The employment value proposition is no longer news to businesses; COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst, forcing them to confront significant changes in work preferences and employee expectations. The rise of remote and hybrid work, coupled with increased pressures to achieve work-life balance, has driven a deeper understanding of the employment value proposition. While many organizations are still in the early stages of implementing structural changes to their employment value proposition, the emphasis on work-life alignment has made it a central element of talent management discussions.
Companies have been actively implementing measures to improve their perception of EVP, both directly and indirectly. Organizations around the world are racing to increase their competitiveness by condensing a decade’s worth of digital transformation and technology adoption into one or more years. This significantly changes the search for talent. When it comes to talent, countries are pitted against each other. The public sector is losing talent to the private sector. All other industries are no longer fighting for talent within their respective industries; instead, they are competing under one flag: technology.
Gartner found that only 32% of IT employees have a high intent to stay with their organizations, compared to 39.9% of non-IT employees. If CIOs fail to design a human-centric EVP, they will face increased turnover in their critical IT/technology functions, putting their companies’ digital transformation at risk. To address this, CIOs should consider the following actions.
1. Articulate EVP strategies for current and potential workers
Many organizations do not consciously articulate EVP strategies at the enterprise level, and CIOs have the pressure and responsibility to address the risks related to technology talent. This involves implementing some actions to help address the immediate issues while also structuring a response to expectations regarding technology talent.
Seventy-six percent of candidates report dropping out of the hiring process due to at least one discrepancy in EVP preferences. Compensation, benefits, work-life balance, and flexibility are some of the top reasons for dropping out of an application. When it comes to recruiting new talent, CIOs, in partnership with HR, should promote employee referral programs focused on recruiting tech and digital talent and incentivize participation.
2. Reformulate the EVP focusing on human treatment
Traditionally, EVP is defined around employees, designed to deliver an exceptional experience, and focused on delivering features that fit employee needs. But persistent engagement and attraction challenges, and the human crises of 2020, have shown that these underlying principles are outdated. Employees are people, not just workers, and work is a subset of life, not separate from it. Value emerges through feelings, not just features. Building a more human employment agreement requires an EVP that focuses on the whole person, their life experience, and ultimately the emotion that creates the human agreement.
Humane treatment has five components, each of which aims to generate a specific emotion in employees:
- Deeper Connections: How technology leaders are helping employees strengthen their family and community connections, not just work relationships.
- Radical Flexibility: How technology leaders are providing flexibility in all aspects of work, not just when and where employees work.
- Personal growth: How technology leaders help employees grow as people, not just professionals.
- Holistic Wellness: How technology leaders ensure employees use comprehensive wellness offerings, not just make them available.
- Aim: Employees feel engaged when organizations deliberately take collective action and don't just make corporate statements.
When organizations make progress in any aspect of human treatment, they see clear benefits, some of which include an increase in the following areas:
- Employees who are highly likely to recommend the organization.
- High performance.
- Intention to stay.
- Physical, financial and mental well-being.
3. Strengthen EVP by responding to individual needs
Companies that capture the elements that matter most to employees and tailor both their message and investment are more successful. While it is tempting to create an annual plan for an EVP evaluation, this approach is slow and insufficient to gain competitive advantage over competitors. To create a relevant set of attributes that people perceive as the value they get in their lives from employment, CIOs must recognize the signals and triggers for change that affect people.
With economic uncertainty on the rise, IT employees seem more inclined to work for organizations with a growth trajectory. Knowing this, organizations can tailor their communication and shed light on the elements of their EVP that matter most.
There is a clear trend to move from working from home to working from anywhere. With this shift, the IT talent market now has no boundaries. People respond differently to the future of work. People from different age groups, regions, and seniority levels expect different things. This means that CIOs must now also take into account segmented EVP drivers to attract and retain talent in order to remain competitive.
Leadership-, culture-, and people-focused CIOs looking to attract and retain top talent with a compelling EVP should address talent loss/shortage by taking the lead on IT talent and partnering with HR. Reframe EVP components by taking a human approach: designing for people, based on lived experiences, and centered on feelings. Make EVP more adaptable by capturing changing preferences and responding to individual needs quickly based on elements such as career stages, work region, seniority, experience level, and more.
Gabriela Vogel is an analyst in Gartner’s Digital Business Executive Leadership practice. She provides pragmatic guidance to executives on C-suite dynamics and effective leadership in times of change, and specializes in improving leadership effectiveness, managing corporate politics, addressing conflict, and developing strategies to address these issues.
