Building Sustainable Employer Brand Content with an Employer Content Marketing Engine
Here's my practical framework for a continuous, scalable content system that fuels an organisation's employer branding.
There’s no question that content plays a central role in employer branding. Content is how organisations find their voice in the market. It’s how people inside a business share what work actually feels like.
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.