If you're still relying on comp, benefits, and your careers page to do the heavy lifting, you're already behind.

The market has shifted. Candidates today vet companies the way investors vet startups. 

They dig deep. They compare signals. They talk to people.

And they don’t just want a job. They want a reason to believe.

That reason, when done right, is your Employee Value Proposition (or EVP).

When done wrong (or worse, ignored), it's the reason top talent silently bounces before ever hitting "Apply."

It’s a strategic narrative that shows up in every candidate conversation, every Glassdoor review, and every skip-level chat with your hiring managers.

And if you're a Head of Talent, a Director of TA, or building a recruiting brand in tech, you need to own it. Not just build it. Embed it.

Let’s talk about how.

What is an Employee Value Proposition (Really?)

An EVP is your answer to this one question:

“Why would a top candidate choose to work here, over every other offer they’re considering?”

Not hypothetically. Not aspirationally.

But based on how your best employees describe their experience today.

A real EVP is not a benefits list.

It’s the intersection of:

• What you stand for
• How your people experience it
• What sets you apart from competitors

The best EVPs blend:

• Tangible levers: salary, flexibility, learning, equity
  
  
• Emotional drivers: purpose, leadership, autonomy, growth, trust

If you’re not building your EVP on actual employee insights, backed by internal data and external benchmarks, it’s fluff.

And fluff doesn’t convert.

A high-performing EVP is:

• Built from the inside out
  
  
• Lived and reinforced by leadership
  
  
• Clear, compelling, and consistent across every touchpoint

Get this right, and you won’t have to pitch candidates anymore. They’ll already want in.

EVP Pitfalls That Cost You Top Talent

You can run campaigns, push content, and show off your Glassdoor ratings all day. But if your EVP is broken, or worse, nonexistent, you’re leaking talent at the top of the funnel.

Here are the most common (and costly) EVP mistakes companies make:

1. Confusing Perks with a Real EVP

Stocked fridges and summer Fridays aren’t your EVP. They’re add-ons. And every other company offers the same stuff.

If your pitch is just “competitive pay and a great culture,” congrats…you sound exactly like everyone else.

Top candidates want clarity on why your mission matters, how they’ll grow, and who they’ll become if they join you.

2. Making It All About You

A lot of employee value propositions read like press releases.

“We’re the fastest-growing X.”
“We just raised a Series B.”
“We’ve got a world-class team.”

Cool. But what’s in it for the candidate?

Great EVPs speak to what candidates care about:

• Impact
• Belonging
• Autonomy
• Mastery
• Momentum

Your story should center them, not just you.

3. Overpromising and Under-delivering

Here’s a surefire way to tank your reputation:

Sell an EVP you wish were true instead of one that actually is.

Say you prioritize flexibility, but every team is chained to Slack from 9 to 9?

Candidates will find out. 

And when they do, they’ll leave– or worse, they’ll tell others.

A misaligned EVP kills trust big time.

4. Treating EVP as a One-Time Exercise

Your company evolves. So should your EVP.

What mattered to your team of 50 employees may be irrelevant when you have 500.

If you haven’t refreshed your EVP since your last funding round, there’s a good chance it’s outdated.

Great companies revisit their EVP at least once a year, through surveys, skip levels, candidate feedback, and market shifts.

5. Not Embedding It Into the Candidate Experience

If your EVP only lives on your careers page, it’s not an EVP. It’s a paragraph.

It needs to show up in:

• Outreach messages
• Screening calls
• Hiring manager convos
• Social posts
• Onboarding

When a candidate walks away from an interview, they should be able to describe your EVP without ever having seen the slide.

If you’re interested in leveraging a tool for this, a great example is Puck. 

Puck makes it easier to embed real employee stories directly into your career site and job pages, so candidates feel your EVP, not just read about it. Think of it as pairing storytelling with structure, so your message lands at every touchpoint.

How to Create an Employee Value Proposition That Works?

You don’t build a great EVP in a brainstorm. You uncover it through data, conversations, and a little strategic pattern-matching.

Here’s how to create an EVP that’s honest, sticky, and moves the needle:

STEP 1: Start with Listening

The best employee value propositions come from the inside.

Talk to people across the org— high performers, new joiners, even folks who’ve left.

Use surveys, 1:1 interviews, exit interviews, and Slack listening tools. Ask:

• Why did you join?
• What keeps you here?
• When have you felt most proud to work here?
• What would make you leave?

STEP 2: Spot the Patterns

Every company has noise. Your job is to find the signal.

Look for recurring themes around values, behaviors, motivators, and pain points. You’re not hunting for perfection. You’re searching for clarity and consistency.

STEP 3: Audit the Gaps

Match what employees are saying with what candidates are hearing.

If your Glassdoor says “collaborative,” but candidates feel ghosted by hiring managers, you’ve got a disconnect.

Fix the leaks before you amplify the message.

Read More: The Cheat Codes to Employer Branding on LinkedIn

STEP 4: Define Your EVP Pillars

Boil it down to 3–5 clear pillars. Each should be:

• Rooted in real experience
• Specific (no vague terms like “great culture”)
• Unique to your company

Examples include:

• “Autonomy with accountability”
• “Builder culture with mentorship baked in”
• “A place where managers are coaches, not bottlenecks”

Step 5: Bring It to Life

This part is often missed.

