Podcast Transcript

[00:00:00] Sean Steele: G’day everybody, and welcome to 10 Minute Tuesday where I unpack key concepts and frameworks and tools that are going to help you develop a better growth strategy and an execution plan for your business, but in a practical way so that you can review or improve stuff that you're currently doing and tweak it so you can get better outcomes over the next few years for your business.

[00:00:20] You know, in all reality, you can design the best strategy and execution plan you like, but clearly without great people to execute it, forget about it. It's worthless. What a waste of time. And so, I know lots of you are probably thinking about the next few years and you're getting towards the end of the year, and maybe you're thinking about some talent that you're going to need to attract and how you can continue to evolve your culture and your working environment to make it as awesome as possible for your existing team.

[00:00:44] And if that's you, then today's episode is for you because we are talking about building an employee value proposition. Sounds boring, but it's not. I'm going to call it EVP, as it’s much shorter. I can't say three words that many times. So, I'm going to cover a few things today. What is an EVP and why does having one matter. What kind of things might you want to consider in your EVP and what would some top performing companies, including their EVPs, to stimulate some of your ideas.

[00:01:10] I'm going to give you some examples to get your thinking started, but then I'm going to give you some really simple steps to turn that thinking into action. So, if you want to build a better, more compelling EVP to attract great people and retain your existing team, today is for you. Let's dive in. All right. First up, what is an EVP and what is having one matter?

[00:01:30] Well, fundamentally it's a combination of the rewards and the benefits that you put together for your people to create an amazing place to work, to help them perform well, but also to reward them for dedicating their efforts and talents towards your objective. Let me say that again. They are dedicating their effort and talent towards your objectives. And great people have options. Let's be real, you know, and everybody's finding it hard to attract impact players at the moment and also to retain really good people. So, you better bring your A game as a business owner on what you've got to offer them. Like, I don't know about you, but a while ago, it was almost like 10, 20 years ago, people would just be grateful that you gave him a salary.

[00:02:09] But those times are gone, and you got to recognise that these days the expectations are much higher. And your EVP when, sometimes people think about an EVP thinking; well, I don't need one of those, that's like something that big companies do. No, and it's also not just a marketing tool to attract great people.

[00:02:27] It's first and foremost what you've got to offer your existing team. You know, it's the promise that you make to them, what you have to offer them. And then it becomes what you market to external people, to new people. But wear the trap of promising something to the market that you plan to do, but you aren't actually already doing for your existing team. Don't do it. Terrible idea. Lots of brand damage. Unhappy employees. Not a good situation. So anyway, I was researching this topic just to make sure that my thinking on it was current, and that I was looking at best practice and I found there was a huge list of different kinds of benefits being offered that have really changed a lot over time, from relocation packages to wellbeing programs, to technology rebates to profit sharing plans and heaps of other stuff. So, what I did was I wrangled all of these into a few categories that I think you should really consider, including if you are going to develop or improve an EVP for your business.

[00:03:22] And the seven categories are; Purpose and Impact, Values, the Place you do your best work, Health and Wellbeing, Flexibility and Work Life Integration, Employee Connectivity and Quality of Peers, and Compensation. They're probably not the best named categories I could have come up with, but they're what I've come up with.

[00:03:42] So let me give you some examples of what you might want to think about in those categories. Let's start with purpose and impact. You know, people want to contribute their effort towards something meaningful. If you don't have a clear and compelling purpose, then you should go back to the episode that I did on that recently, which I think was episode 50. You know, it's generally the first thing that top companies talk about when you get to their landing pages around their employee value proposition, which shows you how important it has become to attracting and keeping and engaging top talent. They don't any longer want to find meaning in their life outside work. Like they want to find meaning and purpose inside their work. Because work and life is so integrated now, so you have to have another way of helping them find a way to contribute something.

