The vacancy attracts more applications. The shortlist is still weak. The person you wanted chooses somewhere else. Before rewriting the advert, examine the job your business is actually offering.
A candidate is choosing the work, the manager, the conditions and a possible future. Your reputation helps them judge whether that combination is worth joining.
That makes employer brand a strategic question for the owner, alongside the question of why customers should choose the business.
More applicants can hide a weaker offer
The CIPD's September 2026 Resourcing and talent planning report describes a difficult combination. Despite a cooling labour market, 52% of organisations reported increased competition for well-qualified talent and 44% said talent had become harder to retain.
More applications did not necessarily mean stronger shortlists. Some 58% reported increases from unsuitable candidates, compared with 33% reporting increases from suitable candidates. These are employers' reports of change, not percentages of all applications.
A busy inbox can therefore give the owner a misleading sense of progress. The more useful question is whether the people who can do the work understand a credible reason to join.
Write down the deal before the headline
An employee value proposition is the substance of the employment offer: what someone contributes, what they receive and what working here makes possible.
It needs to explain more than the business's ambition. A growing company may offer close access to decisions, varied responsibility and the chance to build something. A larger organisation may offer deeper specialist support, clearer progression and established resources.
Either can be attractive. Neither is automatically better.
I would ask the leadership team to settle four things before commissioning recruitment copy:
- The work. What will this person own, contribute to and be expected to improve?
- The support. Who will help them succeed, and what time, tools and development will be available?
- The terms. What can they genuinely expect around pay, working arrangements, workload and flexibility?
- The future. What could they learn or progress towards, and which possibilities are still uncertain?
Words such as “empowered”, “flexible” and “people-first” are incomplete answers. Each needs an explanation someone could test in a conversation with the manager.
Find the reasons people actually stay
Start with recent joiners and established employees. Ask about particular decisions and experiences, rather than asking them to endorse a list of values.
What persuaded them to accept? What surprised them? Which part of the work would they miss? What would they tell somebody considering the same role?
Speak to people who declined an offer or left, where they are willing. Their explanation may differ from the one the business has told itself.
A small set of conversations can identify questions and patterns. It cannot establish what every employee or candidate believes. Check what you hear against offer feedback, exit information and the practical conditions in the role.
Look for reasons that are valuable, specific and supported by the way the business works. Being small, friendly or ambitious is a starting description. Explain what that changes for the person doing the job.
Make the choices visible
Consider an illustrative specialist consultancy recruiting an experienced adviser.
The business cannot offer a large management ladder. It can offer responsibility for a defined client problem, access to the founder's expertise and protected time to develop a specialism.
That is a useful position if the work and support exist. The recruitment brief can explain who owns client decisions, how often case reviews happen and what development time means in an ordinary month.
Claiming a clear promotion ladder when none exists would misrepresent the opportunity. Leaving the real benefits buried under “exciting opportunity” would make it harder to judge.
The leadership decision is which kind of opportunity the business can sustain. The communication follows that choice. This is the same discipline that separates strategic direction from the activity used to promote it.
Give the manager a promise they can keep
A recruitment campaign can be approved centrally while the resources behind it remain somebody else's problem.
If the advert promises development, who has agreed the time? If it promises autonomy, which decisions can the person actually make? If it promises access to senior expertise, whose diary makes that possible?
Ask the hiring manager to check each important claim against the role as it will operate. Then give that manager the support needed to keep it true.
Sometimes this reveals a communication problem. Sometimes it reveals an under-resourced job. Better language can clarify the former. The latter needs a decision about the work, expectations or investment.
Brand strategy should help expose that decision while there is still time to make it.
Be clear about change as well as opportunity
Employees also judge an employer by how it handles uncertainty. The 2026 Edelman Trust at Work report puts global trust in employers at 74%, down five points since August 2024. Its findings associate clarity, opportunities to grow and employees' ability to adapt with stronger trust through transformation.
This is global workplace research, not a prediction of retention in your company. It is a reason to examine the experience behind the promise.
If roles are evolving, say what is decided and what remains open. Explain how people will be involved and supported. “Join a business going through change” can be an honest proposition when the direction and the support are credible.
Trying to sound certain about everything makes it harder to be believed when plans change.
Test the offer after someone joins
Choose three claims from the recruitment material. For each one, agree what a new starter should be able to observe, who will make it happen and when you will check.
For example, a promise of direct access to expertise might be supported by a named mentor and regular case reviews. A promise of autonomy might mean ownership of a clearly defined decision, with explicit boundaries.
Review those commitments with the new starter and manager. Ask what has happened, what has not and what needs to change. Keep individual feedback appropriately private when drawing out wider lessons.
Measure more than application volume. Depending on the problem, useful evidence could include reasons for declining offers, acceptance of offers for the relevant roles, whether promised support is happening and why people leave early. Interpret small numbers carefully.
There is no need to claim that one campaign caused a change in retention. The immediate job is to find out whether the employment offer is understood and delivered.
Make the business worth choosing from the inside
A business asking customers to pay for expertise needs a credible way to attract and develop the people providing it. A business promising personal service needs working conditions that allow people to give it.
The employee offer deserves a place in the brand strategy because it helps determine what the company can repeatedly deliver.
Before paying to make the next vacancy more visible, answer a simpler question.
What, specifically, will make doing this job here worth choosing?
Then check that the manager and the business can stand behind the answer.
Employer brand: direct answers
What is employer brand?
Employer brand is the reputation and expectations associated with a business as a place to work. It is shaped by the employment offer, managers, working conditions and what current and former employees experience and say.
What is an employee value proposition?
An employee value proposition explains the work, rewards, support and opportunities an employer can credibly offer in return for an employee’s contribution. It gives recruitment communication a substance that candidates and employees can assess.
What should a small business do before rewriting its job adverts?
Clarify the actual work, support, terms and development possibilities. Speak to employees and recent candidates, check the evidence with the hiring manager, and describe specific benefits that the business can sustain.