Employer Brand Pulse

According to Forbes, 90% of companies that shifted from degree-based hiring to skills-based hiring report fewer hiring mistakes, and 94% say skills-based hires outperform those chosen via credentials or experience alone." Photo by Lauren Griffiths on Unsplash For organizational leadership this means… 🔺Broader, richer talent pools open up when you assess candidates by skill, not just title or alma mater. (Propeller) 🔺Diversity and inclusion improve: 84% say skills-based hiring reduces bias, and 93% of tech employers report improved diversity after switching. (TestGorilla) 🔺Efficiency and retention go up: Motion Recruitment found that 89% of tech companies are satisfied with skills-based hiring, and employees hired this way are 20% more likely to stay. There is a visible shift already, with tech companies already rewriting the playbook: 🔹 Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Apple are dropping degree requirements, hiring on skills. 🔹 xAI (Elon Musk’s AI firm) scrapped lofty “Researcher” titles; everyone’s simply an Engineer, focusing on what they do, not what they’re called. 🔹 Job platforms like Torre.ai are matching candidates purely on skills + assessments, not resumes. For Employer Branding this means, If you want to win talent today, it is essential to 👉 Frame your EVP around growth & learning, not hierarchy. 👉 Lead with skill first on your JD's (“lead cross-functional teams” vs. “Project Manager, 7 years exp”). 👉 Show how you’ll stack new skills on top of existing ones. Because in the future of work, titles may open doors, but skills keep them open.

Turns out my Gen Alpha niece understands branding better than I thought. Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash Last week my teen niece casually paused at one of my slides and said, “Hmm… the vibe is off.” I laughed, but it stuck with me. Kids don’t talk about positioning or EVP statements; they just feel whether something fits (btw, she is a fan of Katseye Gap ad vs Sidney sweeney one, apparently, it is ‘vibin’ with all the diversity in the group!) That led me down a rabbit hole on what people are calling 'Vibe Marketing' and why it’s becoming mainstream. (go read this interesting article on Tech Radar) In simple terms, 'vibe marketing' is about the instant feeling your brand gives someone before they read a single word. It’s the colours, tone, pace, and little signals that tell people, “Yes, I can see myself here.” Instead of focusing only on “Who is our audience?”, the question becomes “What does it feel like to be part of this?” And with today’s AI tools, creating that feeling is faster than ever. What once needed an agency, weeks of edits, and endless approval loops can now be mocked up in an afternoon. AI has made professional-quality visuals, mood boards, and micro-videos almost instant. So why does it feel new if storytelling has always been part of employer branding? 👉 There is a shift from ‘narrative’ to ‘sensory’ Three-second impressions matter: colour, tone, music, and pace. 👉 AI + creator tools has lowered the barrier Mood-driven clips or reels no longer take a full campaign cycle. 👉 Audience behaviour changed Candidates scroll fast, feeling first, reading later. 👉 Culture is market currency People apply where the energy matches their values, not just perks. 👉 From linear campaigns to continuous signals Always-on moments build a living sense of your workplace. For employer branding, the takeaway is clear: 🔹 Curate not just what you say but the energy people sense in every post, reel, and photo. 🔹Use AI to turn authentic employee stories into quick, shareable content that keeps the brand feeling fresh. The craft of narrative hasn’t disappeared; it’s simply been compressed, visualised, and tuned to the rhythm of digital culture. Now I’m half tempted to let my niece proof my next brand positioning for any new-gen ideas! she’s clearly fluent in vibes. 😊

Throughout my career in Employer Branding, I've kept hearing a similar question in leadership circles in different ways... “Do we really need a big budget, or is this investment really necessary now in employer branding?” Photo by Dännavan Fulton on Unsplash The short answer is a resounding yes! But not for the reasons you might think. Here’s what really matters: 1. Employer Brand is not your marketing slogan. It’s the reputation of your workplace in the talent market, built as much by employee experience, leadership behaviour, and word-of-mouth as by any campaign. A glossy tagline can’t cover a culture-experience gap for long. 2. Every touchpoint shapes it. From the first job ad to the last exit interview, candidate and employee interactions are brand moments. Slow feedback, confusing job descriptions, or inconsistent onboarding erode trust just as surely as a negative Glassdoor review. 3. Proof Beats Promise. Top talent no longer believes “we value our people” without evidence. Stories, metrics, and authentic employee voices with career growth paths, wellness outcomes, and leadership accessibility carry far more weight than aspirational claims. Employer branding is not a “nice to have”; it’s a strategic lever for attracting, engaging, and retaining the skills your business needs. Ignore it, and your competitors will define your brand for you.

