Strategy

Most organisations don’t set out to mislead people. But when what’s promised to potential hires doesn’t match what they actually experience, it can leave new joiners can feeling let down.

That’s why authenticity matters. A bold, well-branded employee value proposition (EVP) might help you attract talent. But it’s your employer brand – how that promise is consistently lived and felt day to day – that helps ensure people stay.

An EVP is the promise you make to employees and candidates about what it’s like to work with you – and the value they’ll get in return. It only works if it matches reality.

The recruitment process went smoothly. The interviews felt aligned. But just a few months in, and you find out your new hire is already moving on. Sound familiar?

You’re not alone. In fact, ThriveMap found that 48% of employees have left a role because the reality didn’t match how it was communicated to them. That gap isn’t usually intentional – it’s often a sign that the business has changed, but the employer brand hasn’t kept up.

And when lived experience doesn’t match the promise, employee engagement drops – and the talent you worked hard to hire becomes hard to retain.

Your EVP is the promise. Your employer brand is how that promise is expressed and experienced – both inside and outside the organisation.

A strong employer brand is grounded in real employee experience

This is where the EVP and employer brand need to work together. It’s about making sure your EVP reflects the reality of working in your organisation – from recruitment through to development and beyond. For example, if your EVP promises flexibility, that needs to be genuinely felt and truly reflected in the everyday company culture – not just written in policy.

When the message matches what’s experienced, it builds trust, shows care and progress, and gives people the confidence that they’re in the right place.

This is where communication really comes into play. An EVP isn’t a one-off statement. It needs to be reflected through the moments that matter in the employee experience:

• Job adverts and interviews
• Onboarding and welcome materials
• Internal storytelling and recognition
• Team meetings and leadership updates
• Change announcements and exit conversations

Employer brand can’t be a one-off project

We’d never treat a customer brand as a one-off campaign – so why do we still do it with employer brands? While customer messaging is constantly refined to reflect changing expectations, EVP and employer brand work is too often treated as a one-time project or initiative.

But people change. Cultures evolve. New leadership comes in. If your employer brand doesn’t keep pace with shifts in your culture and employee experience, it stops doing its job effectively.

So, how do you keep things aligned? Here are three practical ways to keep your EVP and employer brand stay believable:

1. Activate what’s already true

If your EVP still reflects who you are, bring it to life. Use communications to tell real stories, involve your people in the narrative and make it visible to incoming talent.

2. Use insights to close the gap

Ask employees what they’re hearing, feeling and experiencing. Use insights from listening sessions, engagement surveys and exit interviews to spot where the message and reality don’t align.

3. Rebuild if you need to

If your business has changed significantly, it might be time to revisit your EVP. Co-creating a new one with your people makes it stronger – and ensures your employer brand reflects what you’re offering and what’s real.

Bringing your employer brand to life – and keeping it alive

Communication connects people to your culture, your brand and their experience from day one. And that communication needs to make sense for your employees – storytelling people relate to, language that lands and messaging that reflects who you really are.

That’s where we come in.

We use our THRIVE methodology to help organisations build fairer, healthier and happier workplaces through improved communication. One of our six pillars is Talent – focused on how people connect with your EVP, engage with your employer brand and experience your culture at every stage of the employee journey.

Want to dig a little deeper?

Try our Talent Diagnostic – a quick tool for HR, comms and leadership teams to discover how well your EVP and employee experience are aligned, and how that’s impacting your ability to retain talent. Take the diagnostic.

Retention starts with a promise you can keep

A strong EVP gives new employees something to believe in. A clear, consistent employer brand helps them see it in action. When the two are aligned – and grounded in authenticity – employees don’t just stay. They grow, contribute and thrive.

Exceptional workplace cultures aren’t built on buzzwords – they’re built on communication that connects.

We help teams:

• Explore the reality of the employee experience through research, listening and insight
• Shape and sharpen EVPs to reflect the culture people are experiencing
• Build employer brand campaigns that attract and retain the right talent
• Keep them alive through storytelling, leadership comms and everyday touchpoints

Here are three ways to work with us:

Activator – Have a story you need to tell? We help simplify complex ideas, shape strong narratives and build campaigns that bring everyone with you. Book a call to discuss your brief.

Pathfinder – Struggling for budget but need direction? Join our community of passionate changemakers and access free guides, tools and events. Sign up to join Work Wonders here.

Co-creator – Already have an in-house team or agency but need fresh thinking? Tap into our advisory services to bring in external perspective and energy. Let’s talk about your challenges, book a call here.

Everyone has the right to be seen, heard, valued and respected at work. Things like gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age or other characteristics should not negatively affect how someone is treated. There is a clear ethical obligation to create a workplace where everyone is treated with fairness and respect – but there’s a strong commercial case too: 

• Forbes reports that employees who feel they belong are up to 3.5 times more likely to bring their full potential to work – with even greater impact for under- and misrepresented groups. 

