An Employer Brand is so Much More Than an Attraction Tool

I think, where a lot of people still get employer branding wrong, is by thinking of it primarily as a recruitment tool.
If, like me, you think it needs to be seeded with your culture, values, and employee proposition, then you start seeing it more as a an internal operating system that happens to be visible externally.

The disconnect in thinking between these can cost more than failed hires. When your current team sees a chasm between what you promise candidates and what they experience daily, you've created something worse than a weak employer brand. You've created an integrity problem.

I've seen organisations invest shed loads of cash into their employer branding campaigns whilst simultaneously ignoring feedback from employee surveys. The campaigns promise innovation and empowerment. The reality involves three approval layers for a £50 expense and meetings about meetings. Your employees notice. They're not stupid.

What becomes truly damaging is that every piece of external employer brand content becomes evidence of the gap. That video about 'our collaborative culture' gets shared internally with knowing glances when someone's idea gets shot down without discussion. The values poster in reception becomes a dark joke when redundancies are handled poorly. “People First” doesn’t mean layoffs never happen. Business is business after all. But it should mean that when they do, it’ll be done with empathy and people will be treated fairly when it does.

This isn't about being perfect internally before you present externally. It's about basic alignment. Your employer brand should reveal the experience your current people would recognise. There’s nothing wrong with nodding towards an aspirational future as long as it’s not fiction. Your people need to see the green shoots. At the very least, they need to have witnessed you sewing the seeds.

Some practical ways to check if your employer brand actually works internally:

• Would your team use the same language to describe working there that your careers page does? Not the corporate speak, but the actual sentiment. If you promise 'work-life balance' but everyone's answering emails at 10pm, that's your answer.
• When employees refer candidates, what do they actually say? The honest conversation between friends reveals your real employer brand more accurately than any focus group. If they're adding caveats and setting expectations differently than your official messaging, you've found your gap(s).
• Do your managers embody what you're promising? Your employer brand is delivered by line managers more than marketing campaigns. If they're contradicting your EVP through their daily behaviours, you're building on sand.

The strongest employer brands I've encountered weren't built through campaigns. They emerged from organisations getting the internal experience right first, then simply being honest about it externally. I know, right. Revolutionary.

When your people genuinely experience what you're promising, they become your employer brand. Their conversations with potential candidates carry more weight than any talent acquisition budget. Their posts about work (unprompted, unscripted) build more credibility than branded content ever could.

Start with the people already there. Make your EVP true for them first. The external reputation follows naturally, and crucially, it's sustainable. You're not constantly battling to 

maintain an image that doesn't match reality.

Your employer brand should be a mirror. Polish the thing standing in front of it. Not the glass.