By Patrick Foya, Director: People Function & Culture, Absa Bank Tanzania
For years, the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) was a polished paragraph on a careers page — competitive pay, decent benefits, training, and “a great culture.” That era is over.
Today’s talent is more informed, more mobile, and more values-driven. Organisations are being reshaped by digitisation, AI, shifting customer expectations, and rising demands for trust. In this context, EVP is no longer an HR slogan — it is a strategic capability: the ability to consistently attract, develop, engage, and retain the people who deliver the strategy.
At Absa, we see EVP as a leadership conversation rather than a campaign. It’s about how work feels, how careers progress, how leaders show up, and how purpose is experienced daily. Put simply: the EVP that wins is the one that is lived, measured, and continuously renewed — not simply written.
The Global Shift: From Perks to Proof
Three powerful forces are redefining EVP worldwide:
1) Career Growth as a Retention Engine
People increasingly choose employers based on clarity of progression, internal and regional mobility, coaching, and meaningful development. The bridge between learning and career advancement is the new currency.
2) Well-being as a Performance Driver
Leading organisations now emphasise sustainable performance, manager capability, and mental well-being — not wellness as an activity, but as an operating model.
3) The Human Value Proposition in the Age of AI
As AI reshapes roles, employers are redesigning work around skills and ensuring technology augments people rather than overwhelms them.
The common thread is credibility. Employees believe the EVP when they experience it in everyday moments — onboarding, feedback, listening forums, psychological safety, mobility, recognition — not when they simply read about it.
Africa’s EVP Moment: Growth, Mobility, and Meaning
Africa’s talent landscape presents unique dynamics: fast-growing economies, youthful workforces, a premium on critical skills, and increasing regional career mobility.
The organisations pulling ahead differentiate themselves across three pillars:
- Employability — Skills that travel and careers that move.
- Belonging — Inclusive cultures with visible leadership accountability.
- Purpose — Impact that is real, not rhetorical.
Recognition standards that benchmark people practices across markets matter here. They validate disciplined, evidence-based experience design rather than guesswork.
Absa’s own journey reflects this. In January 2026, Absa Group Limited was recognised as a Top Employer for 2026 by the Top Employers Institute — for the fifth consecutive year — with certification across six African markets: South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Botswana, and Mauritius.
This recognition is more than a trophy. It signals sustained investment in leadership, development, and a consistent people experience across markets. For Absa Bank Tanzania, it is a call to localise global best practice for Tanzanian realities — and to keep raising the bar for what a great employer looks like in our market.
Tanzania: What Great EVP Must Solve for Now
Tanzania’s labour market is evolving quickly — and so are expectations. Three themes stand out:
Skills and Work Readiness
Employers increasingly prize adaptability and continuous learning. Graduate employability and capability building are central to workplace readiness.
Retention Pressure in Competitive Sectors
In industries such as banking, HR practices and reward design materially influence voluntary turnover. EVP must work as a system — not a slogan.
Work–Life Balance and Well-being
Supportive leadership and fair workload design are rising as practical drivers of productivity and engagement.
These realities make the local EVP question very practical:
- How do we create careers that grow?
- How do we enable sustainable performance?
- How do we build trust through leadership?
- How do we reward fairly — and communicate transparently?
What We’re Leaning Into at Absa Bank Tanzania
Our EVP is grounded in Absa’s purpose — Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together… one story at a time — and our brand promise: Your Story Matters.
We aim for every colleague to experience three truths:
A Place to Grow
We are strengthening pathways for internal mobility, capability building, and leadership development — so colleagues build career experiences, not just hold roles.
A Place to Belong
Culture is shaped by what leaders tolerate, reward, and role model. We are intentional about inclusion — and proud of tangible progress. In the recent cycle, more women have been promoted into Director-level roles, including Ndabu Swere (Retail Banking Director), Nellyana Mmanyi (Corporate Banking Director), and Irene Rwegalulira (Global Markets Director).
A Place to Make Impact
Banking is ultimately about people — households, entrepreneurs, communities, and national development. When daily work connects to meaningful impact, engagement becomes more resilient.
External validation often reflects internal strength. Recently, our Managing Director & CEO, Obedi Laiser, was named Best CEO/MD of the Year 2025 at The Top 100 Executives List Awards Tanzania — recognising leadership, governance, and institutional direction.
The Leadership Imperative: EVP Is Strategy
If EVP is a competitive advantage, it must be treated with strategic discipline:
- Define EVP as lived behaviours and experiences — not just benefits. Map the moments that matter, from onboarding to alumni, and design them deliberately.
- Equip managers. They are the daily face of culture. Invest in coaching, feedback, and inclusive leadership capability.
- Measure what matters. Use multi-pronged listening tools. Track employee engagement, internal mobility, leadership effectiveness, capability growth, and retention of critical skills.
- Tell authentic stories. Employees trust proof over polish. Spotlight real progression, recognition, and impact.
- Digitise clarity. Put core policy answers where people already work — for example, inside Microsoft Teams — with clear citations and guardrails, while keeping HR as the escalation path for sensitive cases.
A Tanzania-Specific Action Framework
Quarter 1: Diagnose and Design
- Conduct an EVP audit across segments (branch, corporate, tech) to test fitness for growth, fairness, belonging, and purpose.
- Deploy a Teams-based policy assistant grounded in the HR Policy handbook, with citation-backed responses.
Quarter 2: Build Manager Muscle
Launch a manager capability sprint focused on inclusive leadership, feedback, and coaching — directly tied to mobility pathways and learning plans.
Quarter 3: Scale Growth & Belonging
- Publish clear internal mobility frameworks and skills pathways; celebrate cross-functional moves.
- Deepen inclusion through visible accountability, such as quarterly leadership scorecards on progression and representation.
Quarter 4: Institutionalise and Communicate
- Refresh the external employer narrative with measurable proof points — progression data, leadership stories, and community impact.
- Update the policy knowledge base with approved changes and keep the Teams assistant evergreen.
Closing Thought
The organisations that will define Tanzania’s next decade won’t simply hire people — they will build them. They will match aspiration with opportunity, design humane systems for performance, and make clarity effortless by placing trusted answers where work happens.
Do that, and EVP moves from paragraph to practice — from promise to proof.
For More Information
Aron Luhanga
Director of Marketing & Corporate Relations
Absa Bank Tanzania
+255 768 221 717
aron.luhanga@absa.africa
About Absa Bank Tanzania
Absa Bank Tanzania is one of Tanzania’s leading financial institutions, offering an integrated suite of products and services across Corporate and Investment Banking, Business Banking (including SME solutions), and Retail Banking.
Backed by over two decades of legacy in Tanzania and inspired by the communities it serves, Absa is committed to delivering local solutions to uniquely local challenges — bringing possibility to life.
Absa Bank Tanzania is part of Absa Group Limited, one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups, employing approximately 40,000 professionals across multiple African markets, with representative offices in London and New York.
For more information, visit: www.absa.co.tz
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