• CIPHR Forester backs this up, identifying belonging as a performance driver. 80% of those who feel they belong report higher motivation, leading to a 56% increase in job performance. 

• Mercer finds that employees who can bring their authentic selves to work are twice as likely to trust their organisation and five times more likely to be satisfied with no intent to leave. 

Even with all the evidence behind it, inclusion and belonging still aren’t the reality for everyone. Around 1 in 4 employees say they don’t feel they belong. This is a gap we believe better communication can help close – starting with a few key areas: 

Get set for success

How an employee feels when they join a company can set the tone for how welcome they feel. According to HR Magazine, just 76% of black and Asian employees feel welcomed when they join, in comparison to the significantly higher 85% of white employees. Reviewing your onboarding processes could surface opportunities for improvement. 

Giving employees a voice

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, a quarter of employees feel they don’t have a voice within their organisation. From employee satisfaction or pulse surveys to listening groups, employee forums, ERGs and taskforces, there are many ways to help shift from one-way dialogue to two-way communication.  

Ensuring communication is inclusive, accessible and authentic

Whether it’s reviewing language use, font choice, colour contrasts or ensuring there are adequate channels that reach everyone in the organisation, there are so many small but intentional actions organisations can take. Sometimes simple word selection like replacing lunch break with rest break to acknowledging nightshifts or removing unnecessarily gendered references in policies or communication can make employees feel more seen and valued. You can check out our guide to help you here.  

Raising awareness and building better allyship

Belonging isn’t universal. When people don’t feel welcomed, it not only affects their engagement but their confidence and ability to contribute. It’s important to acknowledge employees from under and misrepresented communities have a different experience of work. Whether it’s the way they access meaningful work or their everyday experience at work there are big equity gaps. Leading campaigns to educate and raise awareness of active allyship can make a huge difference to colleague support, psychological safety levels and reduced microaggressions and bias. Check out this campaign we developed for one of our clients to foster belonging. 

Want to dig a bit deeper? 

Take our Inclusion Diagnostic – built for internal communicators who want to check how inclusive their communications are and where there are opportunities for improvement. It only takes a couple of minutes and gives you tailored insight with practical next steps. Take the diagnostic. 

Need to build a more inclusive workplace where employees can feel they belong?

We see the impact of clear, inclusive communication every day through our THRIVE methodology – a practical framework that helps organisations build fairer, healthier and happier workplaces. One of its six pillars is Inclusion, focused on helping employees feel genuinely valued and respected. If you’re working to strengthen inclusion and belonging in your organisation, THRIVE is a great place to start. 

Exceptional workplace cultures don’t happen by chance, they’re built through intentional, inclusive and inspiring communication.  

We can help you: 

• Simplify and articulate your existing values in a way that helps everyone understand the expectations on them  

• Launch or re-launch your values in a way that brings fresh energy, engagement and alignment  

• Keep your values alive through behaviour change, leadership alignment and consistent, embedded communication 

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to fostering inclusion. That’s why we offer three ways to work with us – depending on where you are now, and where you want to get to. 

Activator – Have a story you need to tell? We help simplify complex ideas, shape strong narratives and build campaigns that bring everyone with you. Book a call to discuss your brief.

Pathfinder – Struggling for budget but need direction? Join our community of passionate changemakers and access free guides, tools and events. Sign up to join Work Wonders here.

Co-creator – Already have an in-house team or agency but need fresh thinking? Tap into our advisory services to bring in external perspective and energy. Let’s talk about your challenges, book a call here.

We can all agree that having clearly defined and communicated values, that are lived and respected by all and consistently used to drive decision making and guide direction, is the bedrock of a rich workplace culture. Sadly though, there’s a growing misalignment and it’s causing challenges from behaviour and performance to trust and even wellbeing.

So, what’s going wrong? Let’s take a closer look.

The communications gap

There remains a gap in clear articulation and communication of values to employees. According to Gallup, only 23% of employees feel informed about their company’s values. That’s backed up by Cezanne HR who report that 60% of employees don’t know or don’t feel aligned with their organisation’s values.

The culture misalignment

Even when employees do know the values, this can surface other challenges. According to HR Magazine just 18% of employees feel their organisation’s stated values are strongly aligned to the reality of its culture causing them to quickly lose faith in leadership and culture.

The leadership disconnect

The gap widens when it comes to executives and leadership, 85% of whom believe they “effectively communicate the company’s values” whilst according to Ge-Ipsos only 62% of entry level employee agree, adding to mistrust and disengagement.

The unequipped squeezed middle

And when it comes to trust, Line Manager behaviour is seen as the single most important driver of employee trust and yet only 26% of managers say they’ve had any values-based support or communication training.

