Most organisations genuinely believe they’re a great place to work. I’ve never sat in a room with a leadership team who said, “Our culture’s a bit average, really.” Everyone talks up their game, they talk about their people-first values, their supportive environment, their commitment to development. And most of the time, they mean it.
But positive intention isn’t the same as demonstrating impact so the problem isn’t intention, it’s evidence.
And in a competitive labour market where candidates are doing more research than ever, that gap between belief and evidence is exactly where an EVP either stands strong or quietly falls apart.
The Gap Is Bigger Than Most Organisations Think
One of the most compelling findings from the recent B2B International Market Assessment for Investors in People is that 84% of organisations say they prioritise employee wellbeing but only 41% have a formal wellbeing strategy
That’s not a small gap; it’s a chasm and its doesn’t just apply to wellbeing.
The research also confirms that 43% of organisations have no formal people management strategy at all and only 21% use any kind of external accreditation to verify how they’re performing with their people.
The rest have no real data or rely on internal data such as engagement surveys, exit interviews, performance reviews. Yes, internal data is very useful, but also self-reported, internally generated, and easy to dismiss when the conversation gets serious.
I see this all the time. A CEO will say, “Our engagement score is 82%,” and a board member will quietly ask, “Who wrote the questions?”. It’s important to remember that any engagement score is just a flag to highlight perception rather than impact.
This is the environment your EVP is operating in. So it’s worth asking: is your EVP built on evidence, assumption or just good intention?
What an EVP Actually Needs to Do
At its heart, an EVP is a promise. It tells current and prospective employees what they can expect from working with you, what it feels like, the culture, the leadership, the development, the day-to-day experience.
A strong EVP usually covers five things:
- Leadership and culture that people genuinely feel – authentic, positive, and trust‑building. The kind of leadership that helps people handle pressure, stay steady through change, and feel anchored by values and behaviours that actually show up in the day‑to‑day, not just on the wall.
- Fair, transparent compensation where fairness and transparency aren’t just sidekicks or luxuries.
- Benefits that reflect the real needs and motivations of your people, not just gimmicks or industry trends which don’t have impact for people
- Genuine development, progression and career opportunities – yes, the very best excel in creating career opportunities
- Ways of working that support life inside and outside work. Successful organisations remember that relationships matter as much as the work itself!
I’ve found that most organisations can articulate all five beautifully, but the harder question is: do their people agree?
Because your EVP isn’t just what you write, it’s what your people would say if someone asked them independently. And the distance between those two things is where I spend most of my time with organisations.
Why Independent Evidence Changes the Conversation
When an HR Director tells the board, “Our people are our greatest asset,” the board rarely doubts the intention. If anything, they doubt the reliability of the data.
Internal surveys can be influenced. Exit interviews are retrospective. Engagement scores depend on how the question is framed. Intentional or unintentional bias impacts deeply.
Boards, investors, procurement teams, and increasingly major clients want something else, they want Independently verified evidence. They are less convinced and satisfied by self-assessment and they are clued up enough to discount or question glossy internal reports. They want evidence that stands up to scrutiny because it’s been assessed by someone with no stake in the outcome – someone with no ‘skin in the game’.
This is what shifts the conversation, not just internally, but with candidates, clients, and partners who want to know whether your EVP is real or just well-written.
Accreditation as EVP Infrastructure
This is where organisations make the biggest leap and the biggest shift.
When they stop seeing accreditation as a badge and start seeing it as the structural foundation of their EVP, everything changes.
The assessment process surfaces what’s genuinely working, what’s landing well and what isn’t. It highlights what leaders think is working but isn’t and gives a whole-organisation view of culture, not just the visible parts. Importantly, it produces evidence that is impactful to the board, to candidates, to clients – in fact for all stakeholders inside and outside the business.
The Investors in People framework looks at three core areas, how you lead, how you support your people and how you drive continuous improvement.
Your Accreditation Award, whether Standard, Silver, Gold or Platinum, isn’t a one-off judgement. It’s a structured improvement journey with clear milestones, guided by a practitioner who works with you, not on you. Your practitioner is not an auditor passing judgement, but a critical friend helping to build positive ROI and a foundation that last – a real legacy.
The organisations I see get the most value are the ones who come in asking, “Are we actually as good as we think we are?” And the answer I give is often, “Mostly yes” – and here’s exactly where you can be even better.
The Questions Worth Asking
If a candidate asked your employees tomorrow what it’s really like to work here, would their answers match your EVP?
If your board asked for evidence that your people investment is delivering, could you show them something independently verified?
If a major client asked how you treat your people, could you point to an external standard rather than an internal assertion?
These aren’t uncomfortable questions; they’re the right ones. And the organisations that can answer them confidently aren’t the ones with the most polished EVP documents. They’re the ones who’ve done the work to make sure the promise and the reality are the same thing.
