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. Talent today 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 not an HR slogan; it’s 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 move, how leaders lead, and how purpose shows up in everyday experience. Put simply: the EVP that wins is the one that is lived, measured, and continuously renewed - not the one that’s simply written.
The Global Shift: From Perks to Proof
Three forces are redefining EVP worldwide;
- Career growth as a retention engine
People now choose employers for clarity of progression, internal and even 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 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 throughline is credibility. Employees believe the EVP when they experience it in everyday moments - onboarding, feedback, employer listening, psychological safety, mobility, recognition - not when they only read about it.
Africa’s EVP Moment: Growth, Mobility, and Meaning
Africa’s talent landscape brings unique dynamics: fast‑growing economies, youthful workforces, a premium on critical skills, and increasing regional career mobility.
The best organisations differentiate themselves through three pillars:
- Employability (skills that travel and careers that move),
- Belonging (inclusive cultures with visible leadership accountability), and
- 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 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 is more than a trophy; it signals sustained investment in leadership, development, and a consistent people experience across markets. For Absa Bank Tanzania, that recognition is a call to localise global best practice for Tanzanian realities - and 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 (including 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?
- Enable performance sustainably?
- Build trust through leadership?
- 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 see three truths:
- A place to grow. We’re strengthening pathways for internal mobility, capability building, and leadership development - so colleagues build careers experiences, not just hold roles.
- A place to belong. Culture is shaped by what leaders tolerate, reward, and role‑model. We’re intentional about inclusion - and proud of 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 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 - an acknowledgment of leadership, governance, and institutional direction.
The Leadership Imperative: EVP is a Strategy
If EVP is a competitive advantage, we must treat it with strategic discipline:
1. Define EVP as lived behaviours and experiences, not just benefits. Map the moments that matter - from onboarding to mobility to alumni - and design them deliberately.
2. Equip managers. They are the daily face of culture; invest in coaching, feedback, and inclusive leadership capability.
3. Measure what matters. Develop multipronged listening tools, Track employee engagement and net promoter score, internal mobility, leadership effectiveness, capability growth, and retention of critical skills.
4. Tell authentic stories. Employees trust proof over polish; spotlight real progression, recognition, and impact.
5. Digitise clarity. Put core policy answers where people already work - inside Microsoft Teams - with citations and guardrails to avoid speculation and keep HR as the escalation path for sensitive cases.
A Tanzania‑Specific Action Framework
Quarter 1: Diagnose and Design
- Run an EVP audit across segments (branch, corporate, tech) to test fit‑for‑purpose on growth, fairness, belonging, and purpose.
- Stand up a Teams‑based policy assistant grounded in the HR Policy PDF; require citations and “handbook‑only” answers.
Quarter 2: Build Manager Muscle
- Launch a manager capability sprint: inclusive leadership, feedback, and coaching. Tie to mobility pathways and learning plans.
Quarter 3: Scale Growth & Belonging
- Publish clear internal mobility rules and skills pathways; celebrate cross‑functional moves.
- Deepen inclusion with visible accountability (e.g., quarterly leadership scorecards on progression and representation).
Quarter 4: Institutionalise and Communicate
- Refresh external employer narrative with proof points (progression data, leadership stories, community impact).
- Update the policy knowledge base with any approved changes; keep the Teams assistant evergreen.
Closing thought
The organisations that will define Tanzania’s next decade won’t just hire people - they’ll build them. They’ll match aspiration with opportunity, design humane systems for performance, and make clarity effortless by putting trusted answers where work happens. Do that, and EVP moves from paragraph to practice - from promise to proof.
For more information, please contact:
Aron Luhanga
Director of Marketing & Corporate Relations
Absa Bank Tanzania Limited
+255 768 221 717
aron.luhanga@absa.africa
About Absa Bank Tanzania
Absa Bank Tanzania Limited is one of Tanzania’s leading financial institutions offering an integrated set of products and services across Corporate and Investment Banking, Business Banking with solutions for SMEs, and Retail Banking. Backed by its 21-year legacy in Tanzania and inspired by the people it serves, Absa is committed to finding local solutions to uniquely local challenges and everything we do is focused on bringing possibility to life.
Absa Bank Tanzania is part of Absa Group Limited, one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups. Absa Group employees approximately 40, 000 professionals operating in South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Seychelles, Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana. The Group has representative offices in Nigeria, Namibia, London and New York, as well as insurance operations in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. Absa is a truly African brand, inspired by the people we serve and determined to be the financial services Group Africa can be proud of.
For more about Absa Bank Tanzania, its products and services, visit www.absa.co.tz
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