Learn more about supporting workforce attraction, development, and retention in the disability sector on the NDS Workforce Hub page.

Why have an EVP?

Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is the reason a candidate will choose to work for your organisation over another. Your EVP showcases the key benefits you offer your workers.

Your EVP supports:

• Recruitment and talent acquisition strategies
• Worker engagement
• Worker retention
• Your reputation as an employer of choice
• Organisation understanding of your unique benefits as an employer
• Amplification of your organisation or employer brand.

 What can an EVP include?

Organisational values and culture

Attracting candidates that align with an organisation’s mission, values and culture contributes to a connected, motivated and engaged workforce, and reduces worker turnover. Your organisation mission, values and culture as described in your EVP will impact the type of candidates you attract. It is important to align your EVP promise to worker lived experience.

Specific attractive work conditions

While financial remuneration is important, workers also value other benefits. Examples include:

• Flexible work arrangements
• Core Office Hours
• Hours smoothing
• Work-from-home and hybrid options
• Additional paid annual leave (eg. extra week or Christmas shut-down period)
• Purchased leave schemes
• Wellbeing and mental health days
• Birthday day-off
• Corporate volunteering or volunteering time
• Office facilities (eg. parking, bike racks, shower, office iron/steamer, coffee machine, visiting coffee van).

Professional development/career opportunities

Professional development and career opportunities for workers demonstrate a commitment to their learning and future, and is a proven worker retention strategy. Initiatives range from formal opportunities to informal and no/low-cost activities.

Examples include:

• Fully funded or subsidised qualifications and training
• Lunch and learn sessions
• Mentor and coaching options
• Paid time-off for training
• Regular informal ‘coffee date’ between Manager and Employees
• 'Take-a-turn’, ‘job swap’, and ‘hack-for-a-day’
• Supported career development planning for internal opportunities.

Specific benefit programs

1. Health and Wellbeing programs

• Discounted private health insurance
• Gym membership reimbursement (or other eligible items eg sneakers)
• Health and wellbeing challenges (eg. Dry July, Feel Good February, Active August)
• On-site/online health activities (eg. Meditation Mondays, Wellness Wednesdays, Yoga)
• No-lunch-at-desk policy
• Wellness hub via an online library: guided meditations, happiness content, nutrition and dietary talks
• ‘Happiness Engineers’ can be nominated from within teams to coordinate happiness initiatives.

2. Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

An EAP is a common component of an organisation’s EVP.

Points to consider in choosing an EAP Provider:

• Ensure you have the best-fit EAP model for your organisation
• Consider terms of service that demonstrate your commitment to your workers
• Capability of the EAP Provider to provide continuity of care beyond the funded sessions
• Ongoing communication and promotion to your workforce.

3. Referral Bonus Programs

• Many NDIS Providers value candidate recommendations from their existing workforce. Read a brief overview of Employee Referral bonus schemes.
• There are a number of apps that may be useful in delivering this type of scheme. Examples include Care Friends and Odoo.

Purchased EVP offers

There are specialist companies that provide customised employee rewards and benefits packages that can make up part of your EVP. Products available range from discount programs, reward and recognition schemes, wellbeing resources and employee community platforms.

• Discount programs offer discounts in the form of cashbacks or e-cards with partner retailers
• Rewards and recognition programs offer streamlined and cost-effective rewards systems and provide innovative ways to deliver recognition initiatives (from milestones, informal 'thank yous' to formal awards)
• Wellbeing centres feature wellbeing content generally across mental health, exercise, dietary and financial categories
• Employee community platforms are a form of workplace social media and communications centre reducing isolation and enabling a sense of community
• Referral programs incentivise employee promotion of job vacancies through their professional and social networks.

All the little things that make your organisation a great place to work.

How to build your EVP

Step 1: Get clear on who you want to attract

• What types of people are your ideal candidates?
• What values or attitudes do your ideal candidates have?
• What backgrounds or experiences do your ideal candidates have?

Step 2: Engage your existing workforce

• Identify people already working in your organisation who represent your ideal candidates and ask:
  • What attracted them to work for your organisation?
  • What do they like about working for your organisation?
  • Why do they stay?
  • What would they change to make your organisation an even better place to work?
• Potentially engage more broadly within your organisation through surveys or focus groups.
• Exit interviews can include specific questions about your EVP
  • What did they like about your EVP?
  • What changes can you make to strengthen your EVP?
  • Employee review sites (eg Glassdoor) are another way to find out what your workers really think about your workplace. Because reviews are anonymous, feedback is candid and can provide details that other methods don’t capture.

Employee engagement assists you to understand your current EVP in the words that resonate with your workforce, and how your current EVP could be elevated to be even more attractive.

Step 3: Engage with your job candidates

• Ask people who rejected your job offer to take a ‘candidate experience survey’ to get detailed information on why they said no
• Ask your new hires to take a ‘candidate experience survey’ to understand why they accepted your job offer. What was the ‘wow’ moment for them?

Candidate engagement assists you to understand “what’s working” in attracting the right candidates to your organisation.

Step 4: Craft your EVP

• Identify the key themes and messages to incorporate in your pitch to potential workers – focus on what is unique about your organisation and keep it authentic.
• Draw on marketing and HR expertise to create a clear, succinct EVP statement.
• Consider real stories to humanise your pitch.

Step 5: Plan and roll-out your EVP

• Develop a roadmap to implement your EVP internally and externally
• Develop an evaluation strategy for your EVP
• Short term measures could include:
  • Success with job ad and social media impressions
  • website views on your careers page
  • a staff feedback poll.
• Long term measures could include
  • staff satisfaction surveys
  • turnover and retention stats
  • reward and benefit usage

Useful articles on crafting an EVP include:

• Employer Branding
• EVP Examples
• Employee Value Proposition Toolkit