For 16 months i was a name on a list. Then a recruiting firm left 133 job postings, and 102 real people's names marked "do not contact," exposed on the open web. Here's how it happened, and why it's a warning for every industry racing to bolt AI onto its work.

You rebuild trust after layoffs by telling the people who stayed the real reason it happened, having leadership own the decision in public, and keeping every promise you make afterward. In a 2025 survey, 62% of employees said they lost trust in their employer after layoffs, and 71% would start job hunting even if they kept their jobs. Here's why euphemisms make it worse, and what leadership has to change for trust to come back.

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, then specific, provable claims aimed at them. Here's why "fast-paced and collaborative" makes you interchangeable, why your best candidates are the first to opt out, and what to measure instead of application volume.

An EVP framework is the structure a company uses to say why someone should work there, then prove it everywhere candidates and employees look. For a mid-market company with nobody whole whole job is employer brand, it has to be light enough to maintain, and every claim needs evidence. Here's what goes in it, why three true pillars beat seven aspirational ones, and why AI makes a contradicted EVP even more expensive than it used to be.

Just shy of a year ago, I started my content journey on Substack and social media. I had been laid off after 7 1/2 years with a recruitment marketing agency – a shock, but not a surprise. My goal was simple: talk about employer brand, culture, and leadership without the red tape. Be bolder. Cut the unnecessary fluff. I had been writing in a palatable, corporate-friendly way. Thinking outside the box while staying close enough to the box to be appealing. That stops now.