Of course those things exist, and they can be powerful. But they’re only part of the picture.

Much of the real work of employer branding happens in the day-to-day. It’s about how teams test ideas, adapt their approach, learn what resonates with employees and candidates, and gradually build systems that help the organisation tell its story.

In other words, employer branding is rarely plug-and-play marketing campaigns. It’s an iterative process.

This is something we explore in Episode 151.

In this episode, I speak with Dennis Borchers from Tractor Supply Company about how their team is building employer branding inside the organisation.

The episode is part of a series supported by Cliquify – the Employer Branding Operating System for organisations – where I speak with in-house practitioners about how employer branding really works inside organisations and what the work looks like day to day.

Starting with the foundations

When employer branding came into Dennis’ team’s remit, there was already activity happening in the organisation. Recruiters were posting roles on social media, channels existed, and people in the business playing their part.

So rather than launching a large campaign, the first step was to look carefully at what already existed. Were the channels still reflecting the organisation as it is today? Were recruiters being supported with the right assets and resources? And was there consistency in how the company appeared across platforms?

This kind of foundational work may not always be the most visible part of employer branding, but it’s essential if the work is going to scale.

Recognising advocacy that already exists

Another interesting part of the conversation was around employee-generated content.

At Tractor Supply there were already employees sharing parts of their lives online — often because they genuinely enjoy the lifestyle the company supports.

The team realised this content was incredibly authentic. So rather than immediately building a formal advocacy programme, they simply started connecting with some of those employees and asking if they could share their posts on the company’s employer brand channels.

It was a small step, but it allowed the organisation to highlight real stories that genuinely reflect the culture of the business.

Why experimentation matters - Start Up Mode

One of the biggest things that resonated with me from the conversation was that employer branding evolves through experimentation. Teams test ideas, see what works, and refine their approach over time.

I like to call this “startup mode” - a mindset that allows the team to try things, learn quickly, and gradually build systems that support recruiters and share employee stories more effectively.

For many employer brand teams, particularly smaller ones, that approach will feel very familiar. And importantly, it isn’t a sign that something is missing.

In many cases, it’s exactly how effective employer branding should take shape. Because life doesn’t fit into a theoretical strategy deck.

Listen to the full conversation

If you work in employer branding, talent acquisition, or HR communications, there’s plenty more in the conversation with Dennis about how this approach is evolving inside Tractor Supply.

Employer Content Marketing Podcast - Episode 151 (Cliquify Series)

I’d be curious to hear your perspective too.

Does employer branding in your organisation feel like a carefully designed programme, or something that’s evolving step by step? It may be a bit of both!

Thanks

Chris

Chris Le’cand-Harwood

Host, Employer Content Marketing

Founder, Content Marketing Pod Ltd

Understanding this isn’t a nice to have - it’s a strategic business imperative. It’s what makes businesses succeed.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the launch of The Global Workplace Happiness Report at Google in London - hosted by The Happiness Index.

I did a Substack Livestream with Matt Phelan [Co-Founder of The Happiness Index] on stage before the day kicked off.

We cover the why and what of The Global Workplace Happiness Report [it’s based on 1.9 million data points!]. I ask Matt about the key themes here:

It’s always great chatting with Matt - his third time on the podcast - and this is episode 150! A worth topic for such a milestone 🫶🏻

Matt and the team do really important work so it’s a real privilege to chat with them and share this episode with you.

Want to dive into the report?

You can download it here.

And get on to LinkedIn to connect with Matt.

Now on to the rest of the event - looking forward to the talks and having some more conversations about workplace happiness today. Subscribe for more content like this in your inbox.

Good times. Thanks for the invite Matt!

Chris

Chris Le’cand-Harwood

Host, Employer Content Marketing

Founder, Content Marketing Pod Ltd

It happens in leadership discussions. In project debriefs. In team events. In everyday conversations between employees.

The problem is those moments rarely get captured properly. Because teams are busy doing the thing!

And afterwards someone usually says: “We should have got loads of content from that.”

When you approach it more intentionally, something interesting happens.

A single day can generate 20+ pieces of meaningful content - short-form video, employee insight clips, LinkedIn posts, written articles, and content that can support hiring campaigns for months afterwards.

And it doesn’t feel like marketing.

It’s simply employees sharing their knowledge, experience and perspective. The kind of conversations that already happen internally, but rarely get captured and shared externally.

That kind of content tends to work because it does a few important things at once.

It fuels hiring campaigns with credible, human stories. It helps employees raise their professional profile. It strengthens internal engagement and recognition. And it builds reputation for both the organisation and the people inside it.

There are a few ways to make this work depending on the situation.

- Sometimes it’s agile, on-the-day interviews with a lightweight setup.

- Sometimes it’s bringing in a small crew to record structured conversations.

- And sometimes it’s running a remote studio-style interview day so employees can join easily from anywhere.

But the key thing is simply planning to capture the moment before it happens.

If you’ve got something coming up and would love to turn it into months’ worth of content, then feel free to message me.

The Culture Profit Podcast focuses on something that really resonates with me: that workplace culture is not just an internal “people topic”, but something that can directly influence business performance.

Strong cultures shape better products, better customer experiences, and ultimately stronger commercial outcomes.

So I was super happy to get an invite on to their podcast recently. The more we can connect culture with cash, the better.

Here are some of the themes from the episode:

Why culture needs to be seen, not just described

Many organisations invest time defining their values, their mission, and their Employer Value Proposition. But when people outside the organisation encounter that messaging, it can feel abstract.

Statements like “we value collaboration” or “our people are our greatest asset” are common, but they rarely tell you what it actually feels like to work somewhere.

Content changes that.

When employees talk about the work they do, the problems they solve, and the impact they have, culture stops being a slogan and starts becoming something tangible. A short video conversation, a podcast discussion, or a behind-the-scenes story can reveal far more about an organisation than really polished piece of copy on a careers page.

