you and actually refer.

How do I start my EVP journey?

So then you still might think, where do I start? Well, let us help you with that. We have created a four step framework into creating of EVP that make to make it fast, fun, super important, feasible and flexible.

Number one is always start with data because your knowledge is power, and you also want to create a business case upfront to also incorporate and engage your most important stakeholders in the company to potentially in the future, invest or allocate resources into this space. So what you want to do is you want to know for 2024 what your hiring goals are and what the company’s strategy is all about next year. So if the company strategy is about growth, then you know what that would mean. If you have your turnover numbers that you also know will average how many replacement roles you will be able to cover. So you get an understanding of what is expected from you, in the recruitment space. And also some additional data might help you to just make your case. Then the second one is super essential is what is actually the definition of your ideal candidates. And this is super essential because an EVP can only match with the purpose of a person if you know who this person is. Then it’s also good to look at your current EVP, even though you don’t know whether you have an EVP. Because we hear a lot, you already have sentiments and you already have an EVP, so it’s important you just go online and see what the job seeker see, and to also analyze what the sentiment might be about your company and whether it matches with what you want to be. And then also really important is to understand how you compare with your talent. Competitors and its competitors can be something different than, for example, a product competitor. So, how you you might know already as a team where a lot of your employees are coming from or leaving too, and to just go and do some research or your competitors will help you in making your case.

Then it’s important to involve your people. And I cannot stress enough how important this is, because most IDPs are often decided by HR or recruitment teams or management teams. And if you want an employer Brennan FP to be successful and adopt it, then you need to involve your people because it’s them who make your company culture right. So the first option you can explore is to, actually have an EVP and persona workshop. And why this is my personal favorite is because you have so much interaction. So of course, a questionnaire is also a great solution to get insights for a larger audience within your company, especially if you are an enterprise. And of course, it helps you to generate more data and insights. But you have no idea how much engagement and excitement you get when when, actually organizing EVP and persona workshops, especially because you will be able to highlight the most positive things, but also to open a space for people to tell what they need, what you need to improve into, higher overhead to actually hire your amazing people in future. And during both of those elements, you need to focus, for example, within your ADP on the most important focus areas, which are culture and values, compensation and benefits, career opportunities and growth management. And never forget your management because they’re essential in today’s, in today’s employer branding and work life balance.

Then the third step is to actually, host an EVP strategy session. You need to understand where you will need to be in three years time, because it might, for example, be that you’ve been quite a manual company, but you’re going to fully automate over the coming three years, and this might impact the type of persona you needed or type of roles that you need. Or if you’re a retail company really going to move more into online webspace than, for example, you might need less retail people, but more online people. And this is just how you go in and find your strategy. And then based on those facts, it’s important to do a gap analysis on what is, happening. Or do you offer within the clearance and focus areas, and what are the outcomes of the EVP sessions, and where is the gap and what do you need to achieve or where do you need to. Yeah, close the gap. And then also to do a gap analysis of your current personas versus your future personas.

And then last but not least, the most exciting step is actually defining your MVP based on all the three first steps and a strong EVP. If you again need to make sure that your talent gets excited within those first four seconds, you need a strong tagline, a strong headline that says it all, that gives you immediately the emotion and the feeling that you want. Then below, you need to define the most important words or values that you want to show. So what is your company all about? It might be fun. It might be professional. It can be anything but what are the key words that you want to be known for? Then. Also important is your tone of voice, because some companies will be more professional. Also, based on the examples that I just showed you. There’s a completely different tone of voice within a few examples. But it needs to match with your persona again. And then all those three elements you can use to actually make new descriptions. And if you can see texts, that are all about, the best next EVP.

The 4-step EVP framework in action

So to see really off four step framework in practice, I have an example of one of our previous comp companies that we did actually performed all the different steps for, so I just went through it quickly. You see a company vibe happening here. There’s a detailed persona description about what the persona is all about, and description and the channels that this persona is active, the different tech lines that we’re looking at, the values that we’re looking at, the descriptions as an employer. You can have a few that’s also introduced but tested back, or to verify it again with your employees and, example of a vacancy and of course, social media posts because that’s how you going to use it.

These four step guys are possible to create in just four weeks, so don’t overthink things. People tend to just want to score then all the time. But in today’s talent markets, it’s all about speed because you can spend months and months to actually define the best EVP you think in the world, but nobody can guarantee that it will actually also, yeah, happen right away or succeed right away. So there’s always the possibility to monitor and adapt along the way. So you start on the 6 or 7 and just keep going and keep pushing until, you have seen the best results. So as you can see in this timeline, that you start with your data research, with planning and then hosting the workshops and consolidating all the outcomes are all possible within four weeks. And this is also how we offer it for, for example, the companies that we support.

What are the do’s and don’ts when creating an EVP?

