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EVP research: build an employer promise that holds up
A strong Employee Value Proposition, often abbreviated as EVP, is more than a beautiful promise on your careers page. It’s about why people choose your organization, why they stay and what they get in return for their commitment. With EVP research from Deepler, you discover which elements of your employer offering truly have value for employees and where the story doesn’t match their daily experience.
- Discover what employees truly value about your organization
- Make your employer promise concrete, credible and distinctive
- Connect employer branding with data from your organization
Employee Value Proposition: what does EVP mean for your organization?
Many organizations want to become more attractive as an employer, but start directly with campaigns, labor market communication or a new careers site. Without a sharp EVP, that often remains superficial. EVP research helps you first understand what your organization promises employees, what is actually delivered in practice and where there’s room to strengthen your employer positioning.
In this article we explain:
- What an Employee Value Proposition is
- What EVP means for employer branding
- How an EVP model helps structure your employer promise
- Why EVP research is valuable for HR and management
- How Deepler helps you move from employee input to a strong EVP
Table of contents
What is an Employee Value Proposition?
An Employee Value Proposition is the core of what your organization has to offer as an employer. It describes the value employees experience in return for their time, talent, energy and commitment.
Think of development, leadership, culture, working conditions, work-life balance, autonomy, purpose and how people work together. A good EVP is not a made-up marketing phrase, but a summary of what employees recognize, candidates find attractive and the organization can actually deliver.
EVP meaning in practice
The meaning of EVP becomes clear only when you connect it to the daily experience of employees. An organization can say development matters, but if employees don’t experience time, guidance or growth opportunities, that promise becomes unbelievable. That’s why a strong EVP doesn’t start with creation, but with research: what do employees already value, what are they missing and which promise fits both the reality and ambition of the organization?
The EVP model: the five pillars
A widely used EVP model comes from research and advisory firm Gartner. It divides the employer offering into five pillars:
- Rewards: salary, benefits and work-life balance
- Opportunity: development, promotion and career prospects
- Organization: mission, reputation and social impact
- People: leadership, colleagues and the culture within teams
- Work: the content of the work, autonomy and variety
Employee or employer value proposition?
You will come across both terms, and they mean the same thing: the value you offer as an employer. Employee value proposition puts the emphasis on what the employee experiences. Employer value proposition looks at it from the employer’s side. In both cases we abbreviate it to EVP, and it is about the employer promise you deliver on.
Why is an EVP important?
An EVP largely determines how credible you are on the labor market. Candidates quickly see through general promises, especially when every organization says it’s flexible, people-focused and ambitious.
Internally it works the same way: employees want to recognize what the organization promises. If the employer story matches practice, more trust emerges, more pride and better direction in how you attract, develop and retain people.
A strong EVP makes employer branding concrete and measurable
Employer branding is often seen as communication, while it starts with proof. EVP research makes visible which parts of the employer offering are distinctive and which are mainly wishful thinking. This allows you to base your employer brand on data instead of assumptions.
1. A sharper employer story
With EVP research you discover which themes employees themselves mention as the organization’s strength. This produces language that’s much more credible than generic slogans. You get words, examples and accents that fit the culture and can be used in labor market communication.
2. Better alignment with candidates
An EVP helps clarify who your organization is attractive to. Not everyone needs to feel addressed. By choosing more sharply, you attract candidates who fit your way of working, culture and expectations within the organization.
3. More internal recognition
An employer promise only works if employees recognize themselves in it. By actively involving employees in EVP research, you prevent HR or marketing from creating a story that doesn’t resonate internally. This increases buy-in and makes it easier to use the EVP organization-wide.
4. Stronger basis for retention
An EVP isn’t just about attracting, but also about retaining. When it’s clear what employees value, you can work more purposefully on working conditions, development, leadership and culture. This makes employee retention less dependent on isolated initiatives.