That’s why I’m so interested in helping organisations capture these stories.

Employees are the most credible storytellers

One of the themes we discussed in the episode is the importance of letting employees speak for themselves.

Too often employer branding content tries to sound like marketing. But audiences - especially candidates - are increasingly good at recognising polished messaging.

What they respond to instead is authenticity.

• An apprentice explaining how they faced the world of work for the first time.

• A nurse describing the moments they see the real impact of their work, despite the challenges.

• A graduate talking about what culture looks like in their day to day.

These kinds of conversations create content that is informative, credible and often genuinely inspiring. They allow people outside the organisation to understand the purpose behind the work, not just the job description.

The important thing is to create the environment that helps them bring their authentic self to the screen or mic. Here’s a clip about how I do that.

From storytelling to business value

When organisations consistently share thoughtful, useful content about the work happening inside their teams, several things start to happen.

First, they build trust with potential candidates. People considering a role gain a much clearer picture of the environment they might be joining.

Second, the organisation develops a reputation for expertise and openness. The same content that attracts candidates can also resonate with customers, partners and industry peers.

And third, employees themselves often feel a stronger sense of pride and ownership when their work is shared and recognised publicly.

In other words, workplace culture content doesn’t just support hiring - it contributes to brand, reputation and commercial success.

A practical way to start

One of the points I always emphasise is that organisations don’t need a large production budget to start creating this kind of content. The most important ingredient is curiosity.

Start by recording conversations with people who are doing interesting work inside the organisation. Ask them about the challenges they’re tackling, the expertise they’ve developed, and the moments that made them proud.

Those conversations can become podcast episodes, short videos, articles or social clips.

Over time, these stories build a body of content that reveals what the organisation actually does and why it matters.

It also means you can build internal confidence, proof of concept and business cases for higher production content that sits alongside this.

Watch or listen to the full conversation

If you’re interested in employer branding, organisational culture, or the role content can play in connecting the two, I hope you enjoy the conversation.

You can watch the full episode here:

Thanks again to Matt and Crista for inviting me. It was a great opportunity to chat about how organisations can move beyond describing culture - and start showing it through the stories of the people who create it every day.

Check out their podcast here.

✅ Maintain consistent employer branding across teams or regions

✅ Balance global guidelines with local flexibility

✅ Build processes that help teams collaborate

✅ Use technology and platforms to scale employer branding

✅ Prove the value of employer branding to the wider business

✅ Build internal communities that drive adoption and momentum

The key lesson: Scaling employer branding is about aligning people, processes and technology across the organisation.

Listen to the episode here.

This episode is part of a series supported by Cliquify - the Employer Branding Operating System for organisations - featuring conversations with in-house practitioners about how employer branding really works inside organisations.

Find out more about Cliquify here.

🗓️ The next episode in this 4-part series sees me chatting with another in-house practitioner, so be sure to subscribe to get it direct to your inbox.

And it’s how potential candidates decide whether they can see themselves belonging somewhere.

When employer content is done well it has the power to bring an organisation’s culture to life in a way no campaign slogan ever could.

The challenge isn’t believing in the value of content.

The challenge is how you consistently create effective employer content in a way that’s sustainable, and scalable.

So when content is clearly such an important part of employer branding, the question becomes: what do you actually do with it?

How do you approach employer content in a way that’s intentional and sustainable, rather than always feeling like you’re catching up?

This is why I put together this one-pager - the Employer Content Marketing Engine — drawing on years of working with employer brand and talent teams, and conversations with over 140 guests on my podcast.

It’s a simple framework designed to help teams think about employer content as a system, offering a clear direction without prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution. So feel free to take this and use it to help you and your team [and pass it on to anyone else who would find this helpful].

Content matters…but only when it’s intentional

Most employer brand, talent acquisition and people communications teams aren’t short on ideas.

If anything, they’re surrounded by them:

• Employee stories they want to tell

• Leaders with opinions and perspectives

• Recruiters hearing the same questions from candidates again and again

The problem is in finding the time, structure and approach to turn those ideas into content that:

• Feels authentic

• Is aligned to the EVP

• Reaches the right people

• And supports hiring and reputation over time

Without a system, content quickly becomes reactive.

It’s produced when there’s urgency, pressure, or a vacancy spike — and then quietly disappears again.

What’s needed is a clear train of thought.

A way of working that helps teams create content at the right time, in the right cycles, with a sense of continuity rather than constant reinvention.

Start with strategy, not output

An engine isn’t anything without the spark. That’s where strategy comes in.

This isn’t about channels, formats, or posting frequency.

It’s about being clear on:

• What your EVP really stands for

• The stories, opinions and challenges that sit behind it

• And how content can help people feel what a culture of an organisation is really like even before they become a candidate.

The guiding principle comes directly from content marketing:

Earn attention through stories, opinion and advice — rather than trying to interrupt people. Be the content, not just the ads.

When employer content is genuinely useful, insightful and human, people lean in.

When it feels forced or promotional, they switch off.

Everything else in the engine flows from this strategic clarity.

The Employer Content Marketing Engine: how the system works

Rather than treating employer content as a series of disconnected activities, this drives a continuous loop of content. Each stage feeds the next, and each cycle strengthens what comes after it.

1. Quarterly content series

The starting point is a quarterly content series.

Instead of chasing one-off ideas week by week, plan one flagship series every quarter — often anchored in video and/or audio.

These series are built around:

• Real challenges your organisation is navigating

• Topics your audiences genuinely care about

• The expertise that already exists inside the business

Quarterly planning creates focus. It gives content a theme, a direction, and a lifespan beyond a single post.

Just as importantly, it creates breathing space — time to think, plan and create without everything feeling urgent.

2. Workplace content creator community

Strong employer content doesn’t come from one small team sitting in isolation. It comes from people across the organisation.

