How to value your employees

Recruitment is only half the battle. How you keep people engaged and bought into your vision and direction of travel as a business is key to retaining people. Don’t get this right and you’ll struggle to keep staff, resulting in high recruitment costs and impacting your performance.

Salary, flexibility and benefits play a big part in attracting and keeping people however what can you do if you only have limited resources or you are restricted in what you can offer?

Avantis Performance co-founders Sam Crowder and Tony Purpuri built a compelling employee value proposition that allowed small start up IMD Group to grow in to the successful Digital Transformation Company VIMA Group. IMD were able to grow by offering salaries that were under competitor rates and that still attracted and retained high performing dedicated staff.

What is an employee value proposition? Every company uses a different definition and that isn’t a bad thing. Your EVP should be unique, that’s how you attract and retain people that are right for you. Most EVPs are made up of the following:

It might be surprising not to focus solely on compensation and benefits however depending on your budget that might not be an area where you have much control. Of course people will not work for free however in reality most people will consider a role if it meets their financial needs and there is scope to grow (both their own value and their financial compensation).

But that does mean you have to meet certain salary expectations. People will want to maintain their lifestyle. If their lifestyle was built around an industry that pays £100k a year then unfortunately to attract that type of talent you need to be at least comparable.

However there are things we can do to bring down or at least manage that expectation and you don’t need a huge budget to do it.

“When we were building VIMA we started with purpose” explains Sam. “We gave people a reason to get onboard and to stick around, we sold them a vision of success and how they could be part of that”. Giving people purpose and a chance to grow their career and increase their personal value will attract and retain those people who are motivated by change and development. They may well be willing to sacrifice salary now for better opportunities and growth in the future.

Sam describes how “Attracting people with a similar outlook and approach to growth helped grow a very positive and ‘all for one’ culture”. The culture became self-perpetuating with new growth driven motivated people joining the business and bringing their own brilliant ideas. “The key was providing people with a framework to explore and develop things within the business. Supporting them but ensuring that ideas were aligned to VIMAs growth and the value it wanted to create”. The culture was linked to the sense of purpose that VIMA staff felt and allowed for open and regular communication with staff. This enabled rapid feedback for senior management and the ability to collectively manage performance.

There is however a note of caution. “Creating a unified culture does not mean everyone has to think the same way” explains Sam. “If you only bring people into the team that think the same you will end up a team of clones and a lot of blind spots”. Having similar motivations and the same of similar values is enough.

Research from Princeton University in the U.S. suggests that although money makes people happy taking salaries above $75k (£62k) doesn’t have that much effect.

Culture is also linked directly to the working environment. IMD and subsequently VIMA grew through challenging times where the environment in which people worked changed dramatically. Even after COVID hybrid working became the norm for a lot professional services organisations. But working environment is a lot more than just where you physically sit down to work. It is the working practices and any support that is given. Getting that balance of hybrid working right is critical. It will also be unique not just to different business but also different teams and even individuals.

Sam explains how hybrid working posed some challenges for a growing business “ We knew we wanted to develop junior consultants and even graduates. However you can’t do that where people are 100% remote. 70% of development needs to be on the job so juniors need to be around other people they can learn from. This meant we needed to convince not just the juniors to come back to office but also our senior staff”.

Offering flexibility and having a nice working environment is key. But a big part of that working environment is the people in it. Creating reasons for people to meet up and come together will create that working environment. Whether that is the opportunity to be involved in key decisions, team lunches or employee lead development sessions. Making that time together valuable for everyone is very important. The best part is that none of this is expensive however the benefits in terms of team collaboration and performance improvements are huge.

Building an attractive EVP that will keep people engaged does not need to be expensive. It will need to be adapted over time as the organisation grows and the people you need to be successful change. However the basic building blocks remain the same:

You do not need to have market leading salaries or benefits. Comparable is adequate, especially to begin with. As long as you are paying them what they are worth.
Give people a purpose and allow them to build their personal value.
Put a sense of joint purpose at the core of your organisations culture.
A unified culture does not need an army of clones. Sharing core values is often enough.
People need to feel comfortable in the environment where they work. This is as much about the people and behaviours around them as it is the physical space.

Offering flexibility and having a nice working environment is important. But a big part of that working environment is the people in it.

You do not need to have market leading salaries or benefits. Comparable is adequate, especially to begin with. As long as you are paying them what they are worth.
Give people a purpose and allow them to build their personal value.
Put a sense of joint purpose at the core of your organisations culture.
A unified culture does not need an army of clones. Sharing core values is often enough.
People need to feel comfortable in the environment where they work. This is as much about the people and behaviours around them as it is the physical space.

Get in touch to find out more.

Image by Freepik