The Evolving Employee Value Proposition – Part 3: Can EVP Defend Against the Great Reshuffle?

In 2021, there were reports that Australia was on the brink of The Great Resignation, following in the footsteps of the UK and the US.

Based on the idea that professionals had time to re-assess their career aspirations during Covid-19, The Great Resignation refers to people leaving their industries altogether in search of more meaningful work or better life balance.

In fact, what we’ve seen in the Australian financial services sector is more of a “Great Reshuffle”. With borders slowly starting to open up again, younger professionals are leaving the country in search of new and exciting working holiday opportunities abroad.

Meanwhile, more established financial services professionals staying closer to home are still taking the time to consider new career options. This doesn’t mean leaving their industry entirely, but instead being open to moving roles within their sector.

In this blog, the third in our series about Employee Value Proposition, we dig a bit deeper into the reasons people are looking at greener pastures and how a clear EVP can help employers retain their staff.

Reasons to Stay or Go?

According to a PWC report, 38% of Australians are looking to leave their current employer in the next 12 months and 6 in 10 people who have left an organisation in the past year are looking to leave their current employer in the next 12 months. While a job for life is certainly now a thing of the past, employees choosing to stay in a role for under two years might shock some employers.

PWC designed an Employee Preference Index with seven EVP levers to help organisations categorise and organise their EVP. They asked survey respondents to rank their preferences based on what they value most from their employer.

The results were:

However, we believe the risk with these levers is that it’s easy for survey participants to focus on a rational rather than emotional response when looking for a new role. We have noticed a trend where professionals are looking for more purpose in their roles and wanting a deeper feeling of satisfaction from their work that isn’t fully covered within these parameters.

We decided to dig a bit deeper and find out what organisations could do to create a more personal connection between their employees and their workplaces.

The Need for Emotional Value at Work

According to Harvard Business Review, in response to a post-pandemic world, we should be focusing on the more emotional and qualitative items which are described as The Three Ps: Purpose, People and Pace.

The idea is that if an employee experiences some of these feelings and emotional responses to their jobs, it can be of great benefit to both the employee and the organisation.

We think this model goes further than the standard considerations of pay, flexibility and workplace which are great tools for attraction but may not be enough for retention.

Using this 3 P’s model, organisations can seek to create a long-lasting bond with their employees that could result in loyalty and reduce attrition.

Time for Action

With a clear indication from employees about what they are looking for in an employer, it’s now the responsibility of businesses to meet these expectations. However, the PWC report asked employers if they were planning to update their EVP in order to attract talent ­ almost half said no.

Moreover, the report also showed a stark difference between what employees want and what managers think their employees wanted. This can lead to a false sense of security, with leaders making assumptions and believing their EVP is directly linked to their employees’ preferences.

In our last post, we discussed the steps in Creating a Great EVP which starts with uncovering employee wants and wishes. It’s essential that employers tailor their EVP to their candidates and industry.

There is no “one size fits all” approach when creating your EVP and is needs to be constantly reviewed and updated to meet the market and your existing employee base.

Engage With an Expert

We put together this EVP Series in the hope of kick-starting a conversation about what employee’s value in a post-pandemic world. As you will have read, there are many different opinions ­and organisations will need to deep dive into a fit-for-purpose model what works uniquely for their own organisation’s needs.

Our approach at Kaizen Recruitment is to intimately learn each of our client’s unique benefits and selling features to act as an extension of their brand in the financial services market. We delve deeply into our partner’s individual challenges and points of difference. Only then, can we help our clients continue to customise an attraction or retention strategy that will reap rewards for their organisations.

If you’d like to talk more about creating or reviewing your EVP, please get in touch with one of our specialists. With deep roots in financial services recruitment, we are committed to supporting our clients in funds management, superannuation, insurance and wealth management to both attract and retain elite employees.