A workplace content creator community enables employees to become contributors, not amplifiers. And I really believe that distinction matters.

This means:

• Capturing lived experience, not marketing messages

• Encouraging stories, perspectives and lessons learned

• Supporting people with guidance, structure and confidence

When done well, this approach increases authenticity while reducing pressure on employer brand teams.

3. Clip, repurpose and multiply

Once you have strong core content, the question becomes how to make it work harder. Get more for your effort, time and money.

This is where repurposing comes in — not as a volume exercise, but as a way of respecting both your team’s effort and your audience’s time.

A single piece of core content can be thoughtfully turned into:

• Short-form video

• Social posts

• Articles and carousels

• Email content and landing pages

The aim isn’t to flood channels. It’s to create consistency, reach and meaning.

4. Organic and paid distribution, working together

Organic and paid distribution are often treated as separate conversations. In reality, they work best when they play together.

Organic content helps build:

• Trust

• Familiarity

• A consistent presence over time

Paid distribution should then amplify what’s already resonating — extending reach rather than compensating for weak content.

When both are working together, distribution becomes a multiplier rather than a sticking plaster.

5. Lead generation and nurturing

Employer content doesn’t need to be overtly about jobs to be effective. But it should support demand and decision-making.

This stage focuses on:

• Capturing interest from the right people

• Nurturing them with genuinely useful content

• Introducing job opportunities naturally, when the timing makes sense

The outcome isn’t about more applicants — it’s better-informed, better-aligned candidates.

What this approach enables

When teams adopt a system like this, employer content starts to feel very different. Instead of campaign spikes, there’s continuity. Instead of constant pressure, there’s momentum. Instead of guesswork, there’s learning and optimisation.

The result is a sustainable, scalable employer content system that:

• Strengthens employer brand over time

• Supports recruiters and hiring teams

• Helps people understand your organisation before they apply

What’s coming next

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing deeper dives into each stage of the Employer Content Marketing Engine — from planning quarterly content series, to building workplace creator communities, to making distribution and nurturing actually work.

Each piece will be practical and designed to help teams move forward, whether they’re building this internally or figuring out where to start.

And if you want to talk

Everything in this framework can be built in-house.

But if you want support — strategic, practical, or somewhere in between — I work with organisations through:

• Fractional employer content leadership

• Content strategy and planning

• Employer content production and distribution

I’m always happy to talk things through. If this way of thinking resonates, feel free to reply here, reach out on LinkedIn, or start a conversation.

More to come soon.

Last night, the RAD Awards announced their winners, and one piece caught my eye: Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s 90-second video, which won the Use of a Single Video category.

I’d actually talked about this same video a few months ago, when it won at the Recruitment Marketing Awards.

It’s simple, authentic, and emotional. Nurses, midwives, and patients are shown naturally, giving a real sense of what life in the maternity unit is like. There’s even a short poem woven through the narrative, highlighting the impact the organisation has on people’s lives. And it’s all achieved on a £15K budget [it won the £15K or under category at the Recruitment Marketing Awards in October].

I love doing these short dives into award winning work, because you don’t get to see much behind the winner’s name up in lights on the night. Taking time out to look at award-winning work is a valuable way to learn, get inspired, and reflect on what makes recruitment content genuinely effective.

Huge congratulations to all the winners and nominees from the RAD Awards last night. Shame I couldn’t make it this year - it’s always good fun!

Heres’ the full video:

Another tool. Another trend. Another thing we’re supposed to care about.

But when it comes to employer branding and talent attraction, AI isn’t a gimmick. It’s solving a problem teams have struggled with for years.

I was discussing this recently with Erik Rivas, alongside my fellow Employer Content Club co-host Chris Murdoch, and one idea stood out:

AI isn’t about creating fake stories or replacing human voices.

It’s about extending the life of real ones.

The old way of using employee video

For a long time, the process looked something like this:

You’d record great employee interviews. You’d publish the videos. You’d slice them into clips. You’d post them on socials and add them to a careers site.

Valuable? Yes. Exhaustive? Also yes.

Once that content was “used”, it largely stayed where it was. Revisiting it months later meant manually rewatching footage, pulling quotes, or starting again with new filming.

What AI changes

Now those same videos can be treated as something more powerful: searchable, reusable data.

The words employees say — their experiences, motivations, doubts, and advice — can be revisited and reshaped for different purposes over time.

AI allows teams to:

• Turn employee interviews into blogs, social posts, and campaign messaging

• Reframe existing content around new hiring priorities or challenges

• Answer candidate questions using real employee language, not corporate copy

You’re not inventing anything new.

You’re unlocking what you’ve already invested in.

A simple but powerful example

Erik shared a great example from his work at Police Now.

“Why should I join Police Now?”

That question might be asked by:

• A graduate

• A career changer

• A former teacher

• Someone five years into a different profession

The question is the same, but the context isn’t.

With AI, teams can surface stories from people who’ve actually made those transitions and answer the question in a way that feels relevant to each audience — using the same core bank of employee content.

Not personalised one-to-one. But intelligently relevant at scale.

What this means for employer branding

Employer branding isn’t like selling a product.Candidates can’t return a career move.

They can’t undo a cultural mismatch.

They’re making a high-stakes decision, often over a long period of time.

That means brands need to:

• Show up consistently

• Earn attention repeatedly

• Stay front of mind long before someone applies

The problem? Most budgets and teams can’t support constant new content creation.

AI doesn’t fix that by making content fake or automated.

It fixes it by helping teams:

• Do more with what they already have

• Stay visible without burning out employees or budgets

• Keep authenticity at the centre, not polish

The real opportunity

Used well, AI doesn’t dilute employer brand content.

It amplifies it. Real voices. More relevance. More consistency.

And finally, a way to meet the volume the world demands — without losing the humanity that makes employer branding work in the first place.

That’s not something to roll your eyes at. Exciting times.

