Written by: Kim Benedict, Talent Solutions Consultant, & Guest Lecturer, Schulich School of Business

How many employers advertise that they are looking to hire second best candidates? “We’re willing to settle for just OK, come work with us!” …Not very many.

Of course we want to hire the best talent for our companies, that’s why we take the time to interview and screen the applicants!  Great people are great for business. Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder of Twitter said recently at the AccelerateTO conference (paraphrase), “it doesn’t matter how good your idea is, you need great people and a great culture; that’s your competitive advantage.”

So how do you attract THE BEST?

Whether you know it or not, every company has an employment value proposition (EVP). Every employer has a distinct set of characteristics that makes it unique. An EVP captures everything that you provide to employees in exchange for their performance, time and work.  It’s not salary, time off or benefits – every company has those!  A strong EVP defines the culture, values and behaviors of your organization that creates an emotional connection with people.

When done right, an EVP can give companies a significant competitive advantage.

According to a recent study conducted by Towers Watson, employers that had done the most work developing and executing their EVP achieved superior financial performance over businesses with less developed ones. A strong EVP can reduce cost per hire by more than 50% as well as reduce time to hire by 35% overall.

Don’t get caught in the sea of sameness and assume that the best talent will dig in to learn more about who you are as an employer – and worse case, they can’t find the information even if they tried!

If you want to hire the best, define your unique EVP and effectively promote what you have to offer beyond just the job.

Join me at Innovation Factory’s October LiFT Seminar to learn more: liftevp2013.eventbrite.ca/