5. More consistency in communication
A good EVP gives direction to job descriptions, onboarding, campaigns, candidate conversations and internal communication. This creates one recognizable story instead of separate messages per department, recruiter or manager.
Conduct your EVP research with Deepler’s software
With Deepler you gather structured input from employees about what they find important in their work and how they experience your organization as an employer. The EVP module helps make themes such as development, culture, leadership, working conditions, work-life balance and pride measurable.
In the dashboard you see which elements are strong, where differences exist between teams or target groups and which topics need more attention. This doesn’t create an abstract brand document, but a substantiated EVP that HR, management and marketing can use to position the employer offering more sharply and improve it concretely.
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What makes a good EVP?
A strong EVP is more than an attractive sentence. Test your employer promise against these five criteria:
- True: employees recognize the promise in their daily work
- Attractive: the promise matches what your target group values
- Distinctive: another employer cannot simply claim the same promise
- Credible: there is proof, such as stories, figures and examples from the organization
- Sustainable: you can still deliver on the promise in a few years’ time
If your EVP scores low on true or credible, it is more of a wish than a promise. An EVP survey shows you where you stand on each criterion.
From promise to proof
An EVP becomes stronger when it’s backed by proof from the organization. Employee experience, HR data and qualitative explanations show which themes recur.
After that you can translate the EVP into communication, policy and behavior. The research is thus not an endpoint, but the beginning of an improvement cycle: measure what employees experience, choose which employer promise fits, improve where the promise is still vulnerable and periodically check whether the story still holds.
What are the benefits of EVP research?
EVP research helps organizations connect employer branding, recruitment and employee retention. Instead of separate campaigns or assumptions, a substantiated picture emerges of what makes your organization attractive. The main benefits lie in clarity, credibility and better choices for the long term.
A distinctive employer brand
Many employers use the same words: flexible, informal, ambitious and committed. EVP research helps you go beyond that. By researching what employees actually experience, you discover what makes your organization different from other employers.
- Which values are truly felt?
- Which parts of the work give energy?
- Which culture characteristics make people proud?
- Which promise can you credibly convey?
This makes employer branding more concrete and less interchangeable.
More targeted focus on employee retention
An EVP shows which factors employees find important to stay. That could be development, but also autonomy, leadership, workload, compensation, recognition or social dynamics in teams.
By measuring these themes, you see where the organization is strong and where risks emerge. This makes retention policy less based on feeling and more on patterns that employees themselves indicate.
More alignment between HR and communication
A strong EVP ensures that HR, recruitment, marketing and management work from the same story. Job descriptions, onboarding, internal communication and leadership align better.
This prevents candidates from being promised something different than what employees experience. It’s precisely this alignment that makes the employer story more trustworthy and helps set clear expectations from the start.
Building an EVP in 5 steps
A good EVP is not born in a brainstorm, but where three questions meet: what do your employees experience, what is your target group looking for and what do other employers offer? Here is how to approach it.
1. Research what employees experience now
Start internally. Ask employees why they chose your organization, why they stay and what they miss. An anonymous EVP survey gives an honest picture per pillar, supplemented with open answers in employees’ own words.
2. Map your target groups
A starter often looks for something different from an experienced specialist or a manager. Decide which target groups you want to appeal to and what they value in an employer.
3. Compare yourself with other employers
Look at what employers in your region or sector promise. What everyone promises does not set you apart. Look for the points where you are genuinely different.
4. Formulate your employer promise
Choose the themes where what employees experience, what your target group is looking for and what sets you apart come together. Write the promise in the language of your employees and back it up with concrete examples. Read more about the role of culture in our article on culture as the cornerstone of employer branding.
5. Deliver on your EVP and keep testing it
Translate the promise into job postings, onboarding, leadership and policy. First work on themes that do not yet hold true, before you communicate them externally. Then measure periodically whether employees still recognize the promise, because an EVP that holds true internally also helps you retain employees for longer.