Erik shared how they do this in practice using Vouch — a platform that helps teams capture employee video stories and then reuse and resurface them intelligently over time.

In the world of employer branding, we can fall into the trap of polishing the truth until it shines like a commercial.

But after 20+ years in workplace content, I’ve learned a fundamental truth: Advertising sells, but content builds trust.

When candidates or employees are considering your organisation, they don’t want sales messages. They want real stories, opinions, and experiences from the people actually doing the work.

The Shift from “Corporate Gloss” to Authentic Reality

One of the most common challenges organisations face today is the desire for authentic stories coupled with an uncertainty of how to get them. Employer branding practitioners often tell me, “We want real employee voices, but we’re not sure how to capture them without it feeling forced or scripted”.

This is where the distinction between “marketing” and “content” becomes crucial. Traditional marketing relies on corporate slogans; strategic content relies on giving talented people a platform to build their reputation and the reputation of their organisation.

My approach sits right in the middle of culture and content. Whether I am directing documentaries with psychiatrists and nurses or producing a podcast series on the sports fields of the Royal Air Force, the goal is always the same: to harness workplace culture to drive recruitment and build thought leadership without the gloss.

Strategy Before You Hit “Record”

It is tempting to jump straight into high-production solutions. However, effective employer content requires us to be strategic partners who figure out what to make and why before we ever turn on a camera.

This means challenging the brief. It means separating “wants” from “needs”. Sometimes, the answer isn’t a massive 12-month campaign. I believe in momentum over perfection. I would rather pilot something quickly, learn from it, and iterate than spend months planning the perfect piece of content that never ships.

For example, I once helped a client repurpose and serialise content from a film shoot that wasn’t delivering its full value. By applying a strategic lens, we turned a handful of videos into a whole suite of content that lasted months.

Solving the “Bandwidth” Problem

Even when the strategy is sound, execution is often the bottleneck. “We need to scale our content, but we’re stretched”.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this. Sometimes the answer is bringing in an independent producer to take the project end-to-end—assembling the crew and handling everything from strategy to delivery. Other times, the sustainable answer is building your internal capability through coaching and workshops, or having a partner embed with your team as an extra pair of hands.

A Privilege to Serve the Industry

My career has taken me from the NHS to working with brands like Hilton, Schroders, and Cygnet, winning 11 awards over the last five years. But my work isn’t just for organisations; it’s for the industry.

Through the Employer Content Marketing podcast and my work with the Employer Content Club, I try to facilitate discussions that help us all make better workplaces. Using content to make people happier and motivated to do their best work is a genuine privilege.

If you are tired of corporate sales slogans and want to start turning your culture into magnetic content, let’s focus on the stories that matter. Because sales messages can’t truly build the trust your employer brand needs—but content can.

Have a great week!

Chris

And after conversations with practitioners like Ally Brown from VCA Animal Hospitals and Erik Rivas from Police Now, and a night out at the Recruitment Marketing Awards, I got into the studio with Chris just before Christmas.

We met up in London to record the final episode in our “Co-Created” Series. And it felt like the perfect way to wrap up this series.

Throughout Co-Created, we’ve explored how organisations of all sizes can build sustainable content operations. We’ve lifted the bonnet on real content engines, discovered what actually works with limited budgets, looked at award-winning work, and learned how practitioners are feeling about the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Episode 5 wraps the series up with a practical framework to help you co-create content with your employees.

Why these five pillars will help

If you’re a solo practitioner or part of a small EB team then the five pillars are here for you.

This is not a theoretical model, but five practical pillars built from real conversations with people doing this work every day [and based on our own experiences working in employer content marketing].

What we cover in the episode

Without giving too much away (because I really want you to watch or listen to get the most value from this!), here’s what we explore:

The mindset shift that unlocks creativity - It’s not about having more time, it’s about creating the right conditions for ideas to flow. I share my “Airplane Mode” approach and why stepping away from your desk might be the most productive thing you do all week.

Getting buy-in from busy people - Your colleagues are swamped. So how do you get them excited about creating content? We explore the “what’s in it for them” angle and why visibility might be the superpower your employees need in 2026.

The agile sprint approach - Can you really create meaningful content in four weeks? We break down how WhatsApp groups, voice notes, and co-creation can transform your content operation without fancy tech or big budgets.

Experience vs efficiency - As AI makes everything faster, we make the case for why doubling down on experience (not just efficiency) will be your competitive advantage in 2026.

The truth about creating content in 2026

The organisations succeeding with employee content aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets.

They’re the ones who’ve figured out how to create space for thinking differently, how to start small and iterate, and how to make their employees genuine partners in the content creation process.

They’re also the ones who understand that in a world drowning in AI-generated content and vanity metrics, authentic human experience cuts through like nothing else.

Watch or listen now

Whether you’re just starting to build an employer content function or you’re looking to level up your existing operation, these five pillars will give you a roadmap for the next 12 months.

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the episode here:

Join us for what’s next

This might be the finale of the Co-Created series, but it’s just the beginning for Employer Content Club.

We’re planning events for 2026, and we want you to be part of the conversation. Whether you’re a solo practitioner figuring it out as you go, or part of a team looking to do this more strategically, there’s a place for you in this community.

👉 Join Employer Content Club at employercontent.club

You’ll get early access to upcoming events, connect with other practitioners navigating the same challenges, and help shape how we build this community together.

And if you haven’t watched the previous episodes in the series, head over to the Employer Content Club website to catch up on all the conversations.

A huge thanks to Vouch

Their support has allowed us to have these important conversations about the operational side of content creation - the stuff that often gets overlooked at events and in communities.

If you’re looking for a frictionless way to capture employee-generated content at scale, Vouch is worth checking out. They’ve been brilliant partners throughout this series.

Check them out here.