A few of the dos and don’ts. Always keep it agile and fast. This is essential in today’s world. Because monitoring also the impact of the things you have been changing is crucial. Also to report back, for example, to your management teams and to be able to see the actual results and, return on investment. If you have certain critical roles. So what I’ve just discussed with you is if you would create your overall MVP and persona for your company, but it could, for example, beat. You’re really struggling in finding developers or certain sales roles, and then it’s always a good advice to organize separate EVP and persona positions for those critical roles, because the sentiments or the things that are for this specific persona are important can differentiate a little bit. So it’s important for your vacancy text and your social media posts to realize that’s so that you can be more successful towards those typical, target groups. Then. Also, don’t be afraid to use smart tools like ChatGPT. Of course, we’ve already seen that your GPT texts are recognizable, so it’s not about copy pasting, which is such a tool gives you. But it’s about supporting you and creating a starting point for yourself that you can then adapt and change into your own tone of voice, etc.. Also continue to measure the impact. This is so important and also to get a more strategic position within your team. Measuring, measuring and using data is always essential. And if you, if you would get it to the point that you don’t see an improvement of your recruitment results, then please take action and adapt because you almost nobody has it right the first time. So please always measure the impact of your recruitment results and attraction on social media, because when you have the right messaging, you will get better recruitment results.

Closing comments before Q&A

So how to create a strong EVP in 2024? Well, this session today is also to enable you to do it yourself, right? So I’m going to start a bit difficult for me to guess, but it’s also depends a bit on you and the resources that you have within your company. It is for free. And today we will also be sending you the templates that we use for those sessions so that you can do it yourself. In the case. You think? Wow. Let’s do it fast. I don’t have the particular resources. Or I would like to learn from the employer. Then we will be able to support you. And we can do it within a month around the six K budgets. And we will create an EDP that will work your recruitment results. For sure. Of course, there’s also a lot of companies that want to go more big and extensive. And these are, oftentimes programs or more than six months. So no direct recruitment results. And the budgets are often 25 or higher. So this is, of course, also a really good option if you, would like to get in touch with certain employee running agencies that we are actually fan of, then we would be more than happy to also share the names of these companies with you that can help you with this, larger portion of creating EVP.

So you’ve already seen also the title my equals I. We’ve got you covered because of course we know this is a constant, process of reinventing re adapting your AVP and to also understanding what the impact is of EVP. So we have developed a newest innovation that will launch at the end of Q4. And you are have the possibility now to join the waitlist as first of the early adapters to actually start using this tool and test for your company. So what this tool will do is it gives you insight into your current EVP through the eyes of job seekers. It easily helps you to generate your new EVP. And it benchmarks to your competitors to see actually what they are doing better or maybe worse. And it measures the impact of your actions. So all of the elements in the four step framework that we’ve created, we got you covered in this tool to actually help you, and use it for your company. Then the next steps. After this session, you will receive an email including the recording of the session so you can listen it back or maybe share it with your team. You can of course register. Register yourself on the waitlist for ITP dot. I to, use it as the first company. You can also, you will also receive an workshop templates to help you do it yourself. And for this time only and for this webinar only, we will, give you a one time offer into a simply helping you into creating this IDP program. And as I said in the beginning, you will get the possibility to book a 50 minutes free consult with me to just go over your questions and, discuss opportunities for your company. And don’t forget, also to register for our next session next week, which will be all about online employer presence. So whenever you have your IP rights, how to actually create an employer presence online that will allow your candidates and, yeah, match with your candidate better. So for all of you guys that might have some questions, I want to spend a few minutes in answering some questions you might have. It might be via my private jets or in the comments on the LinkedIn page. I will give you a minute to think about.

Question 1: What if I don’t have management support?

Yeah, that’s a really critical or a really important one. And we we hear it all the time. And this is why data is so important, guys. Because of course, as sales teams also, need to show their data, to understand if they are going to meet their targets and how the budgets are spent. Right. So it’s nothing less for HR and recruitment. So you need to have your business case up front and the data to show why we actually need overhaul of your EVP and your employer brands. And you will see and we have also seen that during our as the scans that we do for customers is that we with having the right data in place, you will convince your managements into investing and get a commitment, on adding the resources to this project.

Question 2: Can I create an EVP if I’m not super creative?

Yes of course. Everyone can create an EVP when you just utilize the data. And if you take the steps that we have provided for you, you will get the input out of the sessions. If you, for example, would not have the creativity in you to, for example, create deadlines, etc. out of it, then what you could always do is just ask your marketing team, right? Because you have amazing people in your company that would love to help you with this. And otherwise, you can indeed connect with certain parties like us or with other people in our network to actually help you. And, yeah, at this creativity mix, do, through your company. But please know that everything that you are bound to do by taking these steps will already be better than what you have today. So just start doing it and you can do it. We are sure of it.