How digitally attractive is your team?

What’s all the fuss about Employee Value Proposition (EVP)? It’s a term that’s banded around in the world of HR with differing degrees of understanding and, when put into practice, varying levels of success. It’s also a key tool in finding, exciting and securing talent.

The textbook definition of EVP is the way organisations use their branding and employee rewards, among other methods, to make themselves seem the most attractive employer to those they’re looking to recruit, or retain. The reality of a strong, durable EVP is more complicated though. Understanding the nuance can empower and enliven your organisation, while impacting bottom line. Our research has shown poor EVP and employer branding adds 10% to the cost of hiring. It also impacts sickness levels and employee engagement.

A seasoned creative team will define and develop your employer brand and offer with you. Then it’s time to find, excite and secure the people you want. A competent digital team takes your vacancies and EVP to the market, tailoring your message depending on the roles you’re looking to recruit to. This is where programmatic advertising comes in.

Programmatic offers the unique ability to target users based on their online behaviour and the different types of content they’re viewing and it is being used by The MJ for its job advertising. Rather than purchasing ad space on a single website, programmatic allows you to buy specific types of audiences across thousands of websites at once. As an industry it grew by 31% in 2017 – that’s faster than social media (25%) and online video (20%). And, as it’s a visual advertising medium selectively displaying banner adverts to your target audience, it’s a great way to quickly excite your audience with your EVP.

Programmatic can be a stand-alone talent attraction tool, which you can use to drive applications to council-wide vacancies – but it works particularly well when blended with other media solutions, such as job boards and social media campaigns. We also recommend programmatic as a valuable addition to our recruitment processes. Our sourcing service, for instance, recruits to hard-to-fill roles in the £45-£75k bracket. Penna’s executive search capacity finds specialist talent from assistant director to board level. Our digital teams typically assist our expert consultants in creating the most relevant longlist with online attraction methods, such as programmatic.

How will programmatic help you find the people you need? It can deliver applications from a specific demographic or geography, ideal if you have diversity targets to meet or want candidates with local knowledge of your council. It can even help you attract talent from outside the sector, who may not have considered a career in local government. We all know there’s a war for talent; a strong EVP and targeted digital dissemination of it will help you stand out in a crowded recruitment landscape. To speak to us about your EVP, digital attraction or your other recruitment needs,

please email sue.atkinson@penna.com

Sue Atkinson is commercial director at Penna

or the latest job news and vacancies visit www.themj.co.uk