[00:04:40] All right. Let's talk about purpose and impact firstly. People want to contribute their efforts towards something meaningful. So, if you don't have a clear and compelling purpose, go back and have a listen to the episode I did, which I think was episode 50. Purpose is generally the first thing that top companies talk about on their employee value proposition landing pages. And these are people with big budgets and they understand a lot about what's going on, and it shows you how important it's become in attracting and keeping and engaging top talent. Like it used to just be wishy washy vision statements and mission statements that people didn't really care about, but now it really matters.

[00:05:16] People don't want to necessarily have the additional effort now, maybe because we're just all getting lazy of finding purpose outside work. They actually want to find meaning in their life inside work. Because work and life has become so integrated. So, you have to find a way of helping them contribute to something that matters.

[00:05:34] So in this category, you're trying to help them understand what are they going to be contributing to. Okay. Second category is Values. People want to know what it's going to feel like to be part of your organisation. There's a very sort of feeling oriented, what drives the decision making of the leadership?

[00:05:52] You can imagine people are like trying on your business in their head going, what's it going to be like to work there? What drives the decision making of the leaders? How are people going to be expected to show up for each other and for the customers, it helps them understand like what's expected, and it allows them to get a sense of whether it's the kind of place they're likely going to thrive or not.

[00:06:15] The third category is the Place to do your best work. So top companies try to explain to people what they have in place to create an environment where as a team member, you're likely to be developed and pushed and supported and given the best opportunity to do your best work, because people actually. They want to use their skills, they want to grow, they want to learn, they want to feel proud of their contribution. And so, there's a vast range of things that you could include in this category. Like, you might have a structured career development framework or mentoring programs or professional development programs or leadership development, or tuition support if they're going to do further study outside work or how you give them autonomy to make decisions and make mistakes. All that stuff kind of goes into that. This is a place where you're really going to get to test yourself, but also be supported to grow. Okay, the next category is Health and Wellbeing. Companies are all too aware that burnout is not good, and there's a huge flow on impact, not only into the employee’s personal wellbeing and their personal life, but also their impact on the rest of their team's ability to perform and deliver if they're not in a great place. And companies know that because we've shifted to a lot of remote work that we're like staring at the screen all day long instead of getting up and moving around. We've got more sitting. We've got less breaks between meetings. We've got less structured downtime, none of which are good for the quality of thinking, the productivity, the happiness, the engagement of your team. So, what can you offer them in this category? Well, top companies that I researched are offering things like travel incentives, sabbaticals, wellbeing programs like meditation and yoga, and life coaching and healthy food delivery, and gym memberships and a whole bunch more. How do you help them be their best selves from a health and wellbeing point of view? And the next one's related, but a little bit different. This is about Flexibility and Work Life Integration. It's probably not a good thing, but the reality is that our work and personal lives are now far more tightly integrated. For better or worse, it is what it is, and that's how it's going to be in the continuing future. But top companies recognise it and they make it easier for people to work from home or more flexibly in terms of hours and locations. So, from full location independence, remote working models, not only even within the head office countries, but globally.

[00:08:38] Childcare support, increased parental leave schemes, relocation packages, technology rebates, policies around, you know, that we're focused on outcomes, not just clocking hours, things like that. They all lead to a company that understands that your life is integrated, they recognise it, and they're doing something to make that as effective and tension free as possible.

[00:09:02] Okay, the next category is Employee Connectivity and Quality of Peers. I'm sure I could have come up with better words than that, but that's the category. What I see emerging, I should say in this category is it's about who are my peers going to be? Who am I going to belong to and with, like, who are these people I'm going to work with?

[00:09:23] Because if I'm fully remote, how am I going to feel connected? Am I joining a top team? Are they any fun? Where are they? Am I ever going to meet anyone? Like top companies are including things like inclusivity and diversity policies, localised events and meetups for satellite areas where you've got a whole bunch of people working together, benefits packages that are localised, like discounts in local areas, not just sort of global, national type schemes. Buddy systems that connect people, not only across functional areas, but also across geographies. You know, how fun gets created in an online or a remote type environment, or distributed teams over time zones. Do the teams to get together once a year in a central location to bond and learn and party like. It's all relevant and it's become even more relevant because we've got such geographically dispersed teams, often even on different time zones. So, it's not easy, but it's absolutely worth thinking.