Your EVP should show up across:

• Sourcing messages
• Career site copy
• Recruiter screen calls
• Onboarding decks
• Internal comms

For instance, Puck helps bring your EVP to life by capturing and producing real team stories, then embedding them across your career site, job pages, and even interview guides. 

So instead of candidates reading vague copy, they’re meeting the people behind the promise.

If you’re keen on exploring this tool further, feel free to book a demo with their product specialists.

3 Ways to Pressure-Test Your Current EVP

Think your EVP is solid? Here’s how to find out.

1. Can employees describe it without a prompt?

Ask five people across different teams:
“If someone asked what it's like to work here, what would you say?”

If the answers are wildly inconsistent, your EVP isn’t embedded.

2. Does it show up in your candidate experience?

From outreach to offer, candidates should be feeling your EVP, not just reading about it.

• Are recruiters communicating the same themes?
• Do hiring managers reinforce those values in interviews?
• Does onboarding match what was promised?

If there’s friction, you’ve got misalignment. This creates a negative impact on your candidate experience.

3. Do candidates cite it as a reason for joining (or dropping out)?

Use win/loss data from your ATS.

• Why did candidates say yes?
• Why did they ghost you or go elsewhere?

Your EVP should be a factor in both scenarios.

Read More: Recruiting & Employer Branding Tips from SKIMS

Top 3 Companies Getting EVP Right

1. Spotify: Making EVP Personal and Scalable

Spotify gets that great talent doesn’t just want a job. They want flexibility, purpose, and room to grow.

Their EVP lives inside what they call the “Band Manifesto.” It's not some abstract HR doc. It's a real framework for how they treat people and build teams.

What stands out:

• People can work from anywhere. Literally.
  
  
• Their internal talent marketplace, Echo, helps folks move around and grow without leaving.
  
  
• DEI is a core value, not a slide in the onboarding deck.

They’ve built an environment where creatives, engineers, and strategists all feel seen. And they’ve scaled that across countries and cultures. That’s rare.

2. HubSpot: Turning Their Culture Code Into a Magnet

HubSpot's EVP is deeply rooted in its Culture Code, emphasizing that work should fit into employees' lives, not the other way around. This philosophy is evident in their flexible work arrangements, allowing employees to choose where and how they work best.

Here’s what that looks like:

• They run a flex-first model. Folks pick where and how they work.
  
  
• Transparency is huge. Leaders share what’s going on— good, bad, all of it.
  
  
• Managers are trained to be coaches, not taskmasters.

3. Canva: Empowering People to Do the Best Work of Their Lives

Canva's EVP is centered around creating an environment where employees are empowered to do their best work while fostering a strong sense of community and belonging.​

What they’ve nailed:

• Employees are trusted with big responsibilities early on.
  
  
• They’ve maintained a human, creative culture—even as they scaled globally.
  
  
• Leadership puts real money and time into people’s growth and development.

Canva's EVP reflects its mission to empower the world to design, starting with empowering its own employees.​

What Makes a Good EVP Strategy?

1. Start With Proof, Not Wishes

You don’t get to invent your EVP out of thin air.

It has to reflect what’s real…what your best employees already believe about working at your company.

That means pulling data from exit interviews, Glassdoor reviews, stay interviews, onboarding surveys, and performance feedback.

If your EVP isn't backed by real insights, it won’t land. And candidates will sense the gap immediately.

2. Involve the Right People Early

This isn’t just a People Ops project.

Bring in hiring managers, recruiters, your comms or brand team, and yes, executives.

Everyone has to be aligned on what you’re promising to candidates, because everyone plays a role in delivering it.

When leaders reinforce the EVP in 1:1s and team meetings, it sticks.

3. Make It Crystal Clear

If your employee value proposition needs a 6-slide explainer, it’s not going to work.

A good EVP can be repeated by anyone in your org, without notes. 

Keep it short. Keep it sharp. And focus on what makes you different, not just “great.”

4. Test It In the Wild

Once you’ve defined your EVP pillars, test them.

Use them in outreach emails. Work them into recruiter screens. Drop them into job descriptions.

See what resonates. See what falls flat.

Then refine. EVP is not a one-and-done project…it’s a living message you can tweak based on market response.

5. Embed It Across the Funnel

Your EVP shouldn’t just live on your careers page.

It needs to show up:

• In LinkedIn DMs
• On recruiter calls
• In interview panels
• During onboarding
• At all-hands and town halls

When candidates hear the same message from different people at every step, they trust it.

That consistency builds belief. Belief builds conversions.

One way to keep that consistency strong: make job pages more than job descriptions. 

Puck hosts your open roles alongside human-first content— from videos with future teammates to hiring manager intros. It’s how teams are making every job post a window into the company.

6. Make Someone Accountable for It

Your EVP is a business asset. Treat it like one.

• Assign ownership.
• Track impact.
• Make sure someone’s responsible for keeping it relevant, consistent, and visible, quarter after quarter.

If your EVP is honest, clear, and lived day to day, you won’t need to over-market your roles. The right people will come looking for you.

So listen closely. Define what makes your company worth joining. And more importantly, make sure everyone inside believes it too.

Because in a talent market this competitive, the story you tell isn’t nearly as powerful as the story your employees live.

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