employee believes they signed up on joining the business and
the reality of working there. “Frequently, organisations focus
on the external brand of the company from the point of view of
recruitment but once people have joined those aspects can be
forgotten about, ́ suggests Stephen Young, 'irector of Towers
Watson’s Organisational Surveys and Insights practice in EMEA.
He gives the example of one organisation where such analysis
highlighted a feeling that there was a lack of support given to
individuals within the business. “These are the kinds of jarrings that
can make people leave an organisation,” he says.COCA-COLA ENTERPRISES: EVP IN ACTION
With organisational restructures, senior leadership changes, a
push towards globalisation and an economic downturn to contend
with, Coca-Cola Enterprises had already undergone a tumultuous
few years.
In 2010, however, the organisation sold its North American
business to The Coca-Cola Company and took on the Coca-Cola
bottling businesses in both Norway and Sweden, shifting the focus
once again, from a global enterprise to one with a much more
European focus.
From an employee perspective, it can feel like “an anti-engage-
ment formula” according to Rodney Jordan, Director of Employee
Communications. ³You really don’t want to have to put people
through this amount of change,” he says. “But change is necessary
and can be a catalyst, so that is how we decided to use it.”
The business decided to create an effective EVP and use it as
a means to engage employees while also linking in with the wider
organisational vision of becoming the best beverage sales and
customer service company.
The starting point for Coca-Cola Enterprises was an
employee survey that the business’s reward team was already
undertaking, looking into which aspects attracted people to work
at the organisation, beyond remuneration.
A number of themes emerged from this around the aspects
they valued most and, combined with the organisation’s emphasis
on being the best, resulted in the slogan ‘Connect, Grow, Win’.
This was then adapted for all employee communications
across various channels and campaigns, with subtle variances
on the main design, including as part of a relaunch of the broader
people strategy and linking in with the consumer brand for an
external recruitment initiative.
“Before, our branding for our EVP was as diverse as the
number of systems we had,” recalls Jordan. “Branding is a visual
cue for employees and this said ‘disjointed’. As we evolved we
needed to adapt our brand, and the EVP gave us the opportunity to
do that across the entire employee lifecycle.”
The principle of ‘Connect, Grow, Win’ was also used in an
employee engagement survey, conducted by Towers Watson
across the business and its multiple sites, which revealed
engagement levels had remained steady despite the turbulence
of recent years. “Scores did not go through the roof because we
have continued to make a number of changes,” says Jordan. “But
sometimes keeping the ship steady is a good thing.”
The next steps will be to sustain the momentum that has been
built so far around employee engagement and measure the overall
impact of the EVP, says Jordan. He is also keen to further the
involvement of senior leaders throughout the business, especially
at individual site level, in telling the ‘engagement story’.
Jordan is adamant his team, which sits within the HR function,
has a pivotal role to play in helping employees through what has
been an unsettling period. “Just because the business is changing
our commitment to employees does not stop,” he says. “We have
had a number of wins we would not have thought possible.”those at the very top of the organisation.
The global fi nancial services business mentioned earlier used
employee feedback to good effect when shaping its total rewards
strategy, says Andrew Walker, Director at Towers Watson. The
business invited feedback on a number of areas around the deal
employees felt they got, asking for concepts as well as specifi c
measures. The results highlighted areas around the corporate
values and culture as well as tangible measures such as pay,
pensions and working hours.
The business was able to use this feedback in its
consideration of how to shape the total rewards offering, and
even developed a specifi c fi nancial education programme to help
employees raise their confi dence with fi nancially related matters.
“The ability to understand employee sentiment – and to use this
in shaping the future deal – actually helped to drive a positive
outcome. Although this was a diffi cult change situation, the
business was able to build trust by demonstrating it had listened to
people,” says Walker.
Once the strategy has been developed, communication
plays a vital role in helping employees comprehend the concept
and appreciate the value proposition itself. “It’s the point at which
you articulate the deal and, if done well, it can be a fantastic
opportunity,” suggests Walker. “But an EVP evolves as businesses
grow, and communications have to stay on top of that.”
The nature of the communication and tone may well depend
on the type of organisation. Walker gives the example of a
Swiss pharmaceutical fi rm, which produced a white paper-style
document – a format with which its scientists would be familiar – to
outline the proposition. “It’s about putting your people at the heart
of your EVP and treating them more as consumers,” he says.
Other strategies could include videos, radio podcasts, social
media and even interactive games or tools on websites, says
Walker, pointing out that one organisation has recently developed
a specifi c career development tool to map out career routes and
help individuals understand the potential to move around within the
business, rather than look to leave.
The approach taken to articulate an EVP should also vary
according to the individual, adds Walker, with different messages
required for someone joining the business and someone who has
notched up 12 years’ service.
MEASUREMENT
Measuring the impact of an EVP needs to bring together the
rewards offered by the organisation and the engagement levels of
employees. The danger here is that employers focus on improving
employee satisfaction levels but there are a number of other
measures through which impact can be monitored, which will
assess the broader effects of developing an EVP.
As well as asking if employees are happy, organisations can
also pose the question of whether they intend to stay with the
business, if they feel emotionally connected and motivated to put
in extra effort beyond that ordinarily associated with their role, and
whether they are motivated, enabled and energised to deliver their
best performance and sustain it over a period of time. This latter
yardstick is the benchmark, and the ultimate test as to whether an
EVP has succeeded at an individual level, and these can then be
aggregated out at an organisational level.
Such surveys can also be used to monitor aspects of the
EVP that are most valued over time, including letting employees
allocate importance to the various component parts, which forces
them to assess not only the merit of the benefi t itself but also its
relative value to them as part of the broader package.
This kind of in-depth analysis can also identify any
discrepancies that may exist between the package to which an
C O V E R S T O R Y