Examples of an EVP
What an EVP looks like differs per organization. These examples show how an employer promise becomes concrete when you link it to a pillar and to proof:
- Opportunity: “With us, you grow through your own projects from your first year.” Proof: how many employees moved into a new role within two years.
- People: “You work in small teams where everyone has a say in decisions.” Proof: how teams are organized and how decisions are made.
- Work: “You decide where and when you work.” Proof: agreements on hybrid working and how they work out in practice.
- Organization: “Your work contributes directly to better care in the region.” Proof: stories from employees and results for patients.
- Rewards: “We pay above average and transparently.” Proof: a published salary structure.
The difference between a strong and a weak EVP lies in that proof. Without proof, “we offer plenty of growth opportunities” is just a slogan. With an EVP survey, you know which promises your employees endorse and which they do not yet.
Trusted by small and large organizations
Experiences of clients who make a difference with us.
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Larren
Recruitment Lead,
De Selectie
“Recently, I used Deepler to arrive at an EVP. Great what they were able to achieve in a short time! In a period of two weeks, we collected information and were able to continue with our AMC plan. In any other situation, it takes weeks, if not months, to get this done. Contact is good, friendly and constructive. Very nice club to work with.”
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Douwe
Recruiter,
Securitas
“Ideal tool and company to gain more and better insight into the organization and employees as an organization! And especially with speed! For us, it was also the need to get tools for the topics of retention, to prevent future absenteeism or turnover. I also have experience with other parties and I sincerely value the speed of switching, follow-up and personal contact with Deepler. Absolutely recommended.”
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Jolanda
HR Business Partner,
Nedcargo
“Deepler is a great tool for continuously collecting feedback from our employees. This input is then centrally available for us as management, but also for managers who benefit from it.”
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Jonathan
Manager,
UWV
“What makes Deepler special is that it doesn’t get stuck in numbers. It helps you immediately understand where it is and what teams need. For us, this ensured that employees themselves came up with areas for improvement and took responsibility for them. The insights were sharp and useful, but most importantly: the conversation that started afterwards made the difference. Thanks to Deepler, we didn’t get a paper plan, but change that was supported by the people themselves.”
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Amadeus
COO,
OSRE
“The software has a positive impact on us as a rapidly growing organization. By better understanding what is going on in the workplace and what people offer as solutions for improvements, we can make more effective decisions. The platform helps us to gain real-time insight and to respond directly to it via the tool.”
Is EVP research mandatory and what about privacy?
EVP research is not legally required. However, it can be very valuable for organizations, especially when they want to grow, struggle to attract candidates or notice that their employer story isn’t sharp enough.
Because EVP research is often conducted among employees, care is important. Employees need to know why their input is being requested, what will happen with the results and how the organization ensures that answers cannot be traced back to individuals. Especially on sensitive topics like compensation, leadership, workload or development opportunities, feedback can be sensitive.
Is an EVP survey anonymous?
An EVP survey works best when employees can honestly indicate what they value and what they miss. Anonymity helps with that.
Deepler therefore reports results at group level and not as individual separate answers. With small teams or specific target groups, careful consideration must be given to which breakdowns are justified. The goal is not to monitor individual opinions, but to recognize patterns that help strengthen the employer brand.
What about GDPR and privacy in an EVP survey?
In an EVP survey, you process employee feedback. This requires clear agreements about purpose, access, and retention period. Important principles are:
- Collect only information necessary for the survey
- Explain in advance what the results will be used for
- Report at group level where necessary for anonymity
- Limit access to results to the right stakeholders
- Use open answers carefully, especially with recognizable examples
This keeps the survey reliable for the organization and safe for employees.
What is the role of HR, management, and marketing in EVP?
An EVP affects multiple teams. HR maintains the connection with employee experience, policy, and retention.
Management determines which employer promise fits the organization’s direction. Marketing or communications translates the story into labor market communication, campaigns, and content.
