Wisdom surveys 50,000 minds each year to find out what people want from work; they shared their thoughts on the latest trends in the employer brand space.
The Great Stay. The Great Resignation. The Great Stagnation. ‘The Great Renegation’ was floated on a panel last month. It can seem like every week there’s another massive trend in Talent Attraction and Employer Brand. So today we’re cutting through the hype and telling you what’s here to stay, and what’s just a flash in the pan.
AI: ChatGPT candidates
Here to stay? Absolutely
Trend: Ask any Talent Associate - AI has changed the game in Employer Brand. It’s transformed how candidates search for roles, ask questions, put together applications and more. It’s transformed how employers evaluate candidates, how they hire - in short, there’s not a single part of the candidate experience that’s been left untouched.
Action:
Transform to incorporate AI - it’s worth it: If an AI tool can do it, it’s probably worth looking into. Develop your AI strategy. Personalise your job matches, use it to automate scheduling and iterate your social campaigns.
But also - where you can - re-humanise: AI leads to candidates feeling distant, and cut off from the company they’re hiring in. Bright Networks research panel mentioned how dispiriting candidates can find knowing that their performance is being transformed into a series of ones and zeros. Where you can, rehumanise your application process. Send physical objects - not just vouchers - to your offer holders. Empathise, and acknowledge where you’re using AI explicitly - don’t leave candidates in the dark, or they’ll assume even genuine human contact is coming from a robot.
Storytelling through your brand
Here to stay? Yep. Authenticity has always been important - but it’s only becoming more so.
Trend: In a sea of ChatGPT generated posts, genuine employee voices cut far deeper than brand slogans. There’s increasing focus on employee advocacy networks, user generated content and showing what real people have said.
Action:
Encourage high-touch media: Use videos, images - anything that makes images feel grounded in a person, not a bot. Let employees tell their own stories - avoid the siren call of a tone of voice bot, and allow things to be genuinely authentic.
Your employer brand should be a reflection of the people who work at your company, with all the diversity that entails.
Show genuine career paths - not just textbook ones: Careers are far more squiggly than in the past. Find people who’ve made moves within your business, or taken an unconventional path outside it. It makes it clear that your business is open to talent from all areas - not just those who’ve followed a standard ladder. Launch campaigns that spotlight diverse journeys and real leadership.
Well-being brand?
Here to stay? Flash in the pan.
Trend: Your employer ‘well-being brand’ has recently been cropping up as a new differentiator. Think touting your mental health support, mindfulness subscriptions, stressing that somewhere is a happy place to work.
Why is it a flash in the pan?
Wellbeing is now table stakes. Shouting about how ‘we don’t make our employees depressed’ isn’t seen as much of a win. Expectations have shifted, and, particularly amongst Gen Z, employee wellbeing isn’t a differentiator - it’s a foundation.
Action:
Offer flexibility, mental health support, and proper wellness benefits as a core part of Employee Value Proposition - but don’t make them a core part of driving your employer brand awareness.
Prove your employee wellbeing by other means - let it be implied by a good company culture, rather than spelt out explicitly.
4. DEI: All going quiet?
Here to stay? Absolutley
Trend: Some companies have gone quiet on the diversity front, the previous hashtags and commitments suddenly disappearing off their LinkedIn pages.
Staying silent can taint your employer brand in the long run. It risks undermining credibility with your current and future employers, and (relating to trend 2), removing trust and authenticity.
Action:
Continue with your existing planned DEI content
Re-emphasise your commitment to diversity - update on your previous DEI efforts, and how they’ve continued.
5. Back to the Office?
Here to stay? It depends.
Trend: JP Morgan, Amazon, AT&T - there’s been a fair few companies ordering their workers back into the office. Is this the start of a wave of new commuters? Is this a new trend?
Probably not. RTO is so company specific. It goes without saying that this is a massive strategic choice. Being the outlier - whether that’s the only returning to office company, or the only one staying flexible - could be a huge differentiator for attracting top talent in your sector. There’s no one size fits all for remote work - and so this isn’t something to decide based on trends in the market.
Action:
Be smart. Evaluate your hiring needs, evaluate what your competitors are doing, evaluate gaps in your talent pipeline. Use a tool like Wisdom to see how important remote work is to those gaps. Make your choice accordingly.
Be tactical. Think about how you’re communicating with senior stakeholders. Get the data on how preferences vary by seniority - so you can explain that what works for a CEO might not work for your mid-level manager.
Trend or not? The best way to cut through the hype, and find out which trends are relevant to your sector is by getting the data.