[00:10:18] And then finally last category is Compensation. And note that I put this last because, in my opinion, it's always important, but there are more. And the reality is there are basic expectations you've got to meet, you've got to pay people pretty close to what they can get elsewhere to reduce the flight risk, and popping around for salary reasons. But the reason I put this last is because out of all the things that are going to make people stay and engage and contribute and perform, it's not salary. Like, I don't know about you, but I have made the mistake before of someone who threatens to leave and so you offer them more money because you want them to stay and they stay. But then two to three months later, what happens? They leave anyway. It happens so often. And why does it happen? It's because they're not leaving because money is the only factor. It's one part, but the other elements are far stronger. People will actually stay in places for subpar compensation, but only if the balance of items that we've already talked about.

[00:11:23] The first six categories are strong and they love coming to work every day as a result, it matters so much more. But top companies are, from a compensation perspective, are thinking about things like profit sharing schemes. Like I'd know 20% of the profitability being distributed amongst all the employees. Discounts on the company's products and services. Think like, low-cost travel for airline employees as an example, or employee bonus schemes that are tied to individual performance or team performance, stuff like that. Okay. So, I'm going to give you now a couple of examples of some outward facing employee value propositions from top companies.

[00:11:58] You know, there's some super interesting things that top companies do and I'll give you a few examples just to stimulate your thinking. Canva. I like Canva. It's a very cool business. What I really love about it's EVP page is, it has some very cool ways of showing actually what's cool about each function in the business. So, for example, they've got individual pages for the people team, for the marketing team, for the product team. Like, what's unique about them? Why would you want to work with them? They've got these beautiful authentic photos of very real people in there, like very humans. Very real. I love it.

[00:12:33] HubSpot. After five years, you get a one-month paid sabbatical and a $5,000 bonus. Like, it's kind of like long service leave maybe in Australia, but they've got unlimited vacations for single days or weeks at a time. They've got a whole model around how they do unlimited vacations. Amazing. Nike, they have a relocation package model, so wherever you want to be, they will help you move and they'll offer up to, I think 50% off their footwear and apparel for team members.

[00:13:02] Gartner, you know, the Gartner magic quadrant guys, they're super defocused on diversity and inclusivity and impact. And they talk about the fact they've got 95 nationalities in 40 countries. They've got really deep programs that contribute to the local communities where they have team members and where they serve customers. Very interesting for people who are very heartfelt and want to work for a company that's very strong in relation to its purpose and its contribution to the community. Strava, bike riders will all know about Strava, probably runners as well. Very strong values. Very strong in anti-racism, to be honest and ethnicity. So really trying to focus on their diversity, but strong anti-racism statements on their website. Race and ethnicity and gender Pie graphs. You know, like we're 6% Latino, 20% Asian, 9% Black, 48% Female, 2% Non-Binary, and so on, and they've a ream of benefits, like a thousand dollars of annual gear that they get paid for, $500 Gym reimbursements, onsite fitness rooms in each office, bike storage at every site, $2,000 of professional development every year, you know, paid off time for volunteering and heaps more. Who else? Airbnb, annual travel and experiences credits, health, food and snacks. You know, really generous parental and family leave provisions.

[00:14:23] And I know that you are sitting there thinking, that's all great. They're massive companies. I don't have infinite budgets, but when I work through this stuff with clients, you realise you actually already have something to offer, or your team members wouldn't join and stay right now. But how clearly you're articulating it, how much effort you're putting into evolving it is a different question.