Recruitment uses the EVP in conversations with candidates and job descriptions. The best results emerge when these parties work together and see EVP not just as a communications project, but as an employer promise that must be delivered internally.
Why do organizations conduct an EVP survey?
Because a strong employer brand story becomes increasingly important, but generic promises are less and less convincing. Organizations want to know what makes them attractive, but also where employee experience still falls short.
An EVP survey provides that honesty. It helps to define what you stand for as an employer, which candidates you want to attract, and what improvements are needed to retain employees.
Get more out of your EVP survey
Start with employee experience
Start not with slogans, but with what employees experience daily. Ask about pride, energy, development, leadership, culture, and expectations. That’s the foundation for a credible EVP.
Make choices in your promise
An EVP doesn’t need to cover everything. In fact: the more you promise, the less sharp it becomes. Choose themes that are distinctive, recognizable, and achievable.
Translate insight into behavior
An EVP comes alive only when managers, recruiters, and employees recognize it in practice. So use the results for onboarding, leadership, and internal communication as well.
Do’s of an EVP survey
An EVP survey yields more when carefully set up and clearly linked to employer branding choices.
- Involve employees before sharpening the employer story
- Examine both strengths and missing elements
- Use language that employees themselves recognize
- Link EVP to recruitment, onboarding, and retention
- Periodically test whether the promise still holds true
Don’ts of an EVP survey
- Don’t start a campaign before you know what employees experience
- Don’t make a promise that isn’t delivered internally
- Don’t use generic words that any employer can claim
- Don’t ignore differences between target groups, teams, or roles
- Don’t treat EVP as just a marketing project
What do you do with the results of an EVP survey?
The results of an EVP survey form the basis for choices in employer branding, HR policy, and employee retention. It’s important not to immediately translate everything into communication.
Start by understanding what the data says. Which themes are strong enough to promote?
Which topics require improvement first? And where are there differences between what management wants to promise and what employees experience? By carefully answering those questions, you prevent the EVP from becoming a nice story without foundation.
From insight to action with your EVP
Once you have clarity on which values truly live in your organization and where the gaps are, it’s time to tackle this strategically. This means you actively communicate the strengths of your employer promise, while simultaneously working on improvements in areas that are falling short today. This requires a coordinated approach in which employer branding, HR policy and culture change go hand in hand.
A successful EVP is not a one-time communication campaign, but a living document that shapes and defines your organization. By systematically implementing the findings, you create transparency and credibility in what you promise as an employer. This increases employee loyalty, attracts better talent and reduces turnover. We have identified six concrete next steps that will help you shape this transformation:
Want to see how a strong EVP takes shape in practice? Read our article:
Deepler and De Selectie: collaboration for a more attractive employee value proposition (EVP)
1. Analyze the strongest employer values
Look at which themes employees experience most positively. This could be development opportunities, autonomy, colleagues, social impact, or leadership, for example. These themes form the building blocks of your EVP.
2. Examine where the promise is vulnerable
An EVP is only credible if it matches reality in practice. So look not only at high scores, but also at topics where employees experience doubt or disappointment. That’s exactly where trust and retention are at risk.
3. Translate patterns to target audiences
Not every target audience chooses an employer for the same reason. Starters, specialists, managers and operational teams may have different expectations. Segmentation helps make your employer story sharper and more relevant.
4. Formulate a clear employer promise
Use the insights to formulate an EVP that is concrete, recognizable and distinctive. Avoid catch-all terms. Describe what employees actually experience and what candidates can expect.
5. Link improvement actions to the EVP
Sometimes research shows that a desired promise is not yet sufficiently fulfilled. Then first take improvement actions on, for example, development, communication, leadership or work-life balance before you promote the topic widely.
6. Keep testing if the story is correct
An EVP evolves with the organization. Regularly measure whether employees still recognize the promise and whether new target audiences experience the same. This keeps employer branding connected to reality.
