HAEO: Why Isn't Our Employer Brand Attracting the Right Candidates?

Jillian O’Malior

2 days ago

4 min read

By Jillian O'Malior, Founder & Principal Strategist, New World Labs

PUBLISHED: October 20, 2026

An employer brand usually fails to attract the right candidates because it's written for everyone, so it attracts anyone. The fix starts with talent personas, the two or three people you most need to hire, defined by what they care about, then making specific, provable claims that speak to those people and checking that your reviews, job posts, and interviews tell the same story. When your brand sounds like every competitor's, the candidates with the most options are the first to scroll past.

That's the answer. Let's look at where it usually goes wrong.

"Fast-Paced, Collaborative, Competitive Benefits"

Try this. Cover the logo on your careers page and put it next to your top three competitors'. Could a candidate tell which one is yours?

For most companies, the honest answer is no. Everybody is fast-paced. Everybody is collaborative. Everybody has competitive benefits and a passion for innovation (and a stock photo of four people laughing at a laptop). Those phrases aren't wrong. They're just interchangeable, and an interchangeable brand gives a strong candidate no reason to pick you over the company that pays $10k more.

Your Employer Brand Is Talking to Everyone

The root problem is usually that nobody decided who the brand is for. A senior engineer weighing three offers and a career changer looking for a way into the industry want completely different things from you, and a brand that tries to speak to both ends up saying nothing to either.

That's why Talent Personas sit near the top of our ATTRACT model. A persona goes beyond the job title: what this person is weighing, what they're worried about, what would make them leave their current job, and what they'll check before they believe you. Once you know that, you can pick the two or three things that are true about your company and actually matter to them, and lead with those.

The Right Candidates Do The Most Research

Here's the part companies underestimate. The candidates you want most are the ones with options, and people with options check before they apply. They read reviews, ask people who work there, and ask AI tools what it's like to work for you.

They also filter on basics. As of May 2025, Indeed found that 59% of U.S. job postings included salary information. That leaves a lot of postings without it, and many job seekers skip those entirely. The candidates who can afford to skip a post with no pay range are often exactly the experienced people you were trying to reach.

So if your brand promises one thing and your reviews, your job posts or your interview process say another, the right candidates opt out. The people left in your pipeline are the ones who didn't check, or didn't have the leverage to care.

But Jillian, We're Getting Plenty of Applicants

Volume isn't fit. Applicants can now send dozens of applications in an afternoon with AI help, so a big pile tells you the post got seen and very little else.

Better signals: how many applicants make it to interview, how many offers get accepted, how many new hires are still there after a year, and whether hiring managers are happy with who's showing up. If those numbers are soft while volume is high, your brand is reaching people and convincing the wrong ones.

Let's Bring It Home

Attracting the right candidates is mostly a decision about who you're for and what you can prove to them. The rule I build every EVP on applies here too: if you' can't back it up, you can't name it. The specific, provable thing is almost always more attractive than the polished, general one.

If you covered your logo, would your best candidate still know the page was about you?

Frequently Asked Questions

What are talent personas in employer branding?

Talent personas are profiles of the specific people you most need to hire, built around what they care about, what they're weighing, and what they'll check before they apply, rather than job titles alone.

How do you know if your employer brand is attracting the wrong candidates?

Look past application volume. Low interview rates, declined offers, early attrition, and frustrated hiring managers all point to a brand that's reaching people without convincing the right ones.

Should job postings include salary ranges?

In a growing number of U.S. states they're legally required, and many candidates skip postings without them. Including pay is one of the simplest ways to signal you're serious about attracting experienced candidates.

How do you make an employer brand more specific?

Replace general claims with ones you can prove: a policy, a number, a real employee story. The aim each one at a defined talent persona instead of every possible applicant.

Sources

Indeed, "Pay Transparency Across High-Earning Sectors," July 2, 2025.
New World Labs, "The ATTRACT EVP Playbook," The Archive.
New World Labs, "How Do You Measure Whether an Employer Value Proposition Is Working?"

Jillian O’Malior is Founder & Principal Strategist at New World Labs, building people-first brands and cultures in the Age of Intelligence. Fifteen years in employer brand across in-house, agency and consulting. Work with New World Labs · Follow on LinkedIn • Follow on TikTok