[00:14:44] You don't need big budgets. You need big creativity, effort, thoughtfulness, because you've got to remember that as the owner of the business, you get financial reward. That's the reality. And the rest of your team who's happy to work for you, gets this stuff. So, you can't expect them to just be grateful for a salary. You've got to work on constantly how you can create an environment that's easy for them to do their best working so they can contribute and grow and learn and feel like they're actually part of something that's quite special. So, I'm going to put the links to all those companies in the show notes for you so you can check out their full EVPs. You can feel free to have a look at that later. Okay, so now if you are ready to do the work, you want to review and evolve yours or develop one from scratch, try some of these things out. Number one, brainstorm yourself or with your leaders, items, initiatives that you could put in place in each of those seven categories that I already talked about.

[00:15:36] Second, survey your team. Go to your team. Don't share the ones you've already come up with. Ask them what they love about working for you now, and what they'd love to see as part of the culture and environment going forward. Third, I'd suggest you prioritise those initiatives, work through it, plot them against the matrix. Maybe on one side you've got, you know, how much you think that initiative's going to contribute to their ability to contribute to the business, connect and grow, and learn, and stay and engage, versus how much you think it's going to take in terms of cost or time or complexity to implement. I worked through this with a client recently and one of the things that their team came back with is they actually just wanted more fun, you know, fun activities and games and quizzes and themes and banter, which costs nothing. You know, like what costs so little. I've already got an HR person in place. They've got managers in place, you know, team leaders. Those people can get together and come up with this stuff. But it means a lot clearly to that team in reducing just the boringness of work that we all have. So, it's very high on value, very low on cost is in the no brainer category. In the same session, we looked at paying for financial planning sessions for their staff to help them learn about finance and build and manage wealth and so on. It was an idea to come up into leadership discussion, but it didn't come up in the survey to staff. It wasn't something that really resonated with them or that they had as a high priority item.

[00:17:13] So, it's probably pretty high cost to implement, and for now at least, it was actually relatively low likely value for the team. So, a good one to put on the back burner. Next you want to build your rollout plan, you know, figure out the cost, do a budget, figure out what you can afford, and then build an implementation plan so you can roll things out slowly, systematically over the next 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, whatever it is.

[00:17:35] It doesn't all have to be done at once. You don't have to ram it down their throats all at the same time. And then, you should be communicating your current EVP to your team on the website in every job ad that you have. You don't have to, but please don't publicise the things that you are planning to do, but you haven't yet done because you can very easily oversell reality and you're going to have a very big disconnect between people who think they're coming in and getting all this stuff, and then the reality is different on the other side. You don't want that experience. That's not cool. I think you will be really surprised when you ask your team about what they already love, how much you already have. But being able to articulate it to others, to potential employees is a different matter. And so that's something that's really critical for you to be able to do if you want to attract great people.

[00:18:20] But sometimes the specialness is already sitting there and just not communicating it. And finally update it. Update the communications. When you roll out new elements, update your PDFs or your webpages or your videos or whatever it is that you've got, you will be amazed at what you end up with in place over the next one to two years if you keep it a focus in the business.

[00:18:41] So, that's it today, folks, on our little EVP episode. Hope you enjoyed it and you are now thinking about how can you improve or build your employee value proposition to make it better. And with a bit of thought, it can go a long way to helping you attract and retain your great people.

[00:19:02] Everything that I cover in little episodes like this relate to a topic from the new ScaleUps Roadmap program, which I am loving developing, and it's an exclusive cohort-based program facilitated by yours truly, with a mix of online and live components, it's going to help founders develop a kick ass growth strategy and execution plan to maximise their growth rates, their valuation, their exit options over the next three years. So, for you, it's kind of a chance to step back, work on how to supercharge your business in a fun and enjoyable environment, meet some new people who want to support you and see you succeed and help, also, I guess, keep you accountable to doing something with the stuff that you learn as opposed to other courses where sometimes you learn it and you do nothing with it. It's going to be launching the first half of next year. If you would like to know more about it, you can go straight to scaleupsroadmap.com.au, drop your email in there, and I will keep you abreast of all the parts of the program as we inch towards the launch next year. Thank you very much everyone. Hope you had a great time today, and speak to you soon.