If you scan the headlines, one pattern stands out: we’ve moved from AI experiments to AI at the core of business. Reliance is setting up a dedicated AI unit, Google is rolling out AI Search in Hindi and beyond, and HubSpot just built AI into how marketers engage customers. Photo by Walls.io on unsplash But AI isn’t the only story. A few signals worth noting: 🔹 Budgets are shifting from vanity metrics to revenue-linked KPIs like retention and lifetime value. 🔹 Premiumisation is real. In India and beyond, people are willing to pay for aspirational products, not just value-for-money basics. 🔹 Data privacy & compliance will shape how far personalisation can go. First-party data is now gold. 🔹 India’s tech ecosystem is evolving fast. The generative AI market is set to 7x by 2030; drone hubs and even laptop manufacturing are moving local. What this means for leaders: For tech leaders, AI isn’t a feature. It’s the foundation. For marketing leaders, always-on personalisation, compounding channels (SEO, communities, evergreen content), and brand trust will define winners. The next wave won’t be about who adopts AI first but who uses it to create meaningful, long-term value.

You’ve heard about cognitive dissonance. But have you heard about Creative Dissonance? Image source: Telstra Marketing Post It’s when a brand intentionally disrupts its own patterns, its tone, visuals, voice, or messaging to grab attention, reset perceptions, or connect with a new audience. Think of it as “planned inconsistency”. It jolts people out of autopilot, making them notice and re-evaluate the brand. It comes from the idea of cognitive dissonance in psychology (the discomfort of holding two conflicting ideas). In branding, that discomfort can be harnessed to spark curiosity and conversation. Why is it being talked about in matters of marketing & branding? 👉 It offers a breakthrough in cluttered markets. If everyone looks/sounds the same, deliberate dissonance makes you memorable. 👉 It signals reinvention. A way to show you’re not stuck in old identity traps (e.g., Telstra’s playful “Telstrut” on TikTok vs its older corporate tone). 👉 It can expand the audience. By shifting tone/style, you can connect with segments you’ve traditionally missed (e.g., Gen Z). 👉 Keeps legacy brands fresh. Mature brands risk blending into the background; controlled dissonance recharges their narrative. But it needs balance... (risks vs rewards). ✔️ It works when it’s tied back to the core brand truth (not random). If executed with consistency across a campaign (not one-off chaos) and the audiences understand why you’ve done it (reinvention, entering new space, new positioning), it lands well. ❌ It may fail if it feels like a gimmick or trend-chasing, or if there is too much departure, it may alienate loyalists. It may leave the audience in confusion if the brand reverts back without explanation. A great example is Telstra's TikTok “Telstrut” campaign. 🔺 Old perception: Telstra was seen as a traditional, corporate, and utility-driven organisation. 🔺 Creative dissonance: On TikTok, they introduced “Telstrut”, a playful persona leaning into memes, dances, and influencer culture. A massive departure from their serious, corporate tone. 🔺 It worked, as it wasn’t random. They tied it to attracting Gen Z talent and customers, which showed self-awareness: “We know we’re the big, boring telco. Let’s flip that.” 🔺 Lesson: Sometimes brand contradictions humanise a company and make it relevant to different audiences. In the context of Employer Branding , such strategic contradictions designed to reset how people see a brand can work well too. When talent markets are flooded with sameness, invisibility is likely a bigger risk than Creative Dissonance. Would you rather your brand stay predictable or take the calculated risk of creative dissonance to stand out in a crowded market? Check out the video here.

Photo by Hugh Han on Unsplash According to Indeed, job seekers only dedicate an average of 14.6 seconds to reading the requirements or qualifications section of a job description. 49% of job seekers agreed that most job application processes are too long and complicated, which leads to skimming applications. Job posts under 300 words received 8.4% more responses. So, candidates do read them, and most often on mobiles. They skim for 3 things: role clarity, growth, and culture signals. The fluff gets skipped. The takeaway: Keep it clear. Keep it human. And make sure the real differentiators stand out.

If gamification can transform industrial laundry, what’s stopping us from reimagining Employee Experience in any industry? Screenshot of the video from Allstarseven(insta) Recently, I read about Maruwa, a company that partnered with Epic Games to gamify its laundry operations. Workers weren’t just folding sheets; they were building a virtual city with every task completed. The outcome was a boost of 8–18% in performance and a team that felt more engaged with even the most repetitive work. (Article link in comments) At its core, Employer Branding isn’t only about messaging or campaigns. It’s about experience design: how people feel at work, what motivates them, and how culture shows up in daily actions. The Maruwa story reminds us that: ✅ Even with repetitive work in industries, creativity can transform the employee experience. ✅ Engagement doesn’t always require sweeping change. Sometimes, small mechanics of recognition and play are enough and will create pride in teamwork when collaboration is rewarded. ✅ A strong Employer Brand is built in such micro-moments, like the spark of energy when work feels playful, not just procedural. When we think about Employer Brand, we often jump straight to career sites or recruitment ads. But perhaps the real brand power lies in asking: How do people experience our culture on an ordinary Tuesday? What makes even routine work feel rewarding here? That’s the brand story worth telling.

