It’s Official. I am tragically, categorically, undeniably a fan of Sons of Anarchy. I did my best not to start watching it but when I heard the lead actor Charlie Hunnam had been cast (and now withdrawn) as the lead in the 50 Shades of Grey movie, I had to see what the fuss over him was all about. And may I add… the fuss is well deserved. Anyway……
Long story short;
SAMCRO are a motorcycle enthusiast club (bikie gang), in the town of Charming, California started by a Vietnam vet and his best mate. He died which left a President (Clay Morrow) and a VP (his son Jax). In season two we see 
both these leaders struggle with the identity of SAMCRO. Jax, having strong ties to the founding father and his visions for the club to be a legitimate, peacekeeping club, struggles with the direction the current president is taking it i.e. running guns, prostitutes and further criminal activity. It takes you on a journey of total divide in loyalty of the club members and those affiliated and change in values of what each and every member signed up for.
So how does this cult phenomenon relate to what we do at Optimum? We are working with a number of clients at the moment on creating and updating their Employee Value Propositions.
The essence of an EVP is:
Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is the balance of the rewards and benefits that are received by employees in return for their performance at the workplace.
“The value proposition should identify the unique people policies, processes and programs
that demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to factors such as employee growth, management development, ongoing employee recognition, community service, etc. The EVP should be actively communicated in all recruitment efforts, and in letters offering employment, the EVP should take the focus off compensation as the primary “offer.”
For those of you who are familiar with Simon Sinek, he speaks a lot about the “Why?”
“Do business with people who believe what you believe, not with people who want what you have… If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”
So if you are an employer, the challenge is not to create your EVP, it is to uncover what is there already and then manage it. WHY is the total work experience at your organisation superior to that at other organisations? WHY is the total customer experience at your organisation superior to that at other organisations. Uncover WHY it is you do what you do. Only then you can work on the “how” and the “what.”
I am pretty sure that members don’t join bikie gangs because they necessarily believe in running guns and selling drugs. In SAMCRO’s case it’s certainly not the financial compensation. There is a certain value proposition which draws the members to the club. In SAMCRO’s case the club started with the belief of protecting and controlling their town, Charming. They are particularly vehement about keeping “hard” drugs and drug dealers, out of Charming. They started a brotherhood and created a family which supersedes the members’ blood relatives. They created a type of “Live by the club, die by the club” mentality. What they did to achieve this and how they achieve it is not what got their members through the door. WHY they started the club is their “value proposition” to their members. Contained within the value proposition are the central reasons that people will choose to commit themselves to an organisation.
So why do I watch Sons of Anarchy? Well I love motorcycles of course….
Deanna Keating – Team Leader