Make your employer promise measurable and credible
With the Deepler dashboard you see which parts of employment are strong and which need attention. HR, management, recruitment and communications can therefore work together based on one shared view. This makes it easier to formulate an EVP that not only sounds good, but is also supported by employees.
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Frequently asked questions
What is an EVP?
EVP stands for Employee Value Proposition. It is an employer’s value proposition: the combination of culture, development, terms of employment, leadership, work experience and meaning that employees experience in return for their efforts. A good EVP is recognizable to employees and attractive to candidates.
What does EVP mean?
EVP stands for Employee Value Proposition. In English, this is the promise or value proposition that makes your organization as an employer unique, credible and attractive to current and future employees.
How often should you conduct an EVP survey?
An EVP survey does not need to be conducted monthly. It is particularly valuable during growth, repositioning, labor market campaigns, mergers, culture change, or when recruitment and retention are under pressure. After that, you can periodically check whether the employer promise is still recognized.
Is an EVP survey anonymous?
Yes, anonymity is important when collecting employee input. Employees need to be able to honestly state what they value and what they miss. Deepler therefore reports at group level and handles small segments and open answers carefully.
What topics are included in an EVP survey?
Topics that frequently come up are culture, leadership, development opportunities, compensation, working conditions, autonomy, collaboration, pride, work-life balance, purpose and future prospects. Which themes are most important varies by organization and target group.
What is the difference between EVP and employer branding?
EVP is the substantive employer promise. Employer branding is the way that promise is translated into communication, campaigns, job postings and candidate experience. Without a strong EVP, employer branding often remains generic.
How many employees should participate in an EVP survey?
That depends on the size of the organization and the desired breakdowns. For reliable insights, it is particularly important that different target groups are adequately represented. Think of teams, job groups, locations or experience levels.
How long does an EVP survey take?
An EVP survey can be conducted relatively quickly when the scope is clear. Preparation consists of determining themes and target groups. This is followed by the questionnaire, analysis and translation into EVP building blocks and improvement points.
What happens after an EVP survey?
After the survey, the key employer values, risks and differences between target groups are analyzed. You then translate the findings into an EVP, communication messages and concrete improvement actions for HR, recruitment and leadership.
What does an EVP survey cost?
Costs depend on the size of the organization, the desired package and the level of guidance. With Deepler you can combine EVP surveys with broader employee surveys, so you don’t have to launch separate projects each time.
What are good EVP example questions?
Examples are: What are you proud of within this organization? What makes working here attractive?
What promise to candidates can we truly deliver? What do you miss in our employer offering? What reason would help you stay longer?
How do you ensure reliable EVP results?
Ensure clear communication, anonymity, recognizable themes and sufficient responses from different target groups. Combine scores with open explanations, so you not only know which themes are important, but also why employees experience it that way.
How do you prevent an EVP from becoming too generic?
Use the words, examples and experiences of employees. Avoid catch-all terms that every organization uses. A strong EVP dares to choose: it makes clear what your organization promises, but also for whom that promise is especially attractive.
What is an EVP model?
An EVP model helps you structure your employer offering. The best-known model is the one from Gartner, with five pillars: rewards, opportunity, organization, people and work. For each pillar, you determine what you offer employees and what you genuinely deliver on.
How do you build an EVP?
You build an EVP by first researching what employees experience, then mapping your target groups and other employers, and then formulating a promise where those three come together. After that, you translate the EVP into policy and communication and periodically test whether it still holds true.
What is the difference between employee and employer value proposition?
There is no difference in substance. Both terms describe the value an employer offers. Employee value proposition looks at it from the employee’s perspective, employer value proposition from the employer’s. Both are abbreviated to EVP.
What makes a good EVP?
A good EVP is true, attractive, distinctive, credible and sustainable. Employees must recognize the promise, your target group must find it attractive and you must be able to back it up with examples from the organization.
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