What’s your biggest challenge with employee content creation? Drop a comment below or email me at chris@contentmarketingpod.com - I’d love to hear from you.

Chris

While it would be great to be able to go on multiple film shoots, the real world doesn’t always have the budget for that. So employee generated content is the answer.

As part of the Employer Content Club series that I’m hosting with Chris Murdoch [host of the Employer Bland podcast], we chatted with Erik Rivas from Police Now.

Here’s a segment of that conversation.

Erik explains that while high-quality videos are important for specific campaigns, they can be time-consuming and expensive to produce. In contrast, employee generated content can be produced quickly and at a lower cost, allowing the organisation to respond to changing recruitment needs promptly.

Watch or listen to the episode here

Join Employer Content Club

If you’re building an employee-generated content function in-house, this episode gives you the practical playbook.

Get access to the next episode in this series (including bonus content about AI) by joining Employer Content Club.

Become a founding member and help shape how we build this community. You’ll get early access to upcoming events we’re planning and be part of the conversation from the start.

👉 Sign up at employercontent.club

About the Co-Created Series

How to build authentic content WITH employees, not just about them.

Hosted by Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Content Marketing Pod) and Chris Murdoch (Voyse), co-founders of Employer Content Club.

Proudly created in partnership with Vouch - the tool that makes employee content creation frictionless.

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn

What’s your biggest challenge with balancing high-production and employee-generated content? Drop a comment below or email me at chris@contentmarketingpod.com - I’d love to hear from you.

Chris

When we do this, we learn and grow together, and the world of employer branding gets closer to the strategic business asset we all believe it should be.

That’s why it was brilliant spending time with Erik Rivas, Head of Employer Brand and Recruitment Marketing at Police Now.

Welcome to Episode 4 of Employer Content Club’s “Co-Created” series - all about how to build authentic content with your employees.

This episode is definitely worth watching or listening to.

It’s packed full of advice as we look inside Erik and the team’s content operations. We explore how they balance high-production content with employee-generated material to drive authenticity, agility, and measurable ROI for their employer branding and recruitment marketing.

What We Cover in This Episode

⚖️ The 50/50 balance: When to use high-production vs employee-generated content

🎬 Co-producing with employees: Getting authentic stories from those who’ve lived it

⚡ The agility advantage: Responding to changing recruitment needs in weeks, not months

🔄 Extending the life of expensive production shoots through smart repurposing

🧪 How flexibility enables fearless experimentation with new topics and voices

🎯 Proving ROI by connecting content to core business metrics

Why balance matters

Erik explains how Police Now created a content production system that balances two production approaches.

High-production shoots have their place in campaign-specific content and website hero videos - but they often need sizeable investment and can be time-consuming. When priorities shift and you need content about new locations or roles, you can’t wait months for another production shoot.

That’s where the balance matters.

Employee-generated content gives you the flexibility to experiment with new questions, try different angles, and respond rapidly - all while maintaining quality. The key is having both working together: polished branded content for campaigns, and agile employee content for day-to-day realities and rapid response.

The result? Authentic stories that set realistic expectations for candidates, the agility to pivot when recruiting different roles or locations, and centralised content management that extends ROI on every piece of content you create.

Watch or listen to the episode here

Join Employer Content Club

If you’re building an employee-generated content function in-house, this episode gives you the practical playbook.

Get access to the next episode in this series (including bonus content about AI) by joining Employer Content Club.

Become a founding member and help shape how we build this community. You’ll get early access to upcoming events we’re planning and be part of the conversation from the start.

👉 Sign up at employercontent.club

About the Co-Created Series

How to build authentic content WITH employees, not just about them.

Hosted by Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Content Marketing Pod) and Chris Murdoch (Voyse), co-founders of Employer Content Club.

Proudly created in partnership with Vouch - the tool that makes employee content creation frictionless.

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn

What’s your biggest challenge with balancing high-production and employee-generated content? Drop a comment below or email me at chris@contentmarketingpod.com - I’d love to hear from you.

Chris

We spent the morning in a London studio filming the final episode of our “Co-Created” series about how to build authentic content with your employees.

In just one hour, we grabbed loads of valuable conversation, walking through a five-point framework for in-house teams who want to accelerate their content strategy and create work that moves the needle on talent attraction and engagement.

Then we hosted a mini Employer Content Club meetup over lunch with Claire de Souza, Ben Phillips, Rich Gordon and Andy Mallinson. A few hours catching up on the market, sharing stories, but more importantly, just connecting with good people doing this work.

That’s what this is really about.

The Co-Created Series: What We’ve Covered

Episodes so far have covered award-winning work, the challenges facing the industry, and conversations with in-house practitioners about how they’re co-creating content with employees. Real people, real challenges, practical solutions.

Episode 5 (dropping soon) brings it all together with a five-point framework. This one is especially valuable if you’re looking for a systematic approach to employee content that you can actually implement.

We Want You to Be Part of This

Here’s what we’re asking: join us.

We’re building Employer Content Club for in-house employer branders and content practitioners - people working solo or in small teams, figuring this out as they go. They’re exactly who this community is for.

Here’s how to get involved

Check out the Co-Created series - Episodes are available now with practical frameworks and insights from practitioners doing this work. Episode 5 drops either just before or after New Years.

Sign up at Employer Content Club - Get notifications when new episodes drop and be the first to hear about upcoming events.

Join us for events in 2025 - We’re planning both online and in-person gatherings. More details coming soon, but these will be real opportunities to connect, share challenges, and learn from each other.

The community is growing. Yyesterday’s meetup reminded us that there are so many talented people doing this work who would benefit from connecting with each other. That’s what we’re building here.

We’d love you to be part of it.

Chris Le’cand-Harwood

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P.S. If you know someone in-house doing employer brand content work who would benefit from this community, please share this with them. The more diverse voices we have, the better we’ll all become.

