If your employer brand lives only on your careers page, you’re missing the point – and missing the best candidates too.

In 2025, your brand as an employer is built long before someone ever clicks “apply.” It’s shaped by what potential hires see, hear, and feel as they scroll through LinkedIn, flick through reels, or ask their network what it’s really like to work with you.

This is where recruitment gets real. And where content - smart, strategic, well-executed content marketing- starts to do the heavy lifting.

A static page won’t build a living brand

Most careers pages are still written like it’s 2015. Here’s who we are, here’s what we offer, here are the jobs. Bob’s your uncle.

Except, candidates today want more. They want to see your team in action. They want to hear real voices. They want to know how it feels to work there, not just what you say about yourself.

Even if you do have a killer careers page stuffed with rich, authentic and people-led stories, there’s also the challenge of distribution. Social media platforms deprioritise posts with links in them, which means the old “share a link to the job description and hope for the best” tactic doesn’t work as well.

The future of recruitment marketing is rooted in visibility and engagement, not redirection. Your employer brand needs to live in the feed, not hide behind a link…

Why video wins – and why it works

There’s a stat that gets thrown around a lot - that the average human attention span has dropped to just 8.25 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000. And while that's technically true, it's not the full picture.

People can focus for longer, but they just choose not to when the content is dry, irrelevant, or clearly trying to sell them something.

What is now lightning fast is our ‘ad-judication window’, which is the moment we take to quickly assess whether what we’re seeing is trying to sell us something. (‘Ad-judication’ geddit?)

Research from Yahoo and OMD Worldwide indicates that Gen Z loses active attention for ads after just 1.3 seconds. This rapid judgment window means that if content appears too promotional or inauthentic, it's likely to be skipped almost immediately.

What holds attention today are human stories, moments that feel real, and content that respects the viewer’s time.

That’s why video is so powerful: in 90 seconds, it can deliver tone, emotion, context and credibility — far more than a thousand words ever could.

A well-produced 90-second video can pack in a surprising amount of information. You can explain a job role, highlight a career path, surface company values, and even include a few results or data points. That’s true information density.

At the same time, video gives you something written content never quite can: a sense of atmosphere. Body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, decor, genuine interactions, the background hum of the workplace – these are the details that shape how your company actually feels. They help candidates decide if they can see themselves working there. That’s brand richness. And it’s incredibly powerful.

This is why video has become so central to content marketing for recruitment. It shows culture. It shows people. It builds trust. And most importantly, it does it in the spaces where your audience already spends their time.

Why your company’s ‘happiness economy’ matters

Recent research into the language used in employee reviews has revealed an interesting finding: companies that score highly don’t just receive good marks for salary or benefits. They’re talked about in terms of social connection, happiness, and shared purpose.

This is what researchers are calling the *happiness economy*.

It’s the idea that emotional experience – feeling valued, included, and connected – is now one of the strongest predictors of how a company will be perceived by candidates and that the higher the happiness value is in a company, the higher performing the company is and the lower the cost for recruitment (as people apply organically and stay for longer!).

For employer branding, this changes the brief. Your brand isn’t just about how professional or prestigious you look. It’s about how your culture feels – and whether that comes through clearly in your recruitment content.

Showcasing small moments like staff socials, informal celebrations, or behind-the-scenes interviews isn’t a ‘nice to have’ anymore. It’s central to how people judge you as an employer. If your content doesn’t show culture, it isn’t doing its job.

Where your employer brand really lives

A careers page is still useful - people need to go somewhere to view jobs and get a distilled and specific read of what’s on offer. But it’s just one part of the puzzle. Your employer brand shows up in every interaction. It’s shaped by:

What potential candidates see on your LinkedIn page
The stories your employees share (or don’t)
Short-form videos that spotlight your team and culture
Branded photography that feels real, not rehearsed
Mentions and sentiment on forums like Reddit, Blind, and yes, even Glassdoor – not places to build your strategy, but places to keep an eye on and engage with if needed

This is where social media for recruitment really comes into its own. It’s not just about promotion. It’s about visibility – meeting people where they are, with content that reflects who you actually are.

Balancing content for customers and candidates

It’s easy to treat recruitment marketing as something separate from your core content strategy – an HR task, rather than a brand-building exercise. But the reality is, the same content ecosystem that helps you win business can also help you attract brilliant people.

The key is balance. You don’t need to dilute your customer-focused messaging or launch a separate platform just for recruitment. Instead, the best employer brands find ways to embed culture storytelling into their everyday content, so it becomes part of the brand voice – not a side note.

Here’s what good balance can look like:

Weave your people into your content. When sharing a project or success story, highlight the team behind it. Show the people, not just the product.

Keep culture visible. Use social content and short-form video to spotlight the day-to-day. A team celebration, a new joiner welcome, an office moment – these sit comfortably alongside more formal or promotional updates.

Separate audiences, shared platforms. Use targeting (especially on LinkedIn and Instagram) to segment your audience by interest. You can reach talent and customers with tailored messaging without needing separate channels.

Let your values do double duty. If you’re investing in ethical supply chains, inclusive hiring, sustainability or innovation, that matters to candidates as much as customers. Let those stories play both ways.

You don’t have to choose between brand and recruitment. The strongest content strategies treat them as two sides of the same coin – attracting the right clients, and the right people to deliver for them.

What to do next

If your current approach to employer branding still centres on job descriptions and links to your careers page, it’s time for a reset.

Start by looking at what your content says about you. Not just the words but also the tone, energy, and very importantly, the consistency. Ask yourself what someone might learn about your business from a quick scroll of your LinkedIn feed or your company's Instagram.

And then build from there, with a recruitment content strategy that’s honest, intentional, and designed for the way people actually consume content in 2025.

If you need help turning that into action, we’d love to talk.

Why Employer Branding is More Than a Careers Page