Not long ago, we worked with an organization that had what most businesses would consider a pretty enviable problem.
They had demand. Lots of it.
There was work available. Customers wanted what they offered. There was room to grow… And they couldn’t.
Not because they needed a better sales strategy. Not because the market wasn’t there. Not because they lacked ambition.
They couldn’t hire enough people.
Their growth strategy had hit a human ceiling.
And once you see that happen inside a business, it becomes very difficult to keep thinking about recruitment as an HR problem.
Sometimes your labour problem is actually a growth problem
We tend to build growth strategies around things like revenue targets, markets, products, locations and customers.
We ask:
- How much can we sell?
- Where can we expand?
- What new opportunities can we pursue?
And somewhere farther down the spreadsheet is an assumption that essentially says:
And obviously we’ll find the people to do all of this.
Will we?
If your growth plan requires another 50 employees and your current recruitment engine reliably produces 20, you do not have a growth plan, you have a wish.
Our clients could see the opportunity sitting directly in front of them. But every additional contract required additional people.
No people, no capacity. No capacity, no growth. Pretty simple math.
The obvious reaction when an organization can’t hire enough people is to recruit harder. Post more jobs. Try another job board. Hire another recruiter. Go to another career fair. Increase the referral bonus.
Perhaps, in a moment of true desperation, make a TikTok.
Sometimes those things help.
But eventually someone needs to ask the more uncomfortable question:
Why should someone choose to work here?
Not why do we think they should.
Why would they?
Against every other employer competing for the same person.
That’s where employer brand becomes a business issue.
Your employer brand is part of your capacity
Employer brand sounds suspiciously fluffy until you connect it to operations, then it becomes very concrete.
Your reputation affects whether people notice your job posting.
Whether they click.
Whether they apply.
Whether they accept your offer instead of someone else’s.
Whether existing employees tell their friends, “You should come work here.”
Whether they say the opposite.
And whether your best people stay long enough for you to actually build organizational capacity.
That makes employer brand part of the infrastructure required for growth.
Just like capital.
Just like technology.
Just like equipment.
Just like sales.
And no, this isn’t about making your careers page prettier
This is the part organizations sometimes get backwards.
If you’re struggling to recruit, the answer isn’t necessarily better marketing.
Before you start telling a better story, you need to make sure there’s a better story to tell.
Maybe people don’t understand the opportunities available inside the organization.
Maybe there aren’t any.
Maybe your compensation is out of step with the market.
Maybe candidates disappear halfway through an unnecessarily painful hiring process.
Maybe employees love the mission but hate their manager.
Maybe you’ve quietly become an excellent employer and nobody outside the company knows it.
Those are very different problems.
Employer brand work should help you figure out which one you actually have.
Culture is the product. Employer brand is the story.
This is the simplest way I know to explain it.
Your employee experience is the product.
Employer brand is the story people tell about that product.
Marketing can make the story clearer but it cannot indefinitely compensate for a bad product.
And sometimes the product is actually quite good but nobody has bothered to articulate why. That’s the opportunity.
Look at why people join. Why they stay. Why they leave. What your strongest employees value. What your competitors are offering. Where the employee experience matches the story you’re telling candidates and where it very much does not.
Then build from there.
Because growth eventually becomes a people problem
Most organizations don’t think seriously about employer brand until recruitment gets difficult.
This is a dangerous mindset to have for a few big reasons.
If people are fundamental to how you deliver your product or service, your ability to attract and retain them belongs in the growth strategy from the beginning.
Because you can have the customers, the contracts, the strategy and you can even have the money.
…But if you don’t have the people?
You don’t have the growth.
Think your recruitment problem might actually be an employer brand problem?
Let’s find out.
We can look at what candidates are seeing, what employees are actually experiencing, and whether those two stories match.
Sometimes you need a better story.
Sometimes you need to fix what’s underneath the story.
Usually, it’s a bit of both.
Schedule a time with me for a pressure-free chat >
With love,
Erin
