What's the value? 🩻 EBH

The hills are alive with the sound of value...

There it is.

Smack dab in the middle of your favorite acronym, it’s right there.

For every time you used the term EVP, every time you were in a meeting and you mentioned it, you were mentioning “value.”

And in your mind, all you talk about is the value you offer a candidate.

The benefits.

The culture.

The leadership.

The autonomy and/or support.

The mission.

The values.

The free lunches.

Live footage of every employer branding pointing out all the value they offer…

Offer enough “value” (uh oh, he just used quotes… that’s gotta mean something) and the candidates will come running, right?

Yeah, go talk to your recruiters and see if they feel like they are attracting enough of the right talent.

While you are seeing all the value you offer, you don’t see the value that others offer. In many cases, your value looks an awful lot like the value another company is offering.

But you aren’t offering differentiated value.

Yes, showing value is good. But showing differentiated value is useful.

Let’s pretend you run recruiting for a small biotech firm. You probably talk A LOT about the amount of innovation (we’re changing the industry with this novel approach to something or other!) and mission (your work will enhance patient outcomes around the world!). You might assume that those are things that your prospects value.

And they do! They literally spend half a bajillion years in school so they could create change and save lives.

But here’s the wrinkle: Every biotech startup offers innovation and a mission. So does every pharma company. So does every medical device manufacturer. So does every academic research institution.

Mission and innovation are valued, but they aren’t differentiated value because they are offered by everyone.

Because everyone offers them, the candidate cannot make a choice.

What’s interesting is that the differentiated value is a function of the chooser. If you offer a more meaningful sense of teamwork as your differentiated value, that will be really attractive to some people, but not everyone. But when the value looks the same, it doesn’t matter which company they pick, right? That means your value isn’t special. They don’t see your value as better than anyone else’s.

And in that case, candidates don’t choose. They default. And that doesn’t serve you.

Differentiated value is what drives choice. It is what drives action.

Stop listing your value. Start thinking about what makes you different and to whom that difference is valuable.

+++++

If you’re intrigued about the Employer Brand Workshop (it’s not a certification course, it’s building your company’s employer brand for less than the price of a conference) and have questions, email me at employerbrandnerd@gmail.com. I’d be happy to explain any details not covered on the web page.

The next cohort starts May 3rd!

***This Newsletter Contains No ChatGPT***

###