She explains how AI helps her:

• Work faster and smarter when she’s doing employer‑branding content alone

• Scale her output without increasing headcount or costs

• Unlock creativity and consistency that would be hard to sustain manually

If you build content to attract talent or engage employees — and you’re juggling it on your own — that mindset could be a game-changer.

If you’re building an employee-generated content function in-house, this gives you a practical playbook.

What This Means for Employer Branders

In the business world, employer branding is still in its infancy - employer brand job titles and teams have only been around since the early-mid noughties. So teams tend to be solo or small - this has held the profession back. Enter AI and its potential to be a huge enabler, if used in the right way.

✅ Stretch your bandwidth

As a one-person team, you often wear multiple hats: content producer, strategist, storyteller, recruiter liaison. AI lets you stretch your bandwidth — it doesn’t replace your judgement or heart, but amplifies your ability to deliver.

✅ Quality at scale

Consistent talent attraction and employee engagement content demands frequency and quality. AI helps maintain that rhythm, even when resources are tight.

✅ Fresh thinking, different outcomes

With AI handling time‑heavy tasks, you free up mental space to think bigger: crafting narratives, aligning content with EVP, experimenting with tone and format.

Want to watch the full conversation with Ally Brown?

Or listen to the episode here.

This is part of the Employer Content Club: Join us.

👥 Join Employer Content Club and get the next episode in this series: Become a founding member and help shape how we build this community. You’ll get early access to upcoming events we’re planning and be part of the conversation from the start.

👉 Sign up at https://www.employercontent.club/co-created

Co-Created Series – How to build authentic content WITH employees, not just about them. Hosted by me, Chris Le’cand-Harwood, and Chris Murdoch, co-hosts of Employer Content Club.

This episode is created in partnership with Vouch, the tool Ally uses to make employee content creation frictionless.

Thanks for passing by. Hope this helps.

Chris

www.linkedin.com/in/chrislch/

VCA operates over 1,000 veterinary hospitals across the US and Canada. Their associates are deskless workers with packed appointment schedules. Yet Ally is building an employee-generated content programme as a solo practitioner.

Here’s how.

Start Where Your Audience Already Is

VCA took an unconventional approach: they started with student creators before building an employee generated content programme.

“The veterinary industry is a very competitive talent market,” Ally explains. “Companies are trying to get these students straight out of school.”

Rather than focussing inward first, VCA partnered with veterinary students who were already creating content. These students knew the platform, understood the audience (because they were the audience), and often had existing connections to VCA through externships or family pets.

The content performed well so VCA amplified it with paid media to reach experienced professionals too.

Treat Employees Like Creators, Not Subjects

This is where many organisations get it wrong.

“The key is to treat them like creatives,” Ally says. “We brief them with ideas, just as you would a creative agency, with our goals and background information. Then we let them pitch us back what their concepts are.”

This isn’t about handing employees a script. It’s about providing a creative brief, sharing your goals, and giving them freedom to bring ideas to life in their own way.

One associate described how their team helped cats who were in a house fire by saying he felt “like the Megazord on Power Rangers.” That’s the kind of specific, human detail you can’t get from a scripted corporate message - and something AI could never write.

Make the Ask About Recognition, Not Work

Getting buy-in from busy employees isn’t about making the request smaller - it’s about reframing what it means.

“Make them feel special,” Ally explains. “Let them know, ‘We want to hear from you specifically and here’s why - we heard about the amazing things you’re doing, your career history, and we want to spotlight that.’”

The ask becomes recognition. An honour.

Ally also works through hospital managers to facilitate requests, which gives employees permission within their schedule and adds another layer of “you’ve been chosen for this.”

Remove Every Possible Point of Friction

Even when employees want to participate, logistics can kill momentum.

Ally uses Vouch because it removes friction: “You don’t have to download an app. You just send a link off and it’s super easy to record.”

The tool guides employees through pre-set questions, helps you edits clips together, adds subtitles, and deliver polished video testimonials.

“We tell them, ‘It’s going to take five minutes to record,’” Ally says. “When you’re framing it that way and giving tips so they feel confident, that helps.”

The principle: If you make participation hard, busy people will choose their day job every time.

Use Audio When Video Isn’t Possible

During a photo shoot at one of their hospitals, getting quality video content proved difficult between managing the shoot and keeping on schedule.

Ally’s solution: follow up afterwards and capture audio testimonials.

“We layered the audio on top of the visuals and put it into a fun animation graphic with music behind it,” she explains. These audio-driven ads are now running across Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

The approach creates personal, intimate content through voice whilst making photo shoots more manageable.

Let AI Handle the Grunt Work, Not the Story

As a solo practitioner, Ally calls AI her best friend - but with clear boundaries.

“If AI writes a story, it’s going to sound fake,” she notes. “You still need that human to share their personal feelings, but AI can help you unlock it.”

Ally uses AI for writing questions, ideating content formats, and speeding up brainstorming. But she always maintains human judgement: “I’m selecting the questions I like. I definitely don’t just take all of them.”

She also maintains a library of go-to questions for spontaneous opportunities - like when associates stop by the VCA booth at exhibitions.

The Three Core Principles

If you’re building an employee-generated content function:

1. Treat your employees like creators. Give them creative briefs and ideas. Let them bring concepts to life in their own unique way.

2. Make them feel special. Frame participation as recognition. Highlight why you’re asking them specifically - their project, their journey, their impact.

3. Get the questions right. Use AI to help craft specific questions that unlock unique stories in 60 seconds or less. Build a library so you’re ready when opportunities arise.

Why Co-Creation Matters

Employer brand functions are shrinking. Budgets are tightening. Yet the demand for authentic content has never been higher.

Ally’s approach at VCA proves you don’t need a massive team or Hollywood budgets. You need smart systems, genuine respect for your employees as creators, and the right tools to remove friction.

When you treat employees as collaborators rather than subjects, when you make participation feel like recognition rather than work, and when you remove every barrier to saying yes - authentic content follows.

