Employee Value Proposition, Holly Novak, Chief People Officer at Jack Henry

 Why Your Focus on Money Isn't Working: Rethinking Employee Value Propositions

Are you finding that your company's current employee value proposition (EVP) isn't cutting it? Are you noticing a decrease in prospective applicants and an increase in the number of top talent leaving for other organizations? Attracting and retaining talented professionals is essential to business success, so it may be time to reevaluate your EVP. With thoughtful design and strategy, you can create an EVP that aligns with organizational objectives, attracts more qualified candidates - both experienced professionals as well as recent graduates - boosts overall employee morale, increases retention rates on all levels of staff, reduces recruitment costs, strengthens employer branding efforts and more.

In this "TED" like talk Holly Novak, the CPO of Jack Henry encourages you to rethinking your company's EVP to gain the competitive edge.

Prefer to read?  Here is a machine generated transcript:

(00:05):

All right. So how many of you would be, Ooh, there you go. Would be willing to go on a horse on a trail ride to the edge of the world. Do I have any takers? So I started my HR HR career in spin about 12 years at a residential childcare facility in the Texas panhandle. And it's built on this old west town called Tesco Suh. And so if you're not familiar, it's basically a town in the middle of nowhere, right? Texas panhandle. There's not much there. And, um, it has a bank and a school and a grocery store and, um, lots of homes. So 24 homes and then lots of staff homes. So you have a lot of staff that live where they work and work, where they live. So you can imagine the HR issues that we dealt with.

(00:55):

So, um, one of my favorite memories there is what the chaplain started actually, when I was there on campus. And he called it a trail ride to the edge of the world. So basically they get a whole pile of kids and they saddle up some horses and they take them out through this other old west town called magenta. And it kind of all that remains there as this large expansive Prairie grass and Mesquite trees. If you haven't seen that code of the panhandle, there are lots of them. And then they go up to this cliff that overlooks the Canadian river valley below that sometimes has water in it. And sometimes doesn't, and then they all just Mount there for a time of reflection. And so then what they do is they write their prayers or concerns on these rocks, and then they placed them in a pile that's been left there over the year.

(01:44):

And the idea there is that they're leaving their cares of the edge of the world. Right? And so, um, the goal of the whole trip is to get those kids to realize that they're part of something bigger than themselves, right. To help them to find some connection and belonging. And so just like those kids connection is a fundamental need for every one of us. Right? So people care about the feelings that you give to them, not necessarily the features that you offer to them. So what do you think it is that your people, your current employees, your perspective, employees, your vendors, your clients, what do you think it is that they truly care about? Um, Gardner recently did a study and said that the average company spends about $2,484 per employee on improving the employee experience. And that number is just expected to grow. So I'm sure that most of you have an employee value proposition or a talent value proposition, or if not, you know what that is, but just in case, it's basically a set of attributes that employee perceives as value that they gain from your organization.

(02:56):

Right. And so, um, I think a lot of times we're trying to focus on what features we can offer to our employees that will make them happy or engaged all those fun buzzwords. Right. Um, but Gardner says that only 31% of HR leaders believe that their employees truly value their, their employee value proposition. So we're missing something. Right. And so we're trying to do things like add maybe AI training or, um, pet insurance students at repayment, yoga chair massages, all those things that we think people want that will maybe make them happier, but is it truly, actually burnout has been going up ever more than ever before. And lots of people have talked about that today. Um, instead of being happier, employees are definitely feeling some stress, right. And some burnout, uh, indeed did a study recently and said that up to 52% of the survey respondents or more burnout in 2021 than they were before the survey, the same survey that they did in, um, 2019, which was 42%.

(04:04):

So it's definitely going up and we all feel it in addition to that, Gartner did a 20, 21 candidate panel survey. That one that said that, um, up to 65% of candidates had discontinued a hiring process due to an unattractive EVP. So it's definitely making a difference. This study also said that that only 45% of employees believe that their organizations see them as people and not just a number or an employee. So one of my favorite things that, that I got from, we call it the ranch, um, that, that non-profit, that I worked at was what they call their model of leadership and service. So basically if you can picture in your head, it says circle, right. And in the middle is safety.

(04:59):

So it's safety. And so we, we dealt for kids that have gone through trauma. And so basically thank you. Um, so basically, uh, for a kid to get through that trauma, you have to help them to feel safe and then their brain will relax, right? And then you can work on the other issues. So safety was most important. And then they surrounded that with things that every employee needs like, or every person needs kid needs like purpose and belonging and achievement and power. And then around that whole circle, they put adventure because it venture is important, right? We've talked a lot about fun over this time. So what they realized is that the model that they developed to take care of kids also worked to take care of our employees who are also hurting in a lot of different ways. Right? So what if we adjusted our mindset to focus on our people first to enable things like belonging, flexibility, that purpose, right.