The burnout risk

Employees need to see how values apply to their day-to-day work, yet Mercer report that one in every five who feel at risk of burnout attribute it to a misalignment between their own values and the values of their employer.

Internal comms leaders might be tired of creating endless values materials that have become wallpaper but not really shifted belief or behaviour, it’s clear that values remain at the heart of workplace culture.

Bringing your organisational values to life

So, what’ the answer? It’s not more posters that launch but don’t land or another top-down broadcast that doesn’t win hearts and minds. Instead, we work with our clients to create deeper storytelling, more inclusive co creation or that enable employees to feel seen and recognised and equip critical middle managers with the confidence to talk with their teams about values in everyday conversations.

Want to dig a bit deeper?

Take our Values Diagnostic – built for internal communicators who want to check what’s landing and where the gaps might be in their values comms. It only takes a couple of minutes and gives you tailored insight with practical next steps. Take the diagnostic.

We see the impact of clarity every day through our THRIVE methodology – our framework for helping organisations build fairer, healthier and happier workplaces through better communication. One of its six pillars is Values – focused entirely on how people connect and align their behaviour to your organisation’s values. If you’re struggling to make your values come to life, this is a good place to start. Read more about THRIVE.

Need to build engagement and alignment to your values?

Exceptional workplace cultures don’t happen by chance, they’re built through intentional, inclusive and inspiring communication.

We can help you:

• Simplify and articulate your existing values in a way that helps everyone understand the expectations on them
• Launch or re-launch your values in a way that brings fresh energy, engagement and alignment
• Keep your values alive through behaviour change, leadership alignment and consistent, embedded communication

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to values comms. That’s why we offer three ways to work with us – depending on where you are now, and where you want to get to.

Activator – Have a story you need to tell? We help simplify complex ideas, shape strong narratives and build campaigns that bring everyone with you. Book a call to discuss your brief.

Pathfinder – Struggling for budget but need direction? Join our community of passionate changemakers and access free guides, tools and events. Sign up to join Work Wonders here.

Co-creator – Already have an in-house team or agency but need fresh thinking? Tap into our advisory services to bring in external perspective and energy. Let’s talk about your challenges, book a call here.

If employees aren’t clear on where the business is heading, how can they help get it there or contribute ideas to move it forward?

According to the 2024 IC Index, almost one in five employees were not clear on their organisation’s strategy or how their performance could contribute to it. That’s hardly surprising when, according Harvard Business School only 28% of execs and managers can list their organisation’s top three strategic priorities.

Have we got lost in jargon and over-complication to the point where we’ve lost the golden thread? Or is the world moving so fast that yesterday’s strategy is no longer relevant, and we’re all simply trying to keep up?

Whatever is causing this disconnect, the result is the same. Strategies don’t fail because they’re wrong, they fail because they’re misunderstood.

This is where communication comes in. Effective and impactful communication can translate strategy into something meaningful and memorable for employees to get behind.

If strategy is the destination, communication is the map

A quick way to find out how well you’re communicating your strategy might be to choose a handful of randomly selected cross-functional and frontline employees and ask them to describe what your business is trying to achieve in one sentence. Then ask how their own role, work and performance contributes to that goal. And if you’re feeling brave, ask when they last thought of a way the business could get there quicker – and who they told.

Want to dig a bit deeper?
Take our Roadmap diagnostic – designed for internal comms professionals who want to understand what’s landing and where their strategy comms might need a boost. It only takes a couple of minutes and gives you tailored insight plus practical next steps.

Try the Roadmap Diagnostic

We see the impact of clarity every day through our THRIVE methodology – our framework for helping organisations build fairer, healthier and happier workplaces through better communication. One of its six pillars is Roadmap – focused entirely on how people connect with your organisation’s direction and understand their role in getting there. If you’re struggling to make your strategy stick, this is a good place to start. Read more about THRIVE.

Need to build clarity and momentum around your strategy?

Exceptional workplace cultures don’t happen by chance, they’re built through intentional, inclusive and inspiring communication.

We can help you:

• Set your strategy up for success by developing a clear narrative with compelling language and simple, memorable stories
• Launch it with impact through creative internal campaigns that get people engaged from day one
• Keep it alive through behaviour change, leadership alignment and consistent, embedded communication

If you’re looking to scale up how you communicate your strategy and direction, there are three ways we can support you:

Activator – Have a story you need to tell? We help simplify complex ideas, shape strong narratives and build campaigns that bring everyone with you. Book a call to discuss your brief.

Pathfinder – Struggling for budget but need direction? Join our community of passionate changemakers and access free guides, tools and events. Sign up to join Work Wonders here.

Co-creator – Already have an in-house team or agency but need fresh thinking? Tap into our advisory services to bring in external perspective and energy. Let’s talk about your challenges, book a call here.