This article is part of our Co-Created series, exploring how organisations build authentic content WITH employees, not just about them.

Want to watch the full conversation with Ally Brown?

Or listen to the episode here.

If you’re building an employee-generated content function in-house, this episode gives you the practical playbook.

👥 Join Employer Content Club and get the next episode in this series: Become a founding member and help shape how we build this community. You’ll get early access to upcoming events we’re planning and be part of the conversation from the start.

👉 Sign up at https://www.employercontent.club/co-created

Co-Created Series – How to build authentic content WITH employees, not just about them. Hosted by me and Chris Murdoch, co-hosts of Employer Content Club.

This is created in partnership with Vouch (the tool Ally uses to make employee content creation frictionless).

Thanks for passing by. Hope this helps.

Chris

www.linkedin.com/in/chrislch/

Employer Content Club took a look recently.

As part of the latest episode in our series “Co-Created: How to build authentic content with your employees,” I chatted with Chris Murdoch about BP’s “We’re Making BP Work for Women” campaign.

They won the Grand Prix award - the best of the best on the night.

It was just one of the winners we talked about on our latest Employer Content Club episode.

Taking a closer look

I didn’t judge BP’s category, but they won a few awards. So afterwards I went to the Recruitment Marketing Awards website to take a proper look at what they’d done.

Yes, it had the usual elements - talking heads, nice stories, b-roll cutaways. The kind of production you’d expect from a major campaign.

But what really caught my eye was something called “Walls of Talent.”

Walls of Talent

Picture this: Artists in the streets of India painting murals.

An artful tribute to women who inspire us every day.

But here’s what made it different - they’re not talking about BP’s policies or benefits. They’re talking about grandparents, mothers, daughters, families.

Real tributes. Real stories. Brilliant.

The result? Something powerful was created. And application numbers soared.

Lovely piece of work.

When you move beyond corporate messaging and tap into genuine human stories - stories that celebrate the people who inspire us - you create something that resonates.

📺 Watch the full episode here

🎧 Or listen to the full episode here:

Note: While I attended and discussed the Recruitment Marketing Awards in this article, this content is not affiliated with or sponsored by the Recruitment Marketing Awards or anyone connected to this award-winning.

So when I went to the Recruitment Marketing Awards a few weeks ago, I kept an eye out for award winners in certain categories.

One category that particularly caught my attention was the Employer Brand award.

This was won by Currys, in partnership with Tonic.

Here’s a segment from Episode 2 of our Co-Created series - a little dive into the award-winning work. Me and Chris took a look at the winning listings and the content itself, and shared our thoughts based on what we saw.

And here are my key takeaways for you:

The Authenticity Problem

I had a conversation with someone who was at World Employer Branding Day who said something that resonated: when you over-gloss employee content, you kill its authenticity.

Currys seems to have figured this out. Their approach leans into TikTok trends, office banter, and the kind of workplace moments that feel genuine because they are genuine.

The production quality isn’t the point - the people are.

Why This Matters for Co-Create

If you’ve been following our Co-Create series (and if you haven’t, welcome - you’re in the right place), you know we’re exploring how to build authentic content with your employees, not just about them.

The Currys campaign is a great case study for this philosophy:

They built infrastructure, not just content. Creating a centralised platform with a consistent cadence takes serious coordination. It’s not just “hey, post something to TikTok when you feel like it.” It’s strategic, but it doesn’t feel forced.

They trusted their people. Staff were encouraged to participate. That level of trust - and the training and support that goes with it - is what separates real co-creation from tokenistic employee spotlights.

A Quick Note About Our Series Partner - Vouch

We’re capturing insights like these throughout our Co-Created series, and we’re doing it using Vouch - the video-first AI content platform that makes it easy to collect and share authentic employee stories.

It’s fitting, really. We’re exploring how to co-create content with employees, and Vouch is helping us gather voices from practitioners throughout the season. If you’re curious about how to collect authentic stories at scale without the production headaches, check them out here.

What You Can Steal From This

You don’t need to be Currys to apply these lessons:

Start with listening. Before you create a single piece of content, talk to your people. What do they want to say? What are they proud of? What would they actually post?

Build the infrastructure. One-off employee features won’t cut it. You need a system that makes it easy and appealing for people to contribute regularly.

Coordinate without controlling. Yes, you need guidelines. Yes, you need some level of quality control. But if it feels like a corporate communications exercise, you’ve already lost.

Watch & Listen to the Full Episode

Want to hear the complete conversation? Me and Chris talk about other RMA winners in Episode 2 of our Co-Created series. And we talk about the challenges and opportunities facing the world of TA, EB and recruitment marketing.

Watch the full episode here

Listen to the full episode here:

About the Co-Create Series

This article is part of Co-Create: How to Build Authentic Content with Your Employees, an ongoing series where Chris Murdoch and I explore the world of employee-generated content.

We’re talking to organisations at different stages of their journey, learning what works (and what doesn’t), and building a community of practitioners who believe there’s a better way to do employer content.

Want to find out more about Employer Content Club?

Join Employer Content Club

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to co-creating content with your employees? Drop a comment below - I’d love to hear from you.

Note: While I attended and discuss the Recruitment Marketing Awards in this article, this content is not affiliated with or sponsored by the Recruitment Marketing Awards or anyone connected to this award-winning.

That’s why I created the Employer Content Scorecard — a quick, 2-minute assessment designed to help you figure out the now and next in your employer content journey.

If you haven’t had a chance to complete it yet, here it is:
👉 Take the 2-minute scorecard

And if you want a deeper dive, I’m also running a free webinar soon.

I’ll walk you through my Lean Employer Content Framework, a practical approach to planning and creating employer content that actually delivers results — without burning out your team.

