The ROAD to Retention and Engagement
Sarah Larson
Talent Strategist, Organizational Thought Leadership, Independent Consulting
Boosting Your Employee Value Proposition in a Post-Pandemic World
I landed my dream role at the start of 2020. In my first three months as vice president of talent at Atlassian, I operated in a state of continual awe. I marveled at the capable, inspiring team, our innovative products, and the cutting-edge office space that boasted a movement room, a Zen meditation space, massage chairs, and a bustling cafeteria serving up beautiful bites worthy of any Instagram feed. I giddily joined community-building events like Casablanca night and a Mardi Gras party complete with a full crawfish boil. I felt connected to our company's purpose and engaged with its people and products.
My mission was clear, and it was exciting—to unleash the potential of Atlassian’s global distributed workforce. My team and I quickly got to work designing agile and scalable processes to motivate, empower and enable our employees to do their best work and drive business impact. We knew our talent and what drove them, and we were going to transform the working environment to meet their needs.
Little did we know that the environment was actually going to transform all by itself. Two months after I began work at Atlassian, COVID-19 descended.
Then everything changed.
The evolving workplace: Three big shifts
The nature of the employer-employee relationship had actually begun changing before COVID-19, but the pandemic brought this evolution to a head. And it wasn’t just at Atlassian—it was everywhere. Gartner has broken these changes down into three big shifts:
Shift 1: Employees want to be seen as people rather than as workers.
Shift 2: Work is a subset of life, not separate from it.
Shift 3: Employees value feelings over features.
These shifts aren’t all attributable to the pandemic; broader societal events and emerging generational differences also played a role. But it’s clear they aren’t going away, and they have enormous implications for how organizations attract, engage, and retain employees.
Let’s take a look.
Shift #1: Who is doing the work? From workers to people.
The traditional ideology of work has been based on a “principal-agent” model in which the principal, or leader, has the lion’s share of power in the corporation. Leaders set the vision and goals and expect workers, or agents, to do the work in exchange for workplace perks, pay, and benefits. But this traditional model and “value exchange” is outdated and no longer satisfies the needs of the post-pandemic workforce. After all, over the last several years employees have had to contend with pandemic-related struggles, societal upheaval, mental health issues, and pervasive loneliness. It’s become impossible to deny the reality that employees are people with lives and human needs and that they want to be recognized as people rather than just as workers there to perform a job for pay. Gartner reported on this trend in 2021, and I saw it in my own company, as Atlassian’s employees began to put a voice to their very real and pressing human needs.
Shift #2: Where does work fit in our lives? From separate to subset.
Before the pandemic, work was a defining part of our identities and social experience, and yet, was completely separated from the rest of our lives. When the pandemic sent us all home, that separation disappeared. Work became interwoven with our lives, and this took its toll on our mental and physical health. As burnout and loneliness increased, employees started rethinking the centrality of work in their lives. This led many to set strict boundaries on their work and engage in what is now commonly referred to as quiet quitting.
When work was a separate entity in our lives, organizations could deliver value to employees by creating great employee experiences at work. Today’s organizations need to focus on what employees now value: A positive life experience where work is merely one subset of their lives.
Shift #3: Why do employees work for us? From things to feelings.
Prior to the pandemic, Atlassian, like so many employers, focused on creating employee value through features that were largely focused on things at or about work—the things that wowed me when I joined the company. But when we shifted to remote and hybrid modes of work, those things became unavailable and thus, irrelevant. Since then, employees have voiced more pressing needs that are rooted in the feelings they want to have at work, rather than the material things they get at work.
Combined, these three shifts have fundamentally altered what employees value in their work. The traditional employee value proposition (EVP)—based on workplace perks, pay, benefits, and career growth—no longer satisfies the needs of today’s workforce. And incremental changes to the EVP won’t cut it. We need to radically re-imagine our EVPs and enter into what can best be described as the Era of the Human Deal. But before we head down this ROAD, first we must understand what an EVP is and why it is so important for attraction, engagement, and retention.
