Engagement, EVP, employer brand. What’s the difference?

Adrienne Glad, Head of Internal Engagement at CDC, gives Sheila Morrison, Director of Brand and Comms at Luminous, her views on the meaning of employee engagement and the challenges of ensuring that everyone in an organisation knows what that is!

CDC has a fairly unique role in the world of finance in that you support development in just two regions of the world, namely Africa and Asia, and many of your staff are out of the office for days at a time. So what’s your take on the value of internal engagement, compared to employer brand or employee value proposition (EVP)? It’s a big question, but someone’s got to answer it!

Thanks, that is a big question! But to jump right in… because of the nature of our work at CDC, I don’t think we lead with brand in the way that many of your other clients might do, so I tend to use the term less. It’s a concept that consumers can relate to and it’s an easily accessible word for people who are not in the communications or marketing world, but it’s not where we tend to put our focus.

I think the different terms came about in the industry to create ownership within different operational spheres. HR tends to own EVP, for example, internal communications and/or HR owns engagement and the marketing department owns brand. But these are really just different shades of the same colour and all related to what a company stands for. I’m not suggesting chucking out these labels, they can be helpful in what they are designed to define, but focusing too much on ‘brand’ can also alienate people internally because it is so often an outwardly facing, commercial concept. I like to use language that is relevant to what our experience is as an employee. So, we may say ‘employee value proposition’ or, in other words, ‘the things that motivate people to work here’, but actually we’re still talking about the same motivation that creates engaged employees – ’why people stay working here’… and, of course, all the reasons a company might attract and keep employees motivated is naturally part of what makes a company, and its brand, great.

So, at CDC, what components do you define to help drive employee engagement? And how important is it to actually pin them down?

We really focus on mission – which some organisations call purpose – and, of course, vision and values because this is where true employee engagement radiates from. Whether you choose ‘mission’ or ‘purpose’, it is important to articulate what they mean to you as a company.

At CDC, we previously had a set of operating principles that were a useful guide for the things we wanted to consider when we made decisions, but what was missing from them was the heart and the soul of our mission. So, we went through an exercise of distilling our values from those principles and articulating them more clearly. Interestingly, many of the employees who took part in the exercise found the process as valuable as the outcome simply because they devoted time to immersing themselves in who we are, what our aspirations are and what we’re striving for. That illustrates perfectly the value of defining and articulating these things. It will help us with external stakeholders – our investees, the communities within our investee markets, and so on – too, because being able to communicate externally what we’re doing and why we’re doing it gives visibility to people about what drives us and what keeps us true.

That’s all quite big picture, but does it help in the day-to-day?

Absolutely. There are a lot of big, global brands that have company values such as ‘striving for excellence’ or ‘integrity’. These are often made highly visible on posters, pens, screensavers and other collateral in-house, or even externally in their advertising.

But I read an article recently that resonated with me, about company values; it said those types of generic values are often viewed as platitudes because, when you think about it, what type of organisation doesn’t want to strive for excellence and stand for integrity? Those aims may be good sound bites, but likely don’t capture the actual identity of an organisation. One of our newly refreshed values that I really subscribe to is ‘tenacious in the face of challenges’ – it speaks to the approach I and my colleagues take to our work every day because our mission is inherently challenging.

We genuinely work to unblock and open new opportunities wherever we can – and we encourage each other to do so. It means something to me because I see it in action on a regular basis. So, I do think it is worth the time and effort to clearly articulate the values and their connection to your individual company’s mission to ensure they are authentic and reflective of the culture and the people who are part of it.

You clearly love your job. Do you have any tips for other professionals on what drives a strong culture or an engaged workforce?

Well, the research will generally tell you it’s all about leadership, but I think we have to be more thoughtful about this. Engagement can be led from the front, but every single person in an organisation has to foster the culture individually and make their own choices every day to contribute to it. So, my tip for building strong culture is to ensure you have regular communication cascading through your organisation in the right tone of voice; the tone of voice that directly reflects the values and the culture that the organisation has identified as its own. Also, finding ways to build community by creating opportunities for dialogue and allowing people to get involved and challenge each other in a constructive manner is useful.

Have the conversation with your leadership, but also have the conversation beyond the leadership team and throughout the organisation at meaningful touchpoints such as Town Halls or, as we do, with network lunches and events – including ones that focus on topics that might be more difficult to talk about in the office environment. By creating the platform and fostering these conversations, there are multiple and varied opportunities for everyone to be active and get involved in what the organisation is aspiring to be.

The Luminous view

Adrienne hits on a really key point – what you call something matters much less than distilling its essence and communicating that effectively throughout the organisation. This is a point we make to clients whenever we consult on engagement at Luminous, but it can be difficult to press home if an organisation is under pressure – perhaps from a parent company – to carry out a ‘tick box’ exercise or is concerned about costs. But like any good investment, engagement done well is time and money well spent in terms of employee retention, stakeholder involvement and long-term value creation.