It’s become a running narrative in hiring circles: “Gen Z doesn’t stick around.” Photo by Simon Maage on Unsplash From what I've seen is that job-hopping isn’t new, and it’s not uniquely Gen Z. 🔺 Boomers hopped jobs in their 20s too (just with less LinkedIn visibility). 🔺 Millennials were once labelled “disloyal” before them. 🔺 And today’s Gen Z? They’re navigating an economy where layoffs, gig work, and new skill demands are making short stints more common. So, is it a generational flaw? It’s more likely a generational context. Gen Z are perhaps a tad bit braver in their 20s than the previous generations and, unlike in the earlier generations, have to navigate an ever-changing talent market the best way they can. Gen Z are often: 🔹 Seeking faster learning curves 🔹 Prioritizing growth + balance over tenure 🔹 Unafraid to leave when the fit isn’t right The real question to ask isn’t “Why don’t they stay?” … The question needs to be "What can we do to give them reasons to?” Growth pathways, transparency, and trust matter more than just making surface-level brand promises. Are Gen Z really different or the same in their job-hopping habits as other generations? (If you are GenZ, all the the more reason to leave a comment 😊)

Building culture is like making coffee; everyone wants it strong, smooth, and consistent… But no one agrees on the right brew method. Lesson: Culture isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s the blend your people actually enjoy showing up for.

I just saw a video of a cat chasing a bear to protect a baby. Threads video screenshot It looked so real, I almost believed it, and so did hundreds in the comments. Meanwhile, real well-known influencers are now posting videos saying, “No, this is not an AI video. This is actually the real me speaking.” When real gets accused of being fake and fake video evokes emotion, You know reality has entered its plot twist phase. We’ve crossed an invisible threshold… where our eyes can’t quite keep up with the algorithms. What fascinates me isn’t the technology; it’s the psychology. We believe what we want to believe. We trust what feels real, even when it isn’t. The lines between truth and simulation are fading fast. In an age where simulated AI can evoke real emotions, we may crave for what is imperfect, real and trustworthy. Perhaps brands will now need to pay attention to evoking trust rather than aim for perfection.

Once upon a time, Google was where every search began. Photo by Lawless Capture on Unsplash Today, it’s not the only starting point. We are already seeing shifting gears from search engines to social platforms. 40% of Gen Z are now turning to Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube not just to consume content but to search for it. From “best cafes near me” to “which companies are hiring now?”, the search bar has gone social. So what’s driving this shift? 🔺Visual search feels more human. People don’t just want answers. They are looking for real experiences. A 15-second reel of workplace culture feels more real than a web page. 🔺 Community validation beats corporate voice. Social platforms let people hear directly from peers, not polished brand narratives. No wonder then that global influencer marketing is projected to reach over $33 billion in 2025 (from 10 in 2020). 🔺 Discovery is replacing intent. On Google, you search. On social media, you discover, sometimes without even looking. For Employer Branding this changes the game. Your next candidate may not “Google” you ... they might scroll or stumble to discover you. What they see in 'that moment'... maybe a reel, a story, or a comment will shape your brand far more than a career site ever could. Though not Gen Z 😁, my search behaviour has changed as well. I use Instagram to search for a wider variety of things than on Google due to increased trust in peer endorsements compared to a company info page. Tell me, have you changed your search behaviour too?

Facts. Clarity. Calm. A news campaign. A lesson in employer branding too. NBC News has launched a new marketing/branding campaign aimed at addressing news fatigue and low trust in media. It resonates for a simple reason. Instead of shouting for attention, it acknowledges fatigue and earns trust. In a world where audiences feel overwhelmed, sceptical, and burnt out… they didn’t respond with louder promises. They responded with honesty, calm, and proof. We talk a lot in employer branding about standing out. But maybe the real differentiator today is being grounded. Talent is tired of: • “We’re the best place to work.” • “We’re a family.” • Buzzwords without evidence. Just like news audiences, candidates are filtering noise. They don’t want hype. They want signal. And signal looks like: ✅ Clear values in plain language ✅ Acknowledging hard truths (hybrid is hard, scaling is messy, transformation is real) ✅ Showing proof through real employee experiences ✅ Speaking with calm conviction, not slogans We’re entering an era where credibility is greater than charisma. Substance beats volume. Grounded storytelling builds trust faster than polished slogans. If I had to summarise the movement… Start trying to earn belief and stop trying to impress. Facts. Clarity. Calm. Not just a media strategy, a talent strategy. Tell me your 3 truth-words that describe your offer to potential talent, without marketing gloss.