It's the ideas that make it work.

Employee Value Proposition

Is this the magic bullet of talent management?

We were originally converted to the discrete charm of the EVP by clients who needed to answer a simple but pressing question: "Why should the people we want to hire, want to do these jobs, in our organisation?" It is a simple question, but it often gets lost because employers focus on 'who we are looking for' rather than 'what we have to offer the people we want'. We believe that once the telescope is turned round to focus on the individual rather than the employer, everything else is applied common sense. What's more, the EVP is just as powerful when applied to retention and engagement as it is in attraction and selection.

The Employer Brand

Managing reputation to drive attraction and retention.

Employer branding has been around for well over a decade and yet people still argue about whether it is a passing fad, the next big thing or an idea that never really took off. This conflict is significant, because various authorities and suppliers have continued to re-define the employer brand in different ways. This means the landscape is incredibly complicated and confusing; two organisations who express an interest in employer branding may want very different things, from a graphic identity to a full-cycle talent strategy. Our approach is to base our thinking on the definitions of the concept's originators – and to shape our solutions to meet the priorities and objectives of individual employers. The emphasis is on logic and common sense rather than jargon and flow charts. This is the bottom line: if you begin to treat your candidates and colleagues like customers, you won't go far wrong. And if you want to be recognised as a great employer, the solution is very simple. You have to act like one.

Curiosity & Originality

Values that shaped a decade of innovation

Commercial creativity is all about using original thinking to solve difficult problems in the real world. This is why we are almost pathologically inquisitive about the worlds our clients inhabit. By definition, innovation takes you into the unknown; any action that is truly pioneering has an element of risk to it. So if you are going to do something that is genuinely new and different, you'd better know why you're doing it and what you hope to gain from the exercise.

Most of the examples featured below involved a purposeful march into uncharted territory, but we were pretty confident about the outcome. By applying common sense, some basic principles of good communication practice and an understanding of the industry landscape, we build our innovations on a pretty sound foundation of understanding.

We don't think you have to be a writer or an art director to be creative, either. Some of the most genuinely innovative achievements in the last decade have been driven by breakthroughs in media strategy, candidate management and metrics. It's also clear that employer brands can be shaped by receptionists and application forms as much as by web campaigns or campus presentations. This is why, irrespective of job title, we are all looking for new and better ways to do things, all the time. It's the thinking that makes it work.

Ten innovations from Work Communications(Remember you saw them here first.)

• Honesty based graduate campaign for a leading consulting firm
• Displaced voice confidential advertising for a cinema chain
• Online safety manual for a railway engineering company
• CSR-led recruitment strategy for banks and consulting firms
• EVP-driven alumni relations programme for a global bank
• Combined safety and recruitment messages for the emergency services
• YouTube viral video campaign in the FMCG sector
• Interactive deal simulator for a City law firm
• Pipelining and talent pooling in nurse recruitment
• Online self-selection for a Modern Apprenticeship Scheme
• Interactive introduction to global financial services