Personalise to persuade

Andrew:

The terms sound similar and, in fact, they’re complimentary. An EVP is a broad articulation of what the company offers to its employees across various roles and departments–from graduates to tech specialists and from salespeople to engineers. A TVP delves deeper. It zeros in on the specific aspirations, needs, and interests of a distinct talent group to refine your messaging and value proposition in order to connect.

Andrew:

It’s quite a new terminology, even though the principles behind the name are pretty well established. A TVP is like a recruitment marketing programme, with a ‘double-click’ into the talent you’re trying to connect with. A generic, cover-all value proposition isn’t the most efficient way to sell your role. Especially, when it’s so easy to gather insights and be more specific. Just like in marketing and sales, where tailoring your message to specific target audiences or personas makes sense, being more targeted in your recruitment marketing with a TVP follows the same principles.

Andrew:

TVPs really come into their own when there’s a particular challenge attracting a certain type of talent. Perhaps the business is growing fast and needs to hire a lot of people with certain skills quickly. Or maybe the organisation is changing and needs to address a talent group that they haven’t needed before. When a certain talent group is the focus, tailored communications beat generic every time. Pumping resources and budget into generic communications to an audience that you know has specific drivers surely can’t be the future.

Andrew:

At Atomic, we always start with understanding the business need. In this case, what’s creating the focus on this particular talent group or groups? Then we’d listen to key team members to understand things like what kind of individuals thrive in these roles, what is making them stay in a role–and what would make them move. If there’s been attrition, we’d look to exit interviews for clues about the reality of the fit between role and individual.
 
Then we’d review the market and competition for the talent group. For particular roles, that might be outside of the traditional or expected competitive mix.

Finally, we’d start to build a picture of the audience, through insight gathering. Where do they live online? What do they care about and who is fighting for their attention? What are they saying? Getting to know the audience is critical for tailoring comms. Our recent work with Intercom is a great example of thinking about individual talent groups.

Andrew:

For us, success in activation comes down to 2 things: authenticity and alignment. It goes without saying your content and messaging need to reach these individuals where they hang out. But authenticity comes from using real people to tell the story. Potential candidates will see value in hearing from ‘someone like them.’ Those individuals within your business can become advocates within the team and help spread the word.

And then alignment means ensuring that the communications sit well with the overall business EVP and within the Employer Brand guidelines. If you’re trying to pry someone from a live role or trying to grab the attention of someone actively looking, your comms need to cut through the noise with a compelling narrative that aligns with your business and your new, refined TVP.