Crafting your employee value proposition (EVP) is an important step in building a people strategy with intentionality.
It’s no wonder employers are investing in EVP and employer brand work. According to LinkedIn, 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job.
But for organizations that have already taken this critical step, when is it time to refresh your EVP?
Having partnered with organizations across sectors and geographies to create award-winning employer brand strategies, my advice is pretty simple when it comes to knowing when to refresh an EVP.
The first myth I’d like to dispel is that an EVP is written in stone. It isn’t. It’s intended to evolve alongside your organization. That said, workplaces can evolve rapidly, which is why ongoing EVP health checks are a great idea.
So, when is an EVP update in the cards?
1) Your organization has changed significantly
This is probably the most obvious trigger.
Maybe you’ve gone through a merger or acquisition. Maybe your business strategy has shifted. Maybe you’ve entered new markets, changed your operating model, grown rapidly, or gone through significant restructuring.
When the organization changes, the employee experience often changes with it.
And that means the promises you make to current and prospective employees may need to change too.
2) Your talent needs have changed
Your EVP was created at a particular point in time.
Five years later, you may have a different workforce.
That doesn’t mean you need to chase every new employee expectation or rebuild your EVP every time the talent market changes.
But it does mean you should periodically ask: What matters to our people now, and are those things reflected in our EVP?
3) Your employee experience no longer matches your promise
This is the big one.
An EVP is a people promise and your “why”. Your employee experience is the proof.
If your EVP says one thing and employees experience something substantially different, you have an authenticity problem.
This isn’t a copywriting problem. It’s an alignment problem.
Sometimes the answer is to change the EVP. Sometimes the answer is to change the experience. And sometimes you need to do both.
4) Your EVP sounds good but isn’t alive within the organization
This is another common sign.
Did you know that according to Gartner, 75% of HR leaders admitted they are not doing a great job of communicating their EVP internally?
You have an EVP sitting on a slide deck somewhere. Maybe it appears on the careers site. But a strong EVP shouldn’t live in a presentation. It should help people make decisions and influence how you invest in your employee experience.
If your EVP has become something you have rather than something you use, it may be time to revisit it.
5) Your EVP doesn’t help you differentiate
An EVP can be completely true and still not be particularly useful.
If your EVP could belong to almost any organization in your industry, it isn’t doing enough work for you.
Ask yourself: Why would someone choose to build their career here rather than somewhere else?
The answer needs to be grounded in reality, with a layer of aspiration that can help propel you toward your desired future state.
6) Your recruitment and retention challenges have changed
Sometimes the trigger is change. It’s a change in the talent market, in the roles you’re trying to fill, or in the teams you are looking to retain.
Perhaps you’re struggling to attract a particular skill set. Perhaps the candidates you’re reaching aren’t responding to your messaging. Perhaps your organization has a much clearer understanding of what makes certain roles attractive or difficult than it did when the EVP was originally developed.
This doesn’t automatically mean your EVP is the problem.
But it is a reason to investigate.
Before rewriting your EVP, look at the evidence.
What are candidates telling you? What are employees telling you? What are recruiters hearing? Where are people dropping out of the recruitment process? Where are you winning people, and where are you losing them?
Your EVP should respond to evidence, not assumptions.
7) You can’t confidently say, “This is still true.”
This may be the simplest test of all.
Take your EVP and ask yourself: Is this actually true today?
You may discover that some parts are still completely relevant. Some may need updating. Some may no longer be true at all.
And you may uncover things that weren’t part of your original EVP but are now fundamental to the employee experience.
That’s valuable information.
So… how often should you update your EVP?
There is no magic number.
Instead, I recommend treating your EVP as a living business asset.
Schedule an EVP health check annually and take it from there. Many organizations will see enough material change to warrant a refresh every three to five years, but that can vary greatly from organization to organization.
And there’s an important distinction between refreshing an EVP and starting from scratch.
The real question isn’t: “How old is our EVP?”
It’s: Does our EVP reflect who we are as an employer? Is it helping build organizational identity in a crowded marketplace and ignite employee pride internally? Is it woven throughout the employee lifecycle so that it’s more than a slide deck, but a thoughtful articulation of what it means to work here?
After all, the core rationale for crafting your EVP is to help build a people strategy with intentionality.
It’s about creating an employee experience that isn’t left to chance, but is thoughtfully designed and woven into each touchpoint of the employee lifecycle.
Because your EVP isn’t just a statement. It’s a reflection of the relationship you want to build with your people and your people promise.