Employer branding measures that work

In short: Employer branding means building an employer brand: the deliberate work on how your company is perceived as an employer. It has two halves: internally, the real experience of working there; externally, making that experience visible through your careers page, video, social media and reviews. Effective employer branding shows real people doing real work instead of stock photos. Vienna-based Maze & Friends builds employer brands with recruiting videos, careers pages and social recruiting.

If you hold responsibility at an industrial or mid-sized company, you know the situation: the job ad has been running for months, the applications don’t fit, and the competitor three towns away seems to hire effortlessly. Pay is rarely the reason. Usually it’s visibility that’s missing. Nobody knows what it’s like to work for you, so the good people choose the company where they can see it. Here you’ll read what employer branding means, which building blocks work and in which order to tackle them.

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is building and maintaining an employer brand, meaning the sum of all the impressions a person has of your company as a place to work. This brand exists even if you do nothing about it. In that case it consists of an outdated careers page, three anonymous reviews on kununu, the DACH region’s answer to Glassdoor, and whatever people in the area say about you.

The term is often reduced to “nice recruiting campaigns”. That falls short, because employer branding has two halves that can’t be separated:

The order matters. Externally you can only show what exists internally. A glossy campaign about a culture that doesn’t exist will be exposed by the end of the probation period at the latest, and what’s left are exactly the kununu reviews that then put people off for the next five years.

The related term employer brand means the same thing from the perspective of the result. Employer branding is the activity, the employer brand is the outcome.

Why is employer branding so important right now?

For mid-sized companies in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), the topic is more urgent today than it was just a few years ago. Behind this are three shifts:

1. Applicants research like customers. Before someone applies, they’ve seen your website, scanned your social media channels and read reviews. If they find nothing, or only outdated material, they apply elsewhere. The application comes at the end of a research process.

2. AI systems answer questions about employers. Anyone who asks ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews what a company is like as an employer gets an answer based on what can be read about you publicly. Without a structured, consistent self-presentation, your company simply doesn’t appear in these answers. We describe the same principle for the customer side in the article GEO instead of SEO; here it’s about applicants.

3. The demographic squeeze. The baby-boomer generation is retiring, and the cohorts following them are smaller. According to the labour force projection by Statistics Austria (in German, as of November 2025), Austria’s working-age population aged 20 to 64 will shrink by around 256,000 people to 5.32 million by 2040. Companies are therefore structurally competing for people. In this competition, visibility wins.

Timing over the course of the year counts too. Search demand around employer branding peaks in September and January, when budgets are planned and decisions to change jobs are made. If you’re visible in autumn, you’re already on candidates’ minds by the January job-switching season.

Which employer branding measures work?

No single step will eliminate the skills shortage. But there is a proven order, and it stops you spending money on visibility without substance.

1. Clarify your substance before producing anything. What is really different about you compared with the competitor? Everyone claims “flat hierarchies and a young team”. What you need are concrete answers: which decisions can a fitter make on their own at your company? How quickly does an apprentice become a skilled worker? What do people who have been with you for fifteen years say about why they stayed? Everything else grows out of these answers. Without them, every campaign becomes interchangeable.

2. Turn your careers page into a landing page. It is the only employer branding space that belongs entirely to you. It has to answer the questions applicants really ask: pay, process, team and day-to-day work. It is built like any good landing page, with web design geared towards enquiries. Only here the enquiry is called an application. We have broken down what this looks like in practice in the article on optimising your careers page.

3. Show real people, ideally on video. No format conveys the working atmosphere as quickly as video: who works there, what it looks like, how people talk to each other. An honest recruiting video answers in 90 seconds what a job ad needs 90 lines for. It is believed because you see people instead of reading claims.

4. Go where the candidates are. The best candidates don’t read job boards. They are employed and content enough not to be actively looking. They can still be reached, though, in their social media feeds. That is what social recruiting is for: careers content and job campaigns on Meta, LinkedIn and co. that spark a willingness to switch instead of waiting for it.

5. Let your own people speak. Posts by real employees often reach more people on LinkedIn than posts from the company page, and they are more readily believed. You can’t order this, but you can enable it. Anyone who wants to gets material, support and freedom in their own tone of voice. Three voluntary voices beat ten conscripted ones.

6. Manage reviews actively instead of enduring them. kununu and Google get read, whether you like it or not. Current, genuine reviews from satisfied employees are among the cheapest levers in employer branding. You just have to ask for them systematically and respond to criticism objectively.

