How to develop your Employee Value Proposition

A compelling Employee Value Proposition (EVP) helps you attract the best and brightest teaching staff, which is critical to the long-term success of your educational institution.

What is your EVP?

An EVP comprises the unique qualities of your environment, culture, job content and remuneration including benefits. The things that make your organisation a desirable place to work.

With a shortage of qualified STEM teachers, a drop in teaching university enrolments and an increase in teachers leaving during their first five years, it is becoming increasingly vital to attract more of the right people into the profession, and into your school.

To develop a compelling EVP, you need to:

1. Know what is important to your ideal hires.
2. Craft a compelling vision of how your school meets their needs.
3. Share that vision with potential new hires in the forums where they form their perceptions of your institution.
   
   

First, know what’s important to your ideal next hires

If your purpose is to attract the best and brightest teaching talent to your institution, you must first seek to understand what is important to them. The greatest opportunity for modern educational institutions is to highlight the fact that education allows passionate people to align their passions with the organisation’s purpose.

To attract visionary staff, you need to address four key drivers for people who are passionate about education:

1. Your vision of how education contributes to our future, and how your school contributes to this vision.
2. The modern teaching philosophies of your school, and how they are being lived out by your staff and students.
3. The people and culture of your school.
4. Smart use of innovative technology within your school to improve learning outcomes.
   
   

Tell your story in a compelling and engaging manner

Once you’re clear on your projected vision of the future of education and how your school is helping achieve this, you need to craft and tell your story in a manner that can be shared.

My best practical advice is to find ‘EVP Champions’ within your organisation – people with interesting stories who are doing interesting things that reflect your vision, mission and values. Then, embrace video to capture and share those stories.

Video is one of the most persuasive and compelling media that we have available. Our brains are capable of processing visual information incredibly quickly, so video also has the power of being able to quickly convey emotion.

Some ideas for using video to effectively convey your EVP include:

• Film your senior leaders discussing the educational philosophies of your school, then release these in a series of short videos.
• Share examples of how your teachers are practically applying your teaching philosophies.
• Have your teaching staff share their experience of working practically and apply your teaching philosophies.
• Have your non-teaching staff share the compelling elements of their roles. For example, a Bursar is often an innovative Finance Director overseeing a multi-million dollar portfolio.
  
  

Podcasts are another great and under-utilised medium. Passionate educators are actively seeking new ways, such as podcasts, to digest information to further their career. You can start a podcast to promote your school or seek to have senior members of your leadership team appear as guests on other relevant educational podcasts.

Share your story where educators are making career decisions

Social media has created opportunities for us to better connect with educational staff and engage them before they begin jobseeking. While Facebook and Instagram are excellent places to interact with parents and students, schools underestimate the opportunities of using LinkedIn to engage with people considering their career.

Some schools post videos of the faculty staff discussing how working at the school has helped further their career ambitions. Others work with LinkedIn using a ‘Life’ page to further tell a story of what it’s like to work at the school, then move the audience to their career pages and website.

You also need to think global when sharing your EVP. Australia is a desirable location for many teachers all across the world and you should promote your EVP in relevant countries that might have suitable applicants.

Ensure your EVP remains true throughout your hiring experience

A word of warning – all your hard work to engage with talented individuals and tell the story of why your organisation is an incredible place to work can be undone by an outdated and ineffective recruitment process. It is important that you have a modern, responsive, high touch recruitment experience that reflects the EVP you want to convey to the market.