The Link Between Employer Brand and Talent Attraction
Employer brand is how people perceive your company as a place to work. Talent attraction is the process of hiring people you want to work at your company. Get your employer brand right, and you attract the right sort of talent - the sort that you want to work for you, that fit your culture and go on to excel.
The Lasting Power of Employer Branding
Your job history sticks with you. The ones you rave about, the ones you plod through, the ones you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy - they all leave a mark. Think back to your very first job. A summer spent as a shop assistant, waitressing at a local cafe or lifeguarding at the leisure centre. You almost certainly told your friends about it. Think about how many conversations you’ve had since about that job - talking about the work, the perks or the people you were surrounded by. Over time, you’ve probably talked about it a lot.
Those conversations have a ripple effect. Maybe your friends joined you as shop assistants too - maybe your horrendous boss meant your parents never bought from that shop again. Maybe a casual mention of your lifeguarding summer eventually led to your neighbour becoming CEO of those leisure centres. That’s the power of a strong employer brand.
What is an Employer Brand?
Employer branding isn’t just another trendy HR buzzword. It’s the reputation your company has as a workplace. It’s the culture you cultivate, the values you uphold, and the overall experience employees have from onboarding to exit interviews. It’s everything people say about your company when you’re not in the room.
Your employer brand is built on:
- What your employees say about you - how do they describe working for you?
- What your employer brand and early talent team says about you - how do you position yourself in the market? How do people find interacting with your company?
- What your leaders say about you - what are they saying about your culture, values and priorities?
Get it right, and you’ll attract the right kind of people who thrive in your environment, and build a company culture where people love to work. Get it wrong, and you’ll be stuck in a doom cycle of hiring and rehiring.
Why Employer Branding Matters
People don’t pick jobs based on salary anymore. There’s a whole range of different reasons, and they change depending on who you’re talking to. Will I like working here? Will I make an impact? Will I progress? And here’s the reality: if your employer brand doesn’t answer these questions, your competitors’ will.
A strong employer brand attracts candidates who align with your culture and filters out the ones who don’t. And that’s a good thing—hiring people who aren’t the right fit costs time and money. It’s better to have fewer applicants who are genuinely invested than a flood of people who will churn within months.
A strong employer brand attracts more qualified candidates, more quickly.
The Long-Term Impact of Employer Branding
A strong employer brand doesn’t just help you hire.
When done right, employer branding creates a self-sustaining cycle:
- Attract the right talent – The people who fit your culture want in.
- Retain employees longer – They feel valued, engaged, and invested.
- Reduce hiring costs – Less turnover means fewer replacements needed.
- Strengthen your reputation – Former employees become advocates, making it easier to attract new talent.
Take Google. Their employer brand is crystal clear: innovation, ambition, and a culture that sets the bar high. It’s not for everyone, but that’s the point. And as a result - they don’t have to chase talent - talent comes to them.
That’s the goal of employer branding. Build your employer brand right, and you won’t need to spend all your time convincing people to work for you. They’ll already want in.
Start putting the data in your employer brand and book a demo with Wisdom.
Make your brand talented.
Book a demo below.
