Why should anyone work for you?
When starting up, relentless competition for customers’ mindshare and money is a given.
You know that, for people to invest in you or buy from you, you have to earn it. Cut through the noise. Stand out from the crowd. And make them an offer they can’t refuse.
After all, you’re asking people to spend their hard-won cash on your product. To plump for you over often more established peers. To trust you’ll deliver when (usually) you haven’t much to show for it yet. To stay loyal as you go on an unpredictable journey where, sometimes you’ll exceed expectations, and, other times, fall painfully short.
You’d be a fool to assume they know — or care about — who you are, what you do, and why you’re different. The risk is too great to take.
So why when persuading people to come work for us, does our mentality flip from ‘earn it’ to ‘entitled’?
ANYTHING GOES.
Ahead of going to market, you identify who the ideal customer is. Where to find them and what their motivations, values, and needs are. You experiment with messaging and nudges to influence behaviour. You deploy creativity and analysis to zero in on the initiatives that will capture interest, convince, convert and keep.
Yet despite hiring being cited as the number one scaling pain-point, anything goes when it comes to employer brand. We assume people will serendipitously stumble upon our listings, immediately infer why it’s great to work here, and then never forget it once they’re on board.
It’s common to have never asked ourselves: why should people work for us? What’s in it for them? What makes us different or better than other companies? What do we expect to receive from them in return?
It is a missed opportunity.
STRIKE UP THE BRAND.
Just as it’s essential to define a brand and value proposition for customers, we have to define one for potential (and present) employees.
Elements of an employee value proposition (EVP) include obvious things like compensation and benefits, such as pensions, insurance, and parental leave.
However, career development, talented colleagues, and the ability to make an impact are also core. People early in their careers are particularly willing to forgo higher salaries for a role that promises experience, learning, and other growth opportunities. Flexibility around hours, remote working, and part-time roles are also part of the value you might offer to your team.
It’s also helpful to remember perks at work don’t have to be expensive. It is usually the less glamorous, little things that make or break your employee experience: meeting hygiene, great communication, clear goals, and treating people with respect cost little. But they are far more precious than beanbags and beers.
LET’S FALL IN LOVE.
To scale successfully, a startup has to identify, attract, and woo the right people: inside and outside the business.
And at the heart of every one of those relationships lies the same premise: a value exchange that needs to be considered, codified, and then consistently communicated.
As with your customer reputation, your employer brand can turn your employees into your most ardent advocates or devastating detractors. Why leave it to chance?
You can identify some elements of your EVP by leveraging the wisdom and practices you apply to your customer value proposition.
Some ideas to get started:
- Get chatty: go ask your people why did they join? Why do they stay? What motivates them to deliver great work? Consult with a diverse group (tenure, team, age, etc) to get the full picture.
- Run a survey: platforms like CultureAmp or Lattice provide a way to get company-wide input to help you measure and benchmark your strength and weaknesses.
- Leverage your UX skills: watch how, after some hiring mis-steps, Airbnb cleverly involved the skills of their UX team to design an amazing candidate journey.
- Invest in a proper careers page: once you’ve defined your EVP, give it the platform it deserves. German fintech company N26 have, in my opinion, nailed it.
