The EVP focuses on benefits in the context of total reward. It covers the standard benefits offered by the organisation, such as private medical insurance, pensions and bikes for work, and also ensures that staff are given details about their working environment, development opportunities and health and wellbeing initiatives.
Jill Cunnison, head of benefits and HR operations at Capital One, says: “We try to look at benefits in their broadest sense. Core benefits do feature within that, but we try to talk about benefits in the round and connect all of those offers together. That’s at the heart of the employee value proposition.
“We try to connect all of those things together for our employees in different ways. It’s very unusual for us to talk about one pure benefit.”
The credit card organisation has a strategy to add value, wherever it can, to support employees, which could involve negotiating benefits schemes with outside providers. For example, when it was looking at its health and wellbeing strategy and how it could maximise its offer in a cost-efficient way, Capital One brought a personal trainer into its on-site gym to offer employees classes and personal training sessions.
“That’s a really nice part of the benefits, but it’s more about us making the connections than spending money,” says Cunnison. “It’s much richer than those standard elements.
“When you make those connections, you then look at the broader footprint of benefits as a whole, and it helps people feel good about working for us and also in terms of attracting people into our organisation.”
Capital One ensures its employees are aware of all aspects of its EVP through regular communications, including an HR fair held each December to coincide with its flexible benefits enrolment window. All relevant parties take part in the fair, including third-party providers and the recruitment, development and communication teams.
“It really is around the [employee] proposition and that goes down really well,” says Cunnison. “We talk about standard benefits, but we connect everything together.”
