Most explanations of the marketing exchange process only explain a simple, single transaction: I give you currency in exchange for a product or service I value. The Marketing Exchange Circle, whilst still simple, explains the whole value creation process and is particularly relevant for people developing an employment value proposition (EVP) or employer brand. It was introduced to me a long time ago by one of my Marketing lecturers – Don Bathie (its creator).

First of all, the employer has to create something of value – the proposition. The offer to the talent marketplace to come and work here.

In my experience, the most critical element of this is making it different and distinctive from your competitors (the competition for talent, not necessarily the competitors for your consumers).

Then you have to communicate this value to the marketplace. You decide on the messages, the media, etc to convey the value you offer to the people you most want to attract, in the most compelling way. This is the promise you are making to potential employees.

Then, crucially, you have to deliver value. You have to keep your promise. And this includes everything from the onboarding experience you provide, the work environment and how the person’s line manager behaves, to the sort of work the person will be doing and how they will be rewarded, developed and recognised.

You will also have noticed that there’s a cycle going in the other direction. This represents the candidate and the exchange that takes place at each point in the circle.

Firstly, the candidate has to create something of value for the employer. This is the ‘talent’ they offer – the skills and experience they have accumulated that make them attractive to the organisation.

Then they have to deliver themselves to a touch point with the organisation. This could be finding a careers site, having a conversation with an existing employee that could refer them or crafting a LinkedIn profile that you notice.

The candidate and organisation then exchange information. The organisation gets valuable feedback on whether what it is communicating is successfully explaining the value on offer. Is the right talent engaging and responding? If not, the organisation needs to refine its recruitment marketing.

If it is, the candidate is likely to be attracted to the organisation and vice versa. During the selection process a further exchange of information lets each party assess the value on offer.

If the candidate then joins the organisation another exchange occurs as the candidate – now an employee – can feedback to the organisation whether the value proposition it created is sufficient to retain and engage that person. It will be obvious if it’s not through either a drop off in performance against expectations or attrition.

And so the cycle continues around the circle again – with the organisation using that feedback to refine and enhance its value proposition to take to market again; and the employee using the value he/she has derived to make himself/herself even more attractive and valuable to retain and/or promote. Otherwise the employee will leave and use their own enhanced value proposition to engage with another employer.

The Marketing Exchange Circle is a simple but very practical tool you can use to assess the strength of your EVP and brand:

• Attrition data and exit interviews will tell you how you need to improve your value proposition
• Attraction metrics will tell you if you’re communicating this effectively, and
• Your offer acceptance rate and engagement scores will tell you if you’re delivering sufficient value

Any weak link in the circle will cause it to collapse.

I have found the Marketing Exchange Circle to be really useful in explaining the value creation process to people and helping them understand how what they do has an impact on what you are trying to achieve – whether that’s designing a proposition, communicating it or getting other parts of the organisation to deliver on the promise.