Key Takeaways:
- Most companies don’t have a culture problem. They have a visibility problem. The story’s already there. It just isn’t getting out.
- 77% of candidates research your company before they apply. If your brand isn’t visible where they’re looking, it might as well not exist.
- The best employer branding ideas usually come from the people already on your payroll, not from a marketing budget.
- A culture in transition isn’t a reason to go quiet. It’s a reason to talk more, not less.
Recruitment is marketing. If you’re hiring and not thinking like a marketer, you’re leaving talent on the table.
A good scout doesn’t fall in love with Twitter highlights. They show up early, watch batting practice, watch how a kid runs out a routine grounder, and pay attention to what happens when nobody thinks they’re being watched. The tools are almost always already there. The scout’s job is just to see them and get them on the field.
That’s pretty much the whole job when it comes to employer branding. The talent and the culture are usually already in the building. Somebody just has to notice and put them where people can see.
I got a fresh reminder of that on a recent Zoom call with a group of business leaders and HR folks, talking about employer branding and talent attraction. I do a lot of these. I warn people up front that I’m a bit of a Winston Wolf when it comes to presentations. I move fast, and I use a lot of slides.
But the best part is never my slides. It’s the questions.
Because that’s when you find out what employers are actually wrestling with. And the ones I got that morning were the same ones I hear from manufacturers, healthcare systems, and nonprofits all over the state. So here are a few, along with what I told the group.
“We have a great story. We’re just not telling it.”
A talent acquisition manager at a 110-year-old company told me her business had exploded over the last five years. New plants. New partnerships. Real growth. But she admitted they hadn’t leaned into any of it, not their marketing, not their careers page, not social media.
Here’s the thing. That’s not a marketing problem. That’s a visibility problem. And those are two very different animals.
Start with your careers page. It’s the one channel you own outright, and it’s where most of those 77% of candidates end up anyway. Put real employees in the photos. Write down what actually makes the place different. Shoot a few short videos of people describing the job in their own words. You don’t need a full campaign to start. You need to make the story you already have visible where people are already looking.
A company that’s grown that fast for that long is sitting on a great story. The only mistake is keeping it to yourself.
“Our culture is in transition. How do we talk about that honestly?”
This was probably my favorite question of the day, because it’s the one nobody wants to say out loud.
First, get a real pulse. Actually, talk to your employees and find out whether what leadership is saying matches what the team is living. Most of the time, the gap isn’t the culture. It’s the communication.
Companies usually fall into one of two camps. Either they think everything’s fine, or they’ve got a great plan that, turns out, nobody bothered to explain to the people doing the work.
You close that gap by communicating more, not less. Regular updates. Signage where people gather. A way to ask questions, name attached or not, so people feel heard and actually get an answer. One company I work with runs three shifts and does a quick update every Tuesday, so nobody gets left out of the loop.
You don’t have to pretend the transition isn’t happening. You just have to show people you know where you are and where you’re headed.
“How do we get our managers and other departments involved?”
Give them a stake in it.
The best ideas are almost always already in the building. So use the spot where people actually gather: the break room, the lunchroom, the wall by the time clock. Post the referral program. Post the open roles. Brag on your team.
One company we work with has about 100 employees, and every one of them has their photo on the wall, numbered one through a hundred. Little stuff like that builds pride.
And when you hit a real problem, put a little money behind the fix. Fifty bucks in the company store for the best idea. Genius comes from people who see the company from every angle, and you’d be amazed what comes back when you actually ask. Once people have a say and a stake, you stop having to chase involvement. It shows up on its own.
The line I keep coming back to
Recruitment is marketing. If you’re a recruiter today and you don’t think of yourself as a marketer, you’re in the wrong job.
The companies winning the talent war are the ones where HR and marketing pull in the same direction, working with leadership and operations to get an honest story out into the world. That doesn’t just bring new people in. It makes the people you already have want to stay.
Every company already has an employer brand. The only question is whether you’re steering the story or letting it happen to you. The talent’s already on your roster. Be the scout who sees it and gets it on the field.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between an employer brand and employer branding?
Your employer brand is how it feels to work at your company. It’s what people think, see, and feel, and you can’t fully control it. Employer branding is the work you do to shape that perception. One’s the noun. The other’s the verb.
How much does an employer branding campaign cost?
It depends on how much you do in-house versus bring in outside help, and where you are in the journey. The tactics are the easy part to price. Billboards in a competitive metro run roughly $5,000 to $10,000 a month, and should run as a series, not a one-off. Google Ads and social ads each typically land between $1,000 and $2,000 a month for a real campaign. But tactics only work when they’re built on a foundation. That foundation, a clear Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and talent attraction strategy, is where the real leverage is, and depending on the size and complexity of your organization, it can run from $50,000 into six figures. Think of it the way you’d think about your brand or product strategy. You invest once in getting the story right, and everything downstream gets cheaper and works harder. Plenty of the highest-value work is in-house, too: your careers page, organic social, and acting on employee feedback.
Are billboards still worth it for hiring?
Yes, but as an awareness play, not a direct-response one. They work best in metro areas where people commute; they should run as a series, and they should always point to a trackable careers page, not your homepage.
How do I get honest feedback from employees about our culture?
Bring in a third party. People give more candid answers to an outside firm than to internal HR, every time. Surveys, focus groups, and interviews through a neutral party surface the real story, which you can then hold up against what you’re hearing internally.
What makes a strong careers page?
Real photography, a clear employer value proposition, employee videos in their own words, specific benefits (not “we offer medical” but what makes yours different), current openings, and an application that’s actually easy to finish.