👉 Register for the webinar

Whether you take the scorecard, join the webinar, or both, you’ll walk away with clear next steps to make your employer content stronger, smarter, and ready to hit the ground running in 2026.

All the best and hit reply if you want to chat.

Chris

Chris Le’cand-Harwood
Founder, Content Marketing Pod Ltd

That’s why Episode 2 of the Employer Content Club’s Co-Created series takes you behind the scenes of the Recruitment Marketing Awards — where creativity meets strategy, and employer brand work gets the spotlight it deserves.

Why This Episode Matters

This autumn, I’m running a new series called Co-Created: How to Build Authentic Content with Your Employees — alongside my fellow Employer Content Club Co-Host, Chris Murdoch (who’s also Co-Founder of Voyse).

Our goal is simple: to help in-house employer branding and talent acquisition teams understand what’s working, what’s not, and how to create content that actually connects with people.

And to do that, we need to stay close to the action — which is what the Recruitment Marketing Awards are all about.

Why the RMAs Are So Valuable

The evening was packed: budgets, AI adoption, team structures, capturing authentic employee stories…
But the real value of events like the RMAs is that they show us what good looks like.

When you’re trying to build an employer content strategy on limited resources, seeing award-winning work isn’t just nice inspiration — it’s a masterclass in what’s possible.
It fuels ideas, raises standards, and gives your team the confidence to push creative boundaries.

(Note: While we attended and discuss the RMAs in this episode, this content is not affiliated with or sponsored by the Recruitment Marketing Awards.)

The Work That Caught Our Eye

There were plenty of strong entries — but we focused on three categories in particular:

• Video (Under £15k Budget) — an emotive story that punched way above its weight.

• Employer Brand — an EVP built around genuine employee content, powered by TikTok.

• Grand Prix Winner — a campaign that proved how storytelling can genuinely move people to action.

We won’t spoil the details here — you’ll need to watch or listen to hear how each campaign nailed authenticity, employee involvement, and strategic impact.

But trust us: there’s inspiration that will help your next project.

Key Themes from the Night

Beyond the winners, a few big themes kept coming up in conversations:

• Agility & budget – the real challenge isn’t always money; it’s time and decision-making under uncertainty.

• AI as an enabler – the conversation has shifted from “Should we use it?” to “How do we use it well?” — especially for small teams doing big things.

• Redefining authenticity – it doesn’t always come from where you expect. Sometimes, the most genuine stories come from the edges of your organisation, not the centre.

These are ideas we’ll keep exploring throughout the Co-Create series.

Watch Episode 2 on YouTube:

Listen on Spotify

Join the Co-Created Series

This episode is part of our Co-Created series running this autumn. We’re meeting with employer branding professionals and organisations who are co-creating content with their employees, capturing the practical insights that matter.

Become a founding member of Employer Content Club

As a founding member, you’ll get:

• Every episode in the Co-Created series, direct to your inbox

• Opportunities to contribute your own thoughts and expertise

• Notifications about upcoming Employer Content Club events we’re organising over the next few months

• A chance to shape what this community becomes

This series is about practical knowledge from people doing the work. If you’re building employer content strategy in-house, this is for you.

Co-Created is brought to you by Employer Content Club and supported by Vouch - a platform that makes it easy to capture, repurpose and share authentic employee stories through video.

Watch the full episode to see what we learned at the RMAs and how it applies to your employer content strategy.

But here’s what I’ve learned: it’s documentaries that really hit a chord for me.

There’s something about documentary storytelling that cuts through the noise in a way other content formats simply can’t.

Maybe it’s the intimacy. Maybe it’s the authenticity. Or maybe it’s just that people are getting a bit tired of polished, perfect content that feels like it was created by a marketing committee.

Practicing What We Preach

My business - Content Marketing Pod - has produced a number of documentaries so I was keen to do it for our Engage Care Talent.

When my co-founder Rowan Marriott and I sat down to figure out how to showcase our mission at Engage Care Talent we knew we couldn’t just create another standard marketing video.

We had to practice what we preach.

So I made a decision: I’d turn the cameras on us.

Building in Public, Documentary Style

The result was a three-part documentary series that follows Rowan and me across three very different settings, each revealing something unique about who we are and what we’re building:

Episode 1: The Meal
We sat down for a candid discussion about why we’re so passionate about healthcare recruitment. No script. Just two founders talking honestly about the problem they’re trying to solve and why it matters to them personally.

Episode 2: The Morning Run
There’s something about an early morning run that gets you thinking. We explored mindset, persistence, and what it really takes to build something meaningful in a challenging industry.

Episode 3: The Meeting
This was where strategy met reality. We filmed a planning session where we mapped out the future of our community, complete with the uncertainty, the big ideas, and the tough decisions that come with building something from scratch.

Why This Approach Works

Here’s the thing about “building in public”: it’s vulnerable. It’s messy. And that’s exactly why it works.

People don’t connect with perfection. They connect with reality.

By showing the unfiltered truth of entrepreneurship—the passion, the doubts, the planning, the persistence—we positioned Engage Care Talent not as some faceless corporate entity, but as real people solving real problems.

The Power of Documentary Storytelling

What makes documentary-style content so effective?

It shows rather than tells. Instead of saying “we’re passionate about healthcare,” we showed ourselves having real conversations about why it matters to us.

It creates emotional connection. Watching two people run together at dawn while discussing their business creates a different kind of bond with your audience than a polished promotional video ever could.

It’s memorable. People might forget your features and benefits, but they’ll remember how your story made them feel.

It builds trust. When you’re willing to show the unpolished reality of your work, people believe you in a way they never would with traditional marketing content.

Your Turn

If you’re considering documentary-style content for your brand, here’s my advice: stop overthinking it. You don’t need a massive production budget or a Hollywood crew. You need authenticity, a compelling story, and the courage to show the real you.

The content I’m most proud of isn’t the most polished. It’s the most real.

Check out some more of our documentary work here.