This is likely not a surprise to hear – an EVP and Employer Brand is your core component to recruit and retain top talent.
What is surprising is how the recruitment pool is changing. In 2025, Gen Z are expected to account for 27% of the workforce across 38 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Countries(1).
This time next year, over a quarter of the workforce is going to be Gen Z – a generation with independent views and ideologies who are digitally savvy and use social media to consume their knowledge, with social media platforms dominating the top five most popular news sources(2). And being connected is a consistent state, with 47% of Gen Z spending 2-4 hours a day on social media(3).
3-4 hours a day on social media almost feels a job in itself!
The changing landscape of Employer Branding
The importance of an authentic EVP and Employer Brand with clearly set out values is well known. Whilst salary is the most important factor in deciding on a job, Gen Z holds the value of monetary salary lower than any other generation(4) and look more broadly at the role and how interesting it is, the business and its values. There is a lot under the microscope:
– Career Growth Opportunities
– Work flexibility
– Competitive compensation and benefits
– Skills based hiring
– Focus on DE&I
– Aligned company culture and values
Businesses have spent some time observing and learning about Gen Z as they have a complex set of needs. But if they’ve got an interest in you, their thirst for knowledge to learn about you and how they approach this, may be surprising.
Social Media as a Research Tool
The communication landscape (as ever) is changing, and social channels continue to be a ‘consistent’ research tool for potential candidates with 72% of Gen Z jobseekers spending time researching a potential employer’s social channels to deep-dive into their business and work environment(5).
To help deliver on this trend, some businesses have created employer brand channels to authentically communicate the culture, values, opportunities and other touchpoints that matter to Gen Z. These are often communicated via brand ambassadors, typically in the style of personal posts to drive authenticity. With selected ambassadors and a clear vision for content, businesses can retain one very important factor – control.
“Recruitment might still take on conventional forms – job ads; recruitment fairs; consultancies – but attraction is much more nuanced, and is where a social media presence for the EVP should come into its own. It’s on social media that EVP should be visible, if Gen Z are going to take notice. It should be authentic, disruptive and dynamic. All of which is compelling to that audience,” says Ben Watson, Managing Director and strategist at, blue goose.
The importance of Employee Advocacy
But, Gen Z’s thirst for understanding a potential employer is going even deeper, with 71% spending time ‘social stalking’ employees of the company across their personal social channels (5).
This opens up a realm of challenges, with control at the centre of it. Within any large organisation, you cannot be in control of the profiles potential candidates will be looking at, or over which platforms – LinkedIn is an obvious channel, but who’s to say the search stops there – Instagram, TikTok, others? Platforms for your employees to freely express themselves how they choose to. And when it comes to your business, it’s so important they are speaking positively.
Which brings us back to the EVP – every employee, across all generations, must feel connected to it. Your culture, your positioning, your values. Every employee has indirectly become part of your employer brand comms strategy and should be encouraged to post authentic content via their social channels that’s relative to their role and their beliefs.
Celebrate that promotion. Champion the DEIB group they belong to. Showcase the Charity day.
But ask them, they shouldn’t be told (it’s tricky to feel authentic when it’s dictated) and only on channels they feel comfortable on – Linkedin, definitely. Others, it should be up to them.
But with authenticity at its core, the biggest challenge for HR directors comes back to believing in your EVP. Only 33% of employees reporting their organisation consistently delivers on their EVP (6). If you aren’t aligned internally, how can you communicate (and ask your employees to communicate) your EVP and attract the best candidates externally? And how can you measure the authenticity of your EVP?
We can help you develop your EVP and Employer Brand
If these are the types of questions you are currently facing then blue goose can help. We understand that every organisation’s challenges are unique – your business may have grown and your EVP has got a little lost along the way, perhaps you’re trying to attract a new audience whilst still resonating with your current employees or you need support in developing your employer brand communications strategy.
Whatever your challenge, as a specialist employee engagement and communications consultancy, we can help.
Get in touch at hello@bluegoose.co.uk and we can discuss your challenge in detail.
Sources:
(2)Ofcom
(3)Fortune
(5)The HR Director
(6) Gartner