How to recognise good employer branding

Case studies from large corporations are of little help here; their budgets aren’t comparable anyway. More revealing are patterns that work across industries, each with its opposite:

• Real people in front of the camera. A manufacturing company shows real employees at real machines in short videos, explaining in their own words what they do. The opposite is a brand film with hired actors and the line “At our company, people are at the centre of everything.”
• Pay with a number. The salary range is in the job ad. By contrast, “Market-rate pay with willingness to pay above the collective agreement rate” comes across as weak, because every candidate reads it as “we’d rather not tell you”. In Austria, under section 9(2) of the Austrian Equal Treatment Act (Gleichbehandlungsgesetz) (in German), the minimum pay has to be stated in the job ad anyway. Naming a real range sets you apart from that.
• The boss answers personally. On LinkedIn, he explains in person why a position is being filled again. Posting the same job ad for the fourth time, each time with “We’re still growing”, achieves the opposite.

Behind this lies a simple pattern: credibility beats polish. Applicants have the same radar for staging as customers do, if not a sharper one.

The first 90 days, step by step

If you’re starting from zero, this order offers the best ratio of effort to impact:

1. Weeks 1–2: Gather your internal substance. Hold five conversations with employees from different areas: why are you here? What would you tell a friend about the job? This raw material is more valuable than any workshop.
2. Weeks 3–6: Rebuild your careers page, with real photos, real quotes and real answers on pay and process.
3. Weeks 6–10: Schedule a shoot day and produce a recruiting video plus photo and social material from it. A shoot day with many formats pays off far better than three separate productions.
4. From week 10: Launch social recruiting and keep the content running continuously instead of posting it once and forgetting it.

Why employer branding is not a campaign

Employer branding is a long-term build. A better careers page has an immediate effect on everyone who is looking anyway. Until people get in touch of their own accord, in other words until the actual brand effect kicks in, it takes months of consistent visibility. Anyone who confuses the two stops too early.

Read on: There are separate articles on the three operational building blocks: recruiting videos, social recruiting and the careers page as a landing page.

From the studio: ONO Bowl & Tea: content and recruiting spot · Lumitech: corporate film from a single shoot day.

Frequently asked questions

What does employer branding mean, in simple terms?

Employer branding is the deliberate building and maintenance of your employer brand, meaning the image people have of your company as a place to work. That includes your own employees as well as people who could work there.

The goal has two sides: winning suitable skilled workers and keeping good people. Internally you work on the real working experience; externally you make it visible, for example through your careers page, video, social media and review platforms. Stock photos and empty phrases don’t help. Applicants spot staging at least as quickly as customers do.

What does the term employer branding literally mean?

Literally, employer branding means building an employer brand: the “employer” is the organisation people work for, and “branding” means brand building.

German speakers sometimes say “Arbeitgebermarkenbildung”, but in practice the English term is usual in German too. It helps to separate the activity from the result. Employer branding is the work; the employer brand is the outcome, meaning the image people have of you as an employer. It forms even if you do nothing about it, and then consists of an outdated careers page, a few anonymous reviews and whatever people in the area say about you.

What is the difference between internal and external employer branding?

Internal employer branding shapes what working for you actually feels like. External employer branding makes this working experience visible to applicants.

The internal part covers leadership, development, culture, onboarding and honest feedback. This is where it’s decided whether good people stay. Externally, what counts is the careers page, recruiting videos, social media, employee voices and review platforms. You can only show externally what exists internally: a glossy campaign about a culture that doesn’t exist will be exposed by the end of the probation period at the latest and will produce exactly the reviews that put off future applicants.

What is an employer value proposition (EVP)?

The employer value proposition, or EVP, is your promise as an employer: what defines working for you and sets you apart from other employers.

Your careers page, videos and campaigns derive their messages from it. Formulas like “flat hierarchies and a young team” are of little use here; everyone claims that. An EVP becomes useful through concrete answers. Which decisions can a fitter make on their own at your company? How quickly does an apprentice become a skilled worker? Why have people stayed for fifteen years? The best raw material comes from conversations with employees from different areas.

What is the difference between employer branding and recruitment marketing?

Employer branding builds the employer brand over the long term; recruitment marketing promotes specific vacancies through ads, campaigns and job boards.

Why anyone should work for you in the first place is the strategic question, and it belongs to employer branding. Recruitment marketing puts the answer into practice on individual channels. Without brand work, it promotes a brand nobody knows, and every job ad starts from zero. That’s why employer branding comes first. If you are visible on an ongoing basis, you also pay less per application in every later job campaign.

