Why you need to rethink employer branding

There was a time when employer branding was something companies considered once the "real" HR work was done. A careers page, maybe a few posts on LinkedIn, a mention of free coffee in the job ad. Optional. Nice to have. Definitely not urgent.

That time has passed. And in my experience working with companies across the UK on multilingual hires, the ones still treating employer branding as an afterthought are the ones calling me in frustration six months into a search that should have taken six weeks.

It's not an ad-hoc activity anymore

One of the most common mistakes I see is companies treating employer branding as a campaign — something you switch on when you have a hard-to-fill role, then switch off again. That's not branding. That's panic marketing.

Candidates — and particularly the passive, high-quality candidates I spend most of my time reaching — are extraordinarily good at recognising the difference between companies that genuinely invest in their culture and those that are performing it for recruitment purposes. They've seen it all. They talk to each other. Your reputation precedes you in ways you may not realise.

The balance between recruitment marketing (short-term, role-specific) and employer branding (long-term, culture-driven) matters enormously. The companies that get this right don't just fill roles faster — they attract better people and retain them longer.

Who owns employer branding?

This is one of the questions I get asked most often, and the honest answer is: everyone, but it has to start somewhere. Whether that's HR, Marketing, or a dedicated team depends on the company. What matters more than ownership is passion.

The most effective employer brand advocates I've seen weren't the people assigned to the role — they were the ones who genuinely believed in what their company was building and wanted others to experience it. Find those people. Give them space and the right training. The ROI on authentic advocacy is higher than any paid recruitment campaign.

The problem with brand ambassador programmes

When the concept of brand ambassadors became widely adopted, almost every company started building internal programmes, often pulling in high-potential employees to represent the brand externally. Some of these worked brilliantly. Many didn't.

The reason they fail is almost always the same: people are asked to amplify the company message rather than share their genuine perspective. Candidates are not fooled by this. They want to hear from real people — colleagues, former employees, professionals in their network — not polished content that sounds like it was approved by three committees.

Effective advocacy means empowering people to choose what they share, when, and in their own voice. With proper guidance, not a script.

Is your EVP still relevant?

Your Employee Value Proposition — what you offer candidates in exchange for their talent and time — needs regular review. The world of work has shifted fundamentally in recent years. Priorities have changed. What felt like a compelling offer in 2019 may feel ordinary, or even off-putting, today.

Some questions worth asking:

• When did you last run focus groups or surveys with current employees about what they actually value?
• Do your benefits and culture reflect what the market now expects — flexibility, psychological safety, genuine development?
• Are you making promises in job ads that your hiring managers can't actually keep?
• How does your offer compare to what your competitors are presenting to the same candidate pool?

This last point matters particularly in multilingual recruitment. German, French and Scandinavian-speaking candidates in the UK have options. Many are weighing up whether to stay in the UK at all, or return to their home markets. Your offer has to be genuinely competitive — not just against UK employers, but against the pull of their home countries.

Your recruiters carry your brand

This is where it becomes personal for me. Every conversation I have with a candidate on behalf of a client is a brand touchpoint. The way I describe the company, the culture, the team — that becomes part of a candidate's impression of you long before they speak to anyone internally.

This is why I work with a small number of clients at any one time. I can't represent a company's brand authentically if I don't understand it deeply. The recruiters — in-house or external — who take the time to really understand what "quality" means in your specific environment are the ones who will consistently bring you better candidates.

Your employer brand exists whether you actively manage it or not. Every interaction with a candidate, every Glassdoor review, every LinkedIn post from a current employee — it's all building an impression. The question is whether you're shaping that impression deliberately, or leaving it to chance.