At a recent event about evolving your EVP in today’s complex market, I spoke about four simple questions you can ask yourself to make your EVP more engaging. On the day, the attendees found it really useful, so I thought I’d share them for those who couldn’t attend.
Interestingly, according to a Gallup report, only 10% of UK employees feel engaged at work—meaning there’s a clear opportunity for organisations to make real progress in engaging their people. Creating genuine connections with candidates and employees isn’t just beneficial – it’s essential.
The Power of Engagement
When candidates and employees are engaged, the results speak for themselves. Engaged candidates are 38% more likely to accept job offers, and companies with engaged teams experience a 23% increase in profitability—a testament to the power of engagement throughout the entire talent lifecycle.
When it comes to engagement at work, I believe we need to focus most on psychological engagement—that intrinsic connection someone feels towards something or someone. Maybe it’s a football team, your partner, or your favourite restaurant. It’s what makes you stick with them even when you have a bad meal—that connection that means you want them to succeed. This same feeling can, and should, be nurtured between employees and their workplace. This connection influences everything from day-to-day motivation to long-term retention.
Building Engagement: Four Essential Pillars
So, how the hell do you capture hearts and minds? It starts by focusing on these four fundamental areas:
Attention
First impressions matter. From a compelling EVP to a distinctive tone of voice, gaining attention takes just a second but requires a lot of work. It’s about grabbing that initial spark of interest with something stand-out and relevant and then keeping it alive. We live in an attention economy, where every business, influencer, and AI bot is trying to grab your attention. So, we’ve got to work hard to capture our audience. Ask yourself, how are you capturing your audience’s attention?
Positive Emotions
Once you have their attention, make people smile, inspire them, and spark curiosity. Positive emotions drive decision-making. They are linked to memory. And the stronger the emotion, the more embedded in someone’s mind you become. This might be the difference between a candidate choosing you over your competition. Celebrate your culture, showcase success stories, and create experiences that make people feel something. Ask yourself, how do you make candidates and employees feel?
Add Value
Ignore wants—if asked, everyone would want more money and to work fewer hours. Instead, think NEEDS. Are you speaking to their career aspirations? Are you providing opportunities for growth and development? Are you thinking about different audiences’ needs at different points in their careers? Meeting these needs not only builds engagement but also makes people feel more connected to you long-term. Ask yourself, how are you addressing your audience’s needs?
Deliver
You’ve probably made some big promises to your candidates and employees. From recruitment campaigns to onboarding experiences and day-to-day culture, delivering on your brand promise throughout your entire talent lifecycle is crucial. When expectations are consistently met, trust and advocacy naturally follow. Ask yourself, how well do you keep your promises?
Are You Engaging?
Take a moment to reflect. Are you capturing attention in a meaningful way? Are you creating experiences that spark positive emotions? Are you adding meaningful value? And most importantly, are you delivering on the commitments you make?
By answering these questions honestly, you’ll spot areas you can build on and improve your EVP—opportunities to make it more authentic, more compelling, and, importantly, as budgets are squeezed, to make it work harder.
-Liam Hodgeon, Creative Director
