Employee Engagement: How to Navigate an Employee Market
Understanding how to navigate an employee market is essential for ensuring the health and success of your business.
But, what are we talking about exactly?
In an employee market the workforce have more influence and bargaining power than employers.
This happens when there is a shortage of talent or when demand for skilled workers is high.
And now, people are more assertive than ever about what they need and want from an employer.
They’re also more savvy about how employers back up bold statements – how genuine is that wellbeing policy and approach or is it wellbeing washing?
And, if a business isn’t up-to-scratch, data shows that employees are taking action. 60% of workers considered leaving their current role in the next 12 months.
As ex Twitter VP and bestselling author, Bruce Daisley, noted at a recent CIPD event:
Increasingly workers don’t feel that working hard at their job will deliver their long-term goals in life, they’re prioritising choosing jobs that offer them some of what they want today – namely flexibility and work life balance. Employers should be cautious before removing any of that flex.
So, employers looking for talent must understand how to stand out against competitors.
In this blog, I’ll share 2 pieces of actionable advice to ensure your business is attuned to the needs, wants and concerns of its potential new colleagues.
Get Real About What You’re Offering
This is where your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) comes in.
An EVP serves as the blueprint for what your business offers employees throughout their entire career journey.
But how do you put it together?
Key point 1
Keep in mind that our work life experiences are not limited to just one or two moments. So, start from day 1 all the way to retirement.
In just one day we’ll experience a variety of employee ‘hot spots’.
3 employee hot spots are:
- How we’re recognised
- And how our wellbeing is considered
- How we interact with leadership
It’s important to take a holistic approach. Focusing on only a few of those areas will put your EVP at risk.
Key point 2
Knowing what makes your EVP shine is vital for the success and health of your employer brand.
Your unique values and benefits are your attraction point. If you have them pinned down, you‘ll ensure your business attracts the talent it needs for today and beyond.
Understanding who that talent is and what motivates them is also important when it comes to knowing which part of your EVP to shine a light on.
Get Real About How you Keep (and Empower) People
Now onto employee experience.
This is where you bring your EVP to life.
When you get your employee experience right it drives both the performance of your people and your business.
Win win.
There are models aplenty for employee experience with a variety of levers, drivers and principles that guide you to the best possible employee experience.
But, let’s focus on these 2 key features:
Key point 1
Workplace culture is everyone’s business. But leadership is where you can make a big difference. While in most cases HR or internal comms will drive employee experience, you will see real results when leadership take accountability.
Equally, in order to champion employee experience, leadership support and development is key.
This will give leaders the confidence and know how to lead people with emotional intelligence, which helps foster wonderful workplaces.
Key point 2
Make measuring employee experience a discipline. Bake it into your comms plans and link it to business KPIs to show its impact.
This is how you know you’re living up to that EVP.
But spoiler: don’t just rely on an employee survey.
Spoiler 2: don’t do it and then go radio silent on your response to it.
This links back to key point 1 – leadership must foster an emotionally mature culture where open conversation is positively encouraged.
Final Thoughts
In today’s competitive landscape, now is the best time to define your EVP and draw your attention to your employee experience—they’re essential for attracting and retaining talent.
By addressing the entire employee lifecycle, fostering leadership accountability, and building a culture of open dialogue, you can ensure your organisation stands out.
Top tip: invest in your people, and they’ll invest in you.