What is an EVP, and why do we need one?
An EVP explains to potential employees why the work experience at an organization is different from that of other organizations. It answers two fundamental questions: “Why work here?” and “Why stay here?” An EVP contains a unique set of associations or offerings provided by a company to employees in exchange for the skills, capabilities and experiences the employees bring to the organization. Put simply, the EVP clarifies the “give” and the “get” and is designed to provide an exceptional employee experience by delivering features that match employee needs.
The EVP is a useful tool for recruitment efforts, taking the focus off of compensation as the primary "get." An EVP also helps human resource leaders prioritize the people agenda, create a strong people brand, re-engage any “at risk” employees, and reduce hire premiums. Bottom line: An effective EVP will improve hiring quality, minimize turnover, increase engagement and improve performance.
The new EVP
Now, companies need to take a hard look at their EVPs to address the three shifts we discussed above. We know the traditional EVP is weakening. Gartner’s 2021 EVP Employee Survey indicated that less than one-third of human resources staff believe their employees are satisfied with their company’s EVP—and nearly two-thirds of candidates for employment have removed themselves from consideration before the end of the hiring process due to an unsatisfactory EVP.
It’s clear that the EVP needs an overhaul. The EVP of the future must meet the needs of employees as people—people who are figuring out how to fit work within their life, and people who value feelings over material things at work.
So what are these needs and feelings and how do we address them?
Let’s set out on the ROAD.
The ROAD: Four big human needs
In order to rethink your EVP, it’s important to understand what employees value in our post-pandemic environment. The research is quite conclusive on these four needs:
Recognition (R). Employees want to be valued for their efforts and achievements. We must recognize them to motivate them to stay, perform and engage.
Options (O). During the pandemic, we all got used to having more autonomy over our time and work. Once you provide a perk like this, it’s hard to roll it back. In fact, employees are craving even more autonomy. We must offer them options and allow them to make choices within boundaries that protect productivity and corporate goals.
Affinity (A). Forget the Great Resignation—we’re in the Great Disconnection. Never before have employees felt so lonely. Now that the office is no longer the social hub it used to be, they are eager for strong social, familial and professional connections to help reclaim meaningful connections in their lives. Employers can foster this desire for affinity on two levels:
Affinity with purpose through relationships with the company and society.
Affinity with most important people (MIPs), such as the manager, peers, family and the community.
Development (D). The last few years have seen a spike in mental health issues and financial hardship. As a result, employees are no longer solely concerned about developing their professional skill set. They have real and pressing personal development goals. We have to start developing employees as people, caring for their holistic wellbeing and helping them to link that wellbeing with their professional satisfaction and performance.
This is the ROAD: a map to boosting your EVP to drive engagement and retention in a post-pandemic world.
While addressing all four needs will achieve maximum impact, organizations can reap benefits by focusing on any one of them.
Fulfilling the need to be valued through Recognition
It takes more than a good salary to attract and retain top talent. People want to know that their individual work matters—that they matter. They need appreciation. And the research has shown that, increasingly, they won’t stick around if this need isn’t met.
Annual performance incentives are only one way to recognize employees for their contribution. But other less formal and costly expressions of appreciation can make a huge impact on employee engagement and retention. In fact, research indicates that there is a direct correlation between employee performance and their manager’s expressions of gratitude for it. And managers are routinely failing to deliver recognition. The Gallup/Workhuman study linked above found that just 23% of employees strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the recognition they receive.
It’s clear this needs to change. For an in-depth look at the reasons employee recognition matters and practical ways to improve your company’s approach to it, click here.
Fulfilling the need for autonomy through Options
The entire workforce got a taste of autonomy when we all worked from home during the pandemic. We got to determine where we worked, when we worked, how we worked. And once you have that kind of freedom of choice, it’s impossible to roll it back.
