It’s well known that a good employee value proposition (EVP) is a key tool for attracting great talent to an organisation. What many often don’t realise, is that there is also great value to be found in marketing your full benefits package internally to your current staff members. In fact, this is an essential part of your talent-retention strategy.

In days past, a salary, pension and medical aid made up a standard package. It was pretty cut and dried. Now things are very different.

On the one hand, employee packages consist of remuneration and benefits as well as variable pay, which is performance-related. On the other hand, we have employee development, which consists of elements such as career planning and growth, and wellbeing. There is no longer a focus on only the quantifiable part.

What employees want from a benefits package today

This is particularly important in our changed workplace, which revolves very much around flexibility. Prior to Covid-19, a number of our clients were looking at ways to make their workplaces more flexible. Then Covid hit, and they had no choice but to stop talking and act. In addition, both before and after Covid, the working world had evolved to the point where the power shifted – for professional staff especially – from employer to employee.

Employees now look at the total reward – financial and non-financial. In fact, we now want life-work balance, not the other way around.

People’s priorities have changed – and having a life-work balance is more important to many than remuneration. After working from home (or anywhere) productively and successfully throughout the pandemic, staff are now faced with employers who insist that they return to the office full-time – and they are questioning whether they want to stay if forced to work in the office. We have seen that it is indeed possible to contribute as much without being at the office and to be evaluated in terms of output rather than being visibly present. Why, then, should everyone be forced back into a box?

Moreover, in the context of managing a diverse workforce it’s important to consider that some employees – especially younger ones – might expect more take-home pay, as they are more status-driven. Their older colleagues might value retirement funding more. That demands flexibility in your EVP so you can cater to the needs of all the members of your workforce.

Practical guidelines for marketing your benefits package to existing staff

I often use the way new products are designed or created and marketed to explain how human-capital directors and HR teams should approach employees when it comes to staff benefits. We do extensive market research that is client-centric and adapt everything we do to suit their needs. Why, then, aren’t we doing that for our employees? Do we understand their needs? Or do we simply put together our EVP with a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude?

If you concentrate only on the quantifiable elements of your EVP, your employees will never understand the full value proposition. However, if you can quantify and communicate what you offer as an employer – psychological safety, great leadership, flexibility, wellness programmes and career and development opportunities – it will encourage staff retention.

To market your EVP, it should be modelled first, and communicated second. All organisations have a vision and mission and values – but they are mostly for show unless leaders are living the company’s values.

EVP strategies are usually devised at board or exco level. Once formulated, organisations must engage with leadership, and get buy-in from them by demonstrating the advantages of having a cultural, employee-centric approach. It is said so often that it sounds clichéd, but people really are an organisation’s most important asset. Without people, the business cannot function.

It is also vital to ensure leadership has the competencies to implement the EVP strategy. Not everyone has empathy, for instance. How do you establish psychological safety if leaders do not have empathy? It must be a top-down approach. Only once you have buy-in from leadership and understand where their development journey is can you start the change management process at employee level.

Finally, remember that an EVP alone is not enough to retain staff long-term. Even with the best benefits and most well-rounded package in the world, people’s personal circumstances change.

Your ultimate goal, however, should be to create an environment that will make your staff ambassadors for your organisation. That will feed back into your hiring and ensure there is a pipeline of talent waiting in the wings, both inside and outside of the business.

Need help with your company’s benefits package or to evolve your employee value proposition? Find out how Remchannel could help.