How does employer branding differ from corporate branding?

Corporate branding shapes the brand of the entire company towards all target groups. Employer branding is the part of it aimed at current and future employees.

The corporate brand answers why someone should buy from you or work with you as a partner; the employer brand answers why someone should work for you. The two have to fit together. If you promise customers reliability, you should also deliver it as an employer. They still differ in tone and content, much like the brand film for customers and the recruiting video for applicants.

Which measures are part of employer branding?

It includes internal measures such as leadership, development and onboarding, and everything that makes this working experience visible to the outside world.

For the external part, this order has proven itself at mid-sized companies:

• Clarify your substance: what sets you apart from the competitor
• A careers page with real answers on pay, process, team and day-to-day work
• A recruiting video with real employees instead of actors
• Social recruiting for people who aren’t actively looking
• Employee voices and actively managed reviews on kununu and Google

None of these steps on its own will eliminate the skills shortage. But the order protects you from spending money on visibility without substance.

What are examples of good employer branding?

You can recognise good employer branding by the fact that it shows real people, real work and concrete facts instead of empty phrases and bought-in images.

A manufacturing company has its employees explain at the machines in short videos what they do, and does without hired actors. The salary range is in the job ad instead of vague “market-rate pay”. The boss explains personally on LinkedIn why a position is being filled again, instead of posting the same ad for the fourth time with “We’re still growing”. Credibility beats polish. You don’t need a corporate budget for it.

Why is employer branding so important for mid-sized companies?

Employer branding matters for mid-sized companies because applicants research like customers and choose the employer whose day-to-day work they can see.

If they find nothing, or only outdated material, they apply elsewhere. Two shifts add to this. AI systems such as ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews answer questions about employers based on what can be read about you publicly, and without a consistent self-presentation you don’t appear in them. At the same time, the baby-boomer generation is retiring while the cohorts following them are smaller. The competition for people is won by those who are visible and credible.

How do I build an employer brand step by step?

You build an employer brand from the inside out: first gather the real substance, then the careers page, then moving images, then continuous distribution.

A proven roadmap for the first 90 days:

• Weeks 1–2: five conversations with employees from different areas
• Weeks 3–6: a careers page with real photos, quotes and answers on pay and process
• Weeks 6–10: a shoot day for a recruiting video, photos and social material
• From week 10: launch social recruiting and keep the content running continuously

A shoot day with many formats pays off far better than three separate productions.

How long does it take for employer branding to work?

Employer branding works at two speeds: a better careers page helps immediately, while the actual brand effect takes months of consistent visibility.

Brand effect means that people get in touch of their own accord. Anyone who confuses the two effects often stops too early. There is no end date. Timing over the course of the year counts too: search demand around employer branding peaks in September and January, and if you become visible in autumn, you’re already on candidates’ minds by the January job-switching season.

What does employer branding cost?

What employer branding costs depends mainly on your starting point. The internal work on substance mainly costs time; money goes into external visibility.

The biggest items are a revised careers page, a professional production day for video and photo material and ongoing advertising budgets for social media. A reliable figure only exists once the starting point and scope are clear. At Maze & Friends you get it as a fixed-price quote after the initial call. For comparison, set it against what a skilled position costs that stays vacant for months, for example through lost orders and overtime.

How do I measure whether employer branding is working?

You measure whether employer branding works with hard figures along the application path. Likes count for little.

Meaningful indicators are visitors and time on page on the careers page, applications per advertised position, the quality of applications (how many make it to the second round?), the time to fill a position and the number of speculative applications. Most important in the long run is a simple question for every new colleague: “Where did you first hear about us?” Record the answers. After a few months you’ll see which channels really bring in people.

Does employer branding also work for small companies?

Yes, especially for small companies, because a business with 30 people can credibly show who works there.

A large corporation often has to stage it. The reach is smaller, but so is the radius the employees come from. Being visible and credible regionally beats being invisible nationally. To start with, an honest careers page, a shoot day with real employees and consistently answered reviews are often enough. More important than the budget is consistency, meaning distributing content regularly and keeping it up to date.

Do I need an employer branding agency?

You don’t need an agency for the internal substance. For the careers page, video, photography and campaigns, support pays off if you lack time or production experience in-house.

Nobody knows better than you what defines you as an employer. When choosing an agency, what matters most is whether it can direct real people in front of the camera instead of assembling stock footage. Ask for work with real employees and how interviews are prepared. Video, careers page and campaigns should convey the same message. That’s why at Maze & Friends they come from one team.