Increasingly, workers aren’t settling for less than they believe they deserve. Employees want to choose where and when they work, what they do, with whom, and to what end. If their workplaces don’t give them the autonomy to do so, they walk. A record 47.4 million people quit their jobs in 2021, the most ever in a year.
But giving employees autonomy does more than just hold on to them. When workers have autonomy, they are more productive—and that productivity actually increases with the number of choices they are given. Gartner’s 2021 EVP Employee Survey showed that, when companies offered more “radical” autonomy to their employees, the number of high-performing employees shot up by 40%.
The new human EVP needs to incorporate increased autonomy if it is to be effective. There’s no way around it. For more information about why autonomy is important and tips on how to increase employees’ options, click here.
Fulfilling the need for connection through Affinity
Before the pandemic, the office was a social hub. We didn’t have to work at making connections there; they just occurred naturally. And we took them for granted. Post-COVID, the workplace hasn’t managed to regain its social vigor, and we’re feeling the loss.
This isn’t to say that employers should solve the loneliness problem permeating our workforce, but organizations can and should facilitate meaningful experiences for employees to connect with their managers and peers.
But affinity with colleagues is only part of the desire. Employees also want to connect with a broader social support network. Gartner’s 2021 EVP Employee Survey found that 68% of employees say it is important for their organization to understand and share in helping them connect with their family, while 62% say the same about their community. To fulfill employees’ desire for deeper connections, organizations must provide avenues (or at least time) for employees to engage in civic life, community life, and family life so they can connect to societal causes and their most important people (MIPs).
Finally, employees are looking to connect with a purpose at work. Organizations that thrived during the pandemic accomplished this by facilitating employee involvement in a shared mission, organizational values, pledges or societal causes.
For more information about the importance of connection and how to foster affinity with people and purpose, click here.
Fulfilling the need for whole person Development
Professional development is no longer enough. Employees expect to be viewed as whole people with lives, responsibilities and needs outside the office. Gartner found in its 2021 EVP Employee Survey that 68% of Generation Z employees value opportunities at work to learn skills that they can use in their personal lives—and yet, only 5% of employees reported that their organization met their need for developing personal growth.
There is a huge gap here that needs to be addressed and there are compelling benefits from doing so. The Gartner survey found that offering personal growth opportunities improves employee performance 2.5 times more than just offering professional growth opportunities. It also found that employees’ intent to stay at their company is 6.4% higher when they have opportunities for personal growth.
Companies can boost their EVP by partnering with companies to offer mental, financial, familial and other forms of personal development. For more information about how to develop employees as whole people, and tips for getting started, click here.
The way forward on the ROAD
I recently shared the ROAD construct with leaders at Spectrum Equity’s Leadership Summit. In our discussion, we all agreed that setting out on the ROAD is a massive and exciting opportunity in HR. After all, HR is uniquely positioned as a people-centric function to help champion and steward the transformation in delivering employee value. Without a doubt, HR has a very significant role to play in this work. Yet, helping employees feel valued, autonomous, connected, and whole is not solely the work of HR. The business has to come along on the ROAD.
But not all business leaders will be eager to abandon or convert their EVP. After all, many have worked in the traditional paradigm their whole life. But here’s the good news. Many leaders already recognize these needs on a very personal level, and most organizations have access to employee survey and exit data that support these needs and the shifts we need to make to meet them. The other good news is that the four strategies contained in the ROAD are not new concepts in the workplace. Even more good news: Making progress on any part of the ROAD is going to generate results—and we can use that data to build further momentum.
What’s important is to get started on the ROAD. Whether you’re in HR or another function, start the conversation in your organization, support it with the data, and identify a few quick wins to go after … but start now. Why is this so urgent? Because if we don’t deliver the value employees seek in work, generations of employees will opt out. Many already are.
So let’s load up the car and set off on the ROAD to create a human-centered EVP that will attract and retain the employees of today—and those of tomorrow.
Reach out to me at Larson & Associates if you or your colleagues want to discuss the ROAD more deeply. I’d be happy to help you and your organization or simply share more examples and best practices!