ai

When Mr Wilde suggested that ‘there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about’, it’s unclear as to whether he was referring to an employer brand. But let’s keep an open mind.

One of the key criteria by which we tend to judge an EVP’s success or failure is by its profile and impact. How memorable and visible is it both within your organisation and across candidate communities? To what extent does it stand out, cut through and create differentiation? Because no matter how insightfully researched, creatively delivered your EVP is, if it’s not creating traction, recognition and action, then, in the words of Roy Keane, it’s not doing its job. 

I’d suggest, however, that the EVP and the employer branding messaging set of many organisations is as low profile as it has been for some time. It has become white noise, technically present but effectively invisible.

In fact, for both internal employee audiences and external candidate communities, it’s entirely easy to have little line of sight of, or indeed, to ignore, many EVPs.  

Typically, an EVP has a higher profile when organisations are actively recruiting and when the labour market is tight, competitive and noisy. But now isn’t one of those times.

Many organisations will be in possession of an EVP which has seen little in the way of investment or promotion of late. There will be budgetary pressures as well as the assumption that the little hiring an employer will be doing right now won’t be too difficult. There will also be some quiet assumptions that a lot of hiring might well be avoided by AI. Result – your EVP languishes ignored and unloved. 

But if the last two to three years have been challenging in the extreme for the TA community, there are definite signs of economic and labour market positivity. Surveys this month from KPMG, Lloyds Bank and GfK point to growing positive sentiment amongst business leaders. And Adzuna reported that we have had five consecutive monthly increases in the national vacancy count. 

The wary candidate

An EVP is very easy to ignore for the wary candidate. The sort of candidate who has kept their head down over the last few years. Who has remained at their current employer not through any great sense of desire or motivation, rather in the absence of an alternative. If they perhaps sense that the market is turning and that they want to replace their current passive disengagement for a more exciting and fulfilling employment choice elsewhere, then they need to see confidence, purpose and, most definitely, presence in the EVPs of potential new employers. What they don’t want to see, given their wariness, is a languishing, ignored and entirely ignorable EVP. 

Which is why those organisations who have maintained an employer branding presence over the last two years will have a clear competitive advantage over those whose EVP has become invisible.

A reminder to your people

Once again, I’d suggest that the internal marketplace is as important as any. Not all organisations will have experienced redundancies and restructuring. (Although the most recent ONS figures suggest there were no fewer than 107,000 redundancies in the quarter April-June 2025). But many have, whilst others will have imposed salary freezes, unpopular restructurings and other assorted corporate belt-tightenings. People’s careers are unlikely to have progressed over the last three years as they might have forecast. Which leaves such organisations with both an engagement and productivity challenge today, as well as a potential retention challenge tomorrow. 

Such employees need a clear and visible reminder about why your organisation remains the right choice for them. They need to see and experience a valid, relevant and high-profile EVP which continues to tell the story about why they should stay with their employer. 

Hiring manager disconnect

There’s another interesting internal audience to consider when we’re analysing the profile of an EVP – hiring managers. To what extent are they living and delivering on your EVP? The experience they’re rolling out to candidates, interviewees and new joiners: how close is it to the promise of your EVP? Or, given the current low profile of your EVP, are they, either wilfully or accidentally, ignoring the very premise upon which people are considering joining you? 

This raises an interesting question. What are the consequences of such actions? If line or hiring managers are not simply living your EVP, what should happen? 

The most obvious and tangible elements of an EVP are clearly the employer branding communications that carry its promise and premise. But they cannot live in isolation. Their message and essence have to be part of all candidate and employee contact. If your line managers are not delivering on this, they are weakening, diluting and confusing your message. They are detracting hugely from your investment in and the deliverables of an EVP.

Clearly, it’s important that such internal stakeholders have been brought along on the EVP journey. They should have played a role in its construction and articulation. They should have been communicated clearly to around what it means and how it should be demonstrated. But, again, delivering on your EVP, via line and hiring managers, is much harder to achieve if it has disappeared from sight, if it ceases to have presence and, therefore, impact. Little wonder, then, if such managers are creating their own recruitment story. 

Next steps

We may or may not be quietly climbing out of an economic and confidence hole. For both internal and external people audiences, there is a need for a visible, identifiable EVP. Such audiences are understandably wary and want direction, purpose and a compelling reason to either stay with their current organisation or to make the move as a candidate. 

Think about what has happened to your EVP over the last two to three years? Has it become quietly forgotten? Is it easy now to ignore? 

Because it may soon not be so easy to ignore the employer branding messages of your competitors.