(05:58):

Personal growth well-being and what have we helped? Our, our leaders in our organizations realize that our programmers also a dad and maybe a little league coach, a talented baker, fitness instructor, marathon runner, right? Um, or even a community advocate. And what if we allowed those talents and skills that all of our people have to be brought into our organizations to add flavor and fun. Right. So I'd like to share a model with you. You're going to have to, again, picture it in your head, but I'd like to another circle, right. But in the middle we have people. And then first on the outside, we have deeper connection. So how do we help our people truly strengthen their family and community connections? How do we help them to really feel understood? So connection and belonging comes from really kind of understanding our collective skills and talents and how those can be brought into our workforce to really share with others and build that connection.

(07:08):

And one of the most favorite stories that I have from the ranch started when a house parent got all of his kids together in a home to see how big of a cardboard boat that could build that would hold people in it and still float in the pool. And so they were successful in soon. We had up to like 18 to 20 different cardboard boats. Some of them have like 12 to 15 kids in it. It's amazing. Um, and they were out in the lake and it became the annual cardboard boat race. And I just saw the other day, they had their 11th annual cardboard boat race. So things like that. Can you imagine the community and the connection that was built from that one house parents starting that tradition that's really important. And so I'd like to share also with you a way to maybe connect and measure that connection, right.

(07:53):

So I think you would measure connection on a net promoter score. So that question is how likely when an employee would be to, um, to nominate you as a great place to work to their friends and family. Okay. So that's connection next on the circle. We have personal growth, so help your employees to grow as people, not just professionals. How do you help them to truly have that self-development maybe even set aside a whole day for self development, or if that sounds crazy to you maybe a half day or a couple of hours, give them some suggestions, but then also give them that free time to actually learn and grow on their own and find things that are really important to them to grow with. I think you measure growth by the percentage that your current employees ha um, want to stay increased. So that, that question is, will you still stay, um, um, longer or are you looking for another job in another organization?

(08:51):

So another good question to ask on your surveys. So then next on the circle, we have wellbeing. So find ways to offer a holistic wellbeing to your people, um, help them to find ways to be more mentally and physically and financially well, and then get some unique offerings that you can find that will help them to truly be holistically well, right? So maybe help them to find elderly care for a family member or find daycare if they're struggling with that. So the next honor, circle, we have shared purpose. We've talked a lot about purpose today, but I encourage you to take a collective action on purpose, not just make a blanket statement or a marketing tactic, as we know, purpose matters more than ever before in our post COVID world. People truly want to understand the why behind the organization that they're in and then how that fits in the market and then how they fit within the organization.

(09:49):

I think you measure purpose on how likely an employee would be to accept their same job that they have right now, again, in the future. So another good question to ask, and then finally we have flexibility. So provide flexibility on all aspects of work, not just when and where people work, how do you help them to truly feel autonomous and truly have that empowerment? I would say that you measure flexibility on the number of high performers that you have in your organization, because you know that when you have high performers, those are the people that truly feel autonomous and truly feel empowered. So I think we can all agree that there's no true work life balance, right work as a subset of life, we incorporate it into our families and our hobbies and our friends and our just our life in general. And that value that people get comes from the feelings that we give to them, not the features that we give to them.

(10:44):

So I challenge each of you to take a step back and consider what value you are offering to your employees and how you can focus that to be people first. So I have this plaque in my office and you can't read it, but I'll read it to you. It says, um, presented as a holy Novak for mediocre performance May, 2011. So I've had this for over a decade. Why in the world would I keep a plaque that honors my mediocre performance for over a decade? Well, that's a great question. So when I was at the ranch, I reported to the chief operating officer and he was my most favorite and most frustrating bosses of all times, but I learned a ton from him. And, um, one day we had an employee issue pop up and he set out to prove to me that if you really felt safe with somebody, remember safety is in the middle of our circle, right?

(11:36):

That even, um, and you had a good relationship with them that even if you presented them with something that was unflattering or maybe had to give them some tough feedback, that they didn't want to hear, that they was still appreciated. And so there was a lot of therapy options for the kids out there. So we a huge garden and like lots of animals. And we have this woodworking shop and they taught the kids how to make awards and, um, some furniture even, and plaques. And so one day he was teaching the kids how to make these plaques. And he made this as a joke to me, he's clearly a comedian, very hilarious. And so he knew that I did good work. I knew that I did good work. And so since I already felt known and cared for and seen and challenged by him, we already had that good relationship, this silly plaque that honors my mediocre performance is still in my office. And really just has a fun memory of the, the knowledge and the growth and the adventure and fun that I had on that campus. So I encourage each of you to focus on what matters be yourself, help your people to be themselves. And that is enough. Thank you.