EVP & Values redefinition: case study

Every employee in our agency is familiar with the term Employer Branding. Not only because building a strategy and executing projects related to the employer’s brand is one of our business lines. Our employees have had the opportunity to actively participate in our own EB projects several times: creating an image and recruitment video, co-creating JustBrief competition (a project aimed at students interested in the marketing industry), as well as defining our values ​​and EVP.

The year 2019 brought many changes to our agency and that is why after a few years we decided to stop and look again at the culture of our organization, as well as at our offer addressed to candidates. We weren’t the same as we’ve been a few years before. Our projects, as well as our participation in them, have also changed a lot. As a team, we have gone through many upbuilding, happy, but also very difficult moments. On the occasion of round 2020 (which we know is not what we have expected), we decided to redefine our own EB pillars.

Values ​​that our employees knew, continued to reflect the way we operate in our daily lives but were no longer so vivid. Not to mention the visual side of our communication, which was also supposed to change soon.

EVP has also become a bit outdated, and this is also because our recruitment strategy, organizational structure, and the style of our internal cooperation have changed a lot. Previously, our offer was mainly addressed to juniors and young specialists. Currently, we mainly employ people with many years of experience. Therefore, our current target group has completely different expectations.

So how did we approach the planned changes?

1. Survey and workshops

First, we conducted an anonymous survey among our employees, in which we asked them what are our strengths, but also weaknesses. We assessed our current values ​​and EVP and asked employees about new ones.

After analyzing the survey, we designed a workshop to deepen the information we have obtained. Employees also learned a little about the theory of building an EB strategy, and then taking part in various individual and group tasks, they slowly outlined to us what values ​​they and the company as an employer follow, as well as what they value in working with us and what could make up our EVP.

Such a workshop, apart from being a great opportunity to raise various important topics related to the company’s culture, is also a very nice opportunity for integration. Our team is not very large and we all conduct very transparent communication, which is why we could organize such a meeting for employees, leaders, and management. All together.

2. Benchmark

Knowing the opinion of our employees and leaders, it was time to do research online. This is an important step because we do not want to communicate similarly to our competitors (in our case, both recruitment and business). We analyzed the channels of other agencies: their tone of communication, slogans or keywords, visualizations, and their offer. If you do not know what your recruitment competition is, it is worth asking employees about it during a survey or focus groups.

3. Creation

After we have summarized and approved everything internally, the time for creation has come: building a new claim, as well as naming the values. I will just add that both, EVP and values, ​​have not changed completely. In both cases, we added some components and subtracted some. And as far as we decided to name the values ​​differently this time, we did not want to change the claim diametrically. It has been redrafted in such a way that 2 of our new EVP components are visible. It is empowerment & recognition, which are very important and valued by us as employees.

4. Internal campaign

Before our new communication was launched externally, we wanted to inform our employees first. After all, they were the key part of this project.

In addition to official communication and presentation of the effects of our work, we provided our employees with appropriate graphics that they could replace with the existing ones on their own SoMe channels (e.g. the background on LinkedIn). We started at the very beginning of the pandemic in Poland (March / April 2020), which is why we used this project also for remote integration. Employees selected each other and created, in a simple tool, posters with the image of colleagues from work, along with the values ​​that they represent in their daily work. It was very nice for all of us, not to mention the fact that it was a great fit for our value “appreciation”. We also involved employees in recording a new video for the purposes of external communication (of course, in line with the safety rules prevailing during the pandemic), and provided them with packages with new gadgets promoting our values. These packages also included a card from our managing director, who appreciated each employee individually for representing chosen value ​​:)

5. External campaign

We prepared a teaser and then a campaign including two different videos (in one we show ourselves as employees, in the other, we present some of our projects), new recruitment and image SoMe posts, as well as visual coherence of all our channels (background photos, employer profiles, tab career). At this stage, it was very important to prepare in advance: writing down all the tools, necessary formats, and the media plan.

Most of the materials can be seen on our FB in the video tab. The already mentioned new 2 components of our EVP (empowerment & recognition) also inspired us to create short animations with some of our employees :)

https://www.facebook.com/performante.agency/videos/?ref=page_internal

I hope that our case study will inspire you to take a look at your company’s current EB strategy, as well as the consistency of your communication. The changes are not easy: they require time, the involvement of various people, as well as support from the team/supervisor/management. But believe me, it’s worth it. For us, it was a driving force for action, as well as an opportunity to integrate during remote work. Not to mention the positive feedback from our employees and candidates.

If you want to find out how we can support you in similar projects, feel free to contact us: https://performante.com/contact