How to reevaluate your Employee Value Propositions for the post pandemic IT-Professionals?

Fancy food, TT and foosball tables, pets on campus: these are just a few things that you promise your employees when they talk about Employee Value Propositions. In short, you sell a fun-filled, healthy work culture that nourishes you mentally and professionally. 

However, the pandemic has changed the way we look at our priorities. What employees really value in their organizations have changed.

So, as organizations are taking a step back and assessing their priorities at the current times, they must also pay attention to the EVPs that will become the building factors of Q420 onwards. Moreover, given the current uncertainties that don’t seem to be waning anytime soon, addressing employees’ concerns have become increasingly important, which is why EVP adjustments should be your priority as we move on to recovery. 

First things first, what exactly do EVPs do?

In simple words, these are a set of attributes that set you apart. According to a recent report by Gartner, EVPs help you reach 50% deeper into the labour market and attract passive candidates, and they help you decrease the compensation premium that’s needed to hire quality candidates by 50%. 

In this time of disruption, your EVPs determine your working relationship with your employees. Revisiting them, as we enter 2021 and begin strategizing our processes for the coming year, proves that the changing needs of this disruption aren’t unheard, further strengthening your relationship with your employees.

How should you identify the key EVPs for the current situation?

In a nutshell, the five EVP categories that are the main concern of any IT professional are:

However, in the pandemic, the EVP pay and compensation has remained the top concern of most professionals. There’s a possibility that a second round of cost reductions might happen at organizations, affecting their pay further. And since bonuses, appraisals, increments, and ESOP plans all fall under this category, employees are uncertain whether their organization will have their best interests at heart as the organizations reopen and recover. 

Among the EVPs, due to the pandemic, people are least concerned about “organization” (the brand, primarily), and prioritize “work” the most. This notably is due to the fact that the challenges of the pandemic are far from over; organizations continue to enforce cost cutting mechanisms. 

The value propositions for IT professionals that have also seen steep rise are “health and medical” and “learning and development”. What this signifies is security, both mentally and professionally. 

IT talent, especially, is expecting their leadership to state how the safety and professional development of each employee will look like as we’re moving on to resetting and rebuilding the business models for the new normal. 

This suggests that the focus is now on the “what’s next” of the “next normal” of the pandemic. Factoring in the on-going uncertainties, it is important for the leadership to acknowledge and make clear how their pay, leaves, and other WFH-related benefits will be affected. 

Our recommendations to address this:

• Provide more guidance. You need to reinforce optimism in employees about EVP topics and limit any negative sentiment cropping up in teams. 
• Create a holistic work culture and employee experience. You may do so by taking an empathic stance towards the values your employees prioritize. 
• Schedule frequent check-ins about the challenges they are facing and delineate what they value in your organization.
• Since “pay and compensation” EVP has become even more important for IT professionals during the disruption, it is necessary for you to remain transparent in your communications regarding that. 
• Create trust and confidence in your working relationship with your employees by updating policies and processes regarding pay and benefits.

Pitfalls to avoid while revisiting your EVPs:

• Factor in different segments: Organizations often tend to forget that different value propositions affect some segments of your organization differently. For instance, your IT talent may not be as concerned with customer prestige as your sales talent may be. You’d have to create tailored EVPs for each segment, while ensuring consistency for the entire organization.
• Don’t create a value proposition you might not be able to keep up with: With organizations now getting back to their rhythm, you may feel like you need to compensate you employees for the benefits that were halted during the Q2 and Q3 2020. But this might be a slippery slope since the uncertainties remain. While your employees may not be at flight risk over certain dissatisfactions during the pandemic, they may still show lower work satisfaction and performance.