In today’s talent-first economy, a weak or outdated Employee Value Proposition (EVP) isn’t just a missed opportunity—it’s a liability. From disengaged employees to rising attrition and employer brand erosion, companies are feeling the pressure. In fact, 57% of CEOs now rank employee engagement and retention as top priorities for 2025. 

Traditional EVP frameworks—built on static benchmarks and gut instinct—no longer meet evolving employee expectations for personalization, purpose, and growth. What organizations need now is clarity, precision, and a way to align EVP investments with what employees truly value. That’s where the EVP Decision Matrix— built on Draup’s global labor market data—comes in. 

How the EVP Decision Matrix Works in Practice 

Most EVP efforts fail because they rely on outdated assumptions or scattered feedback. The result? Initiatives that sound good on paper but fall flat in practice. Draup’s EVP Decision Matrix flips that dynamic, making data, not guesswork, the foundation of EVP strategy. Built using insights from Draup’s global labor market data, the Matrix reflects real-world trends across industries, roles, and geographies, ensuring every EVP decision is grounded in evidence, not assumption. 

The EVP Decision Matrix, powered by Draup’s labor market data, helps organizations zero in on what matters most to their workforce—and invest accordingly. It evaluates ~16 core EVP components across three critical dimensions: 

• Employee Importance (EI): What do employees actually care about? Gauged through surveys, feedback, and engagement data. 

• Organizational Feasibility (OF): What’s practical to implement or scale, considering budget, policy, and operational complexity? 

• Competitive Advantage (CA): What differentiates your EVP in the current labor market, benchmarked against industry standards? 

Fig: The table highlights the decision matrix model with integrated EVP components 

Each component is scored, weighted (0.5 * EI + 0.3 * OF + 0.2 * CA), and prioritized—so workforce planning teams can confidently move from insights to action. 

What the Matrix Reveals: Six EVP Elements That Consistently Matter 

While EVP priorities vary by company and industry, labor market data reveals six components that consistently surface as high-impact across most organizations.: 

1. Flexible Work Arrangements 
   The ability to choose where, when, and how work happens is now a baseline expectation for knowledge workers. 
   Example: A leading BPO company introduced flexible shift models across India and the Philippines to stem high attrition. Combined with improved economic stability, this shift is expected to bring down attrition rates to 30–35% in 2025, an encouraging sign for an industry historically battling double-digit churn. 

2. Base Salary 
   Fair, transparent, and competitive compensation reinforces an employee’s sense of value and equity within the organization. 
   Example: To address rising expectations around pay equity, a global tech company transitioned to a skills-based compensation model using the labor market data. This move, backed by Deloitte findings that 75% of executives and employees favor such transparency, helped them close offer gaps and accelerate hiring across critical roles. 

3. Training and Certification 
   Access to upskilling, reskilling, and industry-recognized certifications—validated by labor market data—signals long-term investment in employee growth. 
   Example: A SaaS provider rolled out a new learning platform tied to sales enablement. With adoption rates hitting 92% in the first month, the company also saw a 17% increase in sales conversion, proving that upskilling isn’t just retention-focused, it’s revenue-linked. 

4. Career Path Clarity 
   Employees want to know how they can grow. Clear, well-communicated career trajectories drive motivation and retention. 
   Example: Industrial manufacturer Kohler unified its recruitment and L&D workflows to improve talent mobility. The result? A 15% rise in internal talent sharing and smoother transitions between business units, creating tangible pathways for upward movement. 

5. Inclusive Culture 
   Belonging and equity at work aren’t optional. Draup’s labor market data shows that inclusive practices create psychological safety and unlock innovation across teams. 
   Example: A global financial services company revamped its DEI framework based on Gartner’s insights that inclusive teams outperform by up to 30%. By embedding inclusion into performance reviews and team design, they saw noticeable gains in engagement, particularly in underrepresented groups. 

6. Health and Wellness Benefits 
   Comprehensive wellness support—from healthcare to mental well-being—has become a core expectation, not a perk. 
   Example: Facing rising absenteeism and burnout among engineers, a semiconductor company introduced mandatory mental health days, therapy stipends, and caregiver leave. This holistic approach is now part of its EVP refresh, aligning with broader 2025 industry trends toward preventive wellness. 

These elements gain power when evaluated through the lens of the Decision Matrix powered by the labor market data, helping companies prioritize EVP workforce strategy with confidence, not just intuition. 

From Strategy to Execution 

Designing EVP is no longer about following best practices from five years ago. It’s about staying in sync with real-time employee needs and external labor market data dynamics—and making changes with conviction. 

By scoring, weighting, and benchmarking EVP elements, the Matrix enables HR leaders to move from disconnected data to aligned action. It turns EVP from a one-off initiative into an ongoing capability that adapts with the business. 

Use Case: From Static EVP to Strategic Differentiator 

For instance, a mid-sized tech company—Nova Cloud—wanted to revamp its EVP to improve retention and attract specialized AI talent. 

Using Draup’s labor market data-powered EVP Decision Matrix, Nova Cloud evaluated six core EVP elements across the three dimensions: 

• Employee Importance (EI) from internal surveys and exit interviews 

• Organizational Feasibility (OF) based on budget, policy, and operational complexity 

• Competitive Advantage (CA) using external labor market benchmarks 

Here’s what surfaced in their high-level scorecard: 

Outcome: Nova Cloud reallocated budget and energy toward what mattered most: 

• Introduced “remote-first” work policies and asynchronous collaboration support 

• Scaled internal certifications and external learning partnerships 

• Initiated a DEI listening tour to raise inclusion scores with tactical, high-impact changes 

Within three months, internal engagement scores rose by 14%, and offer acceptances increased by 22% among critical roles. 

A Note on Technology Enablement 

While the EVP Decision Matrix can be implemented manually, the process is significantly enhanced with intelligent technology. Curie, Draup’s Agentic AI assistant, accelerates decision-making by synthesizing employee sentiment, benchmarking labor market data, and generating recommendations in real-time. It transforms EVP design from a static process into a dynamic, learning-driven capability—helping HR teams stay ahead of change. 

In a labor market shaped by agility, purpose, and personalization, a well-executed EVP is more than a retention tool—it’s a competitive edge. With a data-driven approach and the right support systems in place, HR leaders can evolve their EVP with clarity, confidence, and measurable impact.