EVP and Internal Communications: Employee Engagement Is the New Bottom Line

To combat disengaged employees, organizations must craft a strong employer value proposition (EVP). This EVP defines your brand and outlines a compelling mission that aligns with employees’ values (a la Simon Sinek’s “cathedral” approach). Additionally, a robust communications strategy is vital, reinforcing this mission and ensuring employees have access to the information they need, when they need it.

Shift demand in your favor with a strong EVP

Is it time to revisit your mission? A reboot might be necessary after an acquisition, growth, or reorganization. Your EVP is the internal expression of your brand. Ensure your customers and your employees understand what makes your brand unique in the market.

1. Start with analysis. Research your organization, understand leadership objectives, the market trends, and survey your existing employees and customers to uncover what sets you apart as an employer.
2. Refine your message. Based on the research findings, craft a compelling EVP statement that captures the essence of your brand and integrates your customer-facing market position.
3. Refresh your creative assets. A refined EVP needs a refreshed visual identity. Now is the time to update the assets that bring your employer brand to life.
4. Craft a strategic rollout plan. With your new messaging in place, it’s time to share it with the world. A comprehensive internal communications plan needs to be infused into the culture through key touchpoints. And further, it will be the vehicle for recruitment campaigns in external media channels.
5. Measure, optimize, and repeat. Now that your new EVP is in market, it’s imperative to keep a pulse on performance. Data around candidate attraction, employee engagement, and overall retention will point back to opportunities to refine and optimize your employer brand.

Give your people more control

Employees are overwhelmed with communication: a spaghetti bowl of emails, DMs, notifications, and messages. To help combat losing your people due to poor communications, give them more control by keeping the following tips in mind:

1. Ease the onslaught of communication with a thorough content strategy that unifies your EVP with your internal comms and reduces noise. The Harvard Business Review cites that 57 percent of employees say they often receive duplicative communications. 33 percent say messages are inconsistent—even conflicting! These numbers alone should move us toward an audit of our own internal communications. Work with your HR, diversity, operations, and people managers to create a streamlined communications strategy that considers messaging frameworks, priority, and business impact.
2. Clearly define where certain types of information live. According to McKinsey, knowledge workers spend almost 20 percent of their time searching for or gathering information. Mapping communication types to specific channels unencumbers employees by allowing them to have clear expectations of the content and communications they’re accessing and/or receiving. Wayfinding improvements and channel strategy can have a significant impact in reducing friction, increasing motivation, boosting productivity, and establishing consistency.
3. Create margins and protect “heads-down” time to keep meeting overload at bay. Employees often face a calendar clogged with meetings and little time to accomplish the actual work assigned to them. The Maker vs. Manager Method is one way to think about structuring time, where Makers need larger blocks of uninterrupted time to think and work. By permitting employees to turn off the DMs and meetings, you’ll give them the time they need to get the job done.
4. Offer your team autonomy in decision-making and give them the ability to innovate. When people have a sense of ownership, their productivity rises with their engagement. Empower your team by not only giving them permission to make changes but also the guardrails for how to innovate successfully. What are the parameters for a successful decision? Outline the factors that need to be considered and stress the need for transparency in not only the outcome but also the reasoning.

Each of these recommendations does more than practically improve communications and bolster your EVP. They also reveal an organization’s concern for the people who are the company, heartily elevating and prioritizing employee experience.

Photo Credit: Pawel Czerwinski | Unsplash