If you want a quick reality check on your EVP, ask this:
Would a new joiner say your recruitment story matched their first 90 days?
Because in 2026, the risk for maritime employers often isn’t that their EVP is missing, it’s that it’s not experienced consistently, especially in the first year. And when that gap is too wide, people don’t hang around.
Maritime Workforce Forecast 2026
In our Maritime Workforce Forecast 2026, this shows up as the “promise gap”: the space between what’s promised in attraction (careers site, job ads, interviews) and what people actually experience in the first 12–18 months.
And that matters because mobility is high across key roles, and many people are already thinking about their next move.
What an EVP really is
Your EVP is not your employer brand campaign.
It’s the story you tell about what it feels like to work in your organisation, and, crucially, whether that story holds up when someone starts.
People tend to stay (and leave) for broadly similar reasons:
Challenge in the role
Culture and quality of leadership
Learning and progression
Balance between work and life
Pay and benefits
If those things are real inside your business, you’re already ahead. But if your recruitment messaging paints a better picture than your day-to-day reality, you’ll feel it through:
Early attrition
Longer time-to-productivity
“It’s not what I expected” feedback
Hiring managers stuck in a repeat loop
“If what you promise in the attraction stage doesn’t match what people feel in year one, they won’t stay.”
Key takeaways
The best EVPs in 2026 will be evidence-based, not marketing-led.
The make-or-break window is often the first 12–18 months, that’s where the promise gap shows up.
Your EVP lives or dies through line managers, because they shape both the story and the reality.
Where the promise gap usually appears
In maritime, the promise gap typically shows up in a few predictable places:
1) The role is sold, but the work isn’t what they thought
Titles can be misleading. Responsibilities, autonomy and decision-making often differ by vessel type, trade, client expectations, and internal structure.
Fix: Rewrite role messaging around “what you’ll actually be accountable for in the first 6 months”, not just “what great looks like”.
2) Culture is described, but leadership experience is inconsistent
You can’t “brand” your way out of manager variability. If one team gets coaching, clarity and good communication, and another gets silence and overload, your EVP becomes random.
Fix: Equip line managers to communicate the EVP credibly, not just HR and marketing.
3) Development is promised, but the path is fuzzy
Many organisations talk about learning, but struggle to show:
What skills people build
What progression looks like
How internal moves really work
Fix: Make development visible and specific (even if it’s not perfect yet).
4) Flexibility is hinted at, then quietly removed
Expectations around flexibility are rising. If candidates infer flexibility during hiring and then find it’s “not really a thing here”, trust drops quickly.
Fix: Be clear on what flexibility looks like for each function/location.
What an EVP built on truth looks like in practice
Our recommendation is simple:
Build EVPs grounded in evidence. Not assumptions. Not leadership intentions. Evidence: what employees actually value and experience.
Tailor messages to different audiences, while keeping a consistent core story. A naval architect and a commercial operator don’t need the same pitch, but they should recognise the same organisation.
Make line managers your EVP storytellers. They are the ones candidates trust most, and they shape the lived experience after offer acceptance.
“A realistic, honest EVP may feel less glossy in the short term, but it builds more sustainable attraction and retention in the long term.”
A practical “EVP Reality Check” you can run in 30 days
If you want to tighten the EVP–reality gap quickly, here’s a simple process.
Step 1: Write your EVP in six bullet points (not a paragraph)
Answer: What do people get here that they won’t get elsewhere?
Keep it grounded in reality (and specific to your key talent groups).
Step 2: Pressure-test it with three sources of truth
New joiners (0–18 months): What surprised them? What didn’t match?
Exit feedback: What broke down?
Hiring managers: What do they sell, and what do they avoid saying?
Step 3: Fix the two biggest “promise gap” moments
Most organisations find the biggest gaps happen at:
Interview stage (implied flexibility/development)
Onboarding (support and clarity)
First performance cycle (feedback and progression)
Pick two. Make them better. Then measure.
Step 4: Give managers a three-sentence EVP script
The leadership checklist in the report asks whether you can articulate your EVP in three sentences at the board level and whether it matches year one.
Managers need the same clarity with examples they can use.
“If what you promise in the attraction stage doesn’t match what people feel in year one, they won’t stay.”
What's Next?
Read the Maritime Workforce Forecast 2026 - download here
Find out more about our Maritime Workforce Solutions
Read more Employer Insights here
