Recently, Wiser and Talent Mapper filled a room with talent and brand leaders to talk about something most of us feel but rarely name: the silence.
Not the awkward pause after someone asks "any questions?" in a team meeting. The other kind. The slow fade that happens when people stop offering ideas, when feedback dries up, when the exit interview is the first time someone actually tells you what's been going on.
We called it the era of cautious contributors. And honestly? We're still wrestling with what to do about it.
But here's what stuck with us from the conversation.
You can't fix what people won't say out loud
Someone in the room said this:
"People know how to give feedback. They just don't believe it's safe to do it."
That landed hard. Because the issue isn't that people don't care. It's that they don't feel heard. Or they've watched what happened to the last person who tried to speak up.
A few folks admitted their pulse survey scores look fine on paper, but the quietest teams? Those are often the ones most at risk. They've just opted out of the conversation entirely.
Having the channels doesn't matter if people don't trust what happens when they use them. Trust builds slowly and disappears in an instant. The employers who seem to be getting this right aren't treating safety as a line in the values deck. They're treating it as a system.
Wiser advice: Start by closing the feedback loop publicly. When someone shares feedback (whether in a survey or a 1:1), show what changed as a result. It doesn't have to be big. Even acknowledging "We heard this concern and here's what we're exploring" builds trust faster than collecting feedback into a void. Make it visible, make it regular, and watch people start speaking up again.
High-performance cultures are actually pretty noisy
Here's the thing we need to retire: the idea that a harmonious culture is a peaceful one.
One of the guests put it perfectly:
"You can't have a high-performance culture and a low-feedback environment."
The best teams aren't chasing surface-level harmony. They're designing for respectful friction. That means training managers to actively seek out feedback, not just wait to receive it. It means rewarding people for constructive honesty. And it means building feedback into the everyday, not saving it for annual reviews or post-mortem retros when something's already gone wrong.
Sarah from a fintech company shared something that had several of us reaching for our phones to take notes. They prompt new starters for feedback on day 1, day 7, day 30, and day 90. Just a simple question: "What's surprised you?" Then they share the themes at their monthly all-hands and show what's changed as a result.
People see that their voice matters. That's the bit that counts.
Wiser advice: Train your managers to actively seek feedback, not just receive it. Schedule "feedback office hours" or add a standing agenda item to team meetings: "What's one thing we should stop, start, or change?" Make seeking input a leadership behavior, not an HR initiative. When managers model this consistently, respectful friction becomes part of how the team operates, not something to fear.
Attraction is easy. Activation is where it gets real.
We talk a lot about employer brand in the context of getting people through the door. But what came up again and again in this room? The moment someone joins is when your brand promise actually gets tested.
It's not enough to make bold claims on your careers site anymore. People are measuring the gap between what you said and what they're feeling. Every day.
The companies that seem to be nailing this are obsessing over those first 30 days. Reinventing onboarding to reflect their EVP. Introducing rituals (buddy systems, founder calls, feedback loops) that reinforce culture from the start.
"If people don't feel proud to belong in their first month, you've already lost them."
Wiser advice: Map your onboarding experience against your EVP claims. If you say "we move fast and trust our people," does week one involve three days of compliance training? If you promise "transparency from day one," are new starters actually invited to team meetings or left on the sidelines? Close the gap between promise and practice in those critical first weeks. And pair every new starter with a buddy, someone outside their direct reporting line who can be a safe sounding board before they're comfortable speaking up to their manager.
What keeps people isn't loyalty. It's whether they still believe.
The last thing that kept coming up: retention metrics only tell you what's already happened. The real signal is whether someone still believes in your mission, in your culture, in their own future with you.
That belief doesn't come from posters or values decks or end-of-year highlight videos. It comes from small moments. When someone's actually listened to. When they're recognized for trying something new. When their feedback leads to real change.
And when that belief disappears? You get silence.
Wiser advice: Create regular "stay conversations," not exit interviews. Ask people who are staying: "What keeps you here? What would make you think about leaving?" These conversations surface belief erosion before it turns into resignation letters. The key is asking when things are going well, not waiting for warning signs. Make it part of your quarterly rhythm, not a crisis response.
So what now?
This is the work we're doing at Wiser: helping companies close the gap between what they say and how it actually feels to work there. We design employer brand strategies built on trust, using lived experience research, honest storytelling, and the systems that make people want to stay.
If this stuff keeps you up at night too, let's talk.
