Chris is joined by Dylan Lees-Jones, European Recruitment Marketing Manager at Wipro, for a conversation that gets right to the heart of one of employer brand's longest-standing frustrations: why does a function with so much proven impact still have to fight so hard for boardroom credibility?

Dylan brings a rare dual perspective - A career that started in consumer and B2B direct marketing before moving into employer brand and he uses it to cut through some of the noise around metrics, measurement, and making the case upwards.

They cover a lot of ground, including:

• Why now is genuinely a tough time to ask for budget and why having empathy for that pressure actually makes you a more effective EB practitioner
• The preparation problem — why so many teams go live on campaigns without agreeing upfront what success actually looks like, and how to fix it
• Quality of hire vs vanity metrics — what the board actually cares about, and why chasing volume without defining the right candidate profile creates an attrition cycle nobody wins from
• The lifetime value gap — why employer brand is sitting on one of its most powerful commercial arguments and not yet using it, and what consumer marketing figured out decades ago that EB still hasn't fully applied
• The halo effect in practice — Dylan shares a real example of switching off radio advertising to prove its value, and what that means for how EB teams should think about attribution
• Collaboration as the unsexy answer — why misalignment between EB, TA, HR, and senior leadership is quietly undermining even the best work

The episode closes on a genuinely exciting idea: that AI could be the thing that finally makes Employer Brand Lifetime Value measurable and what that would mean for how the C-suite views employer brand investment.

If you've ever been in a room trying to explain why your work matters and felt like you were speaking a different language, this one's worth your time.

In this episode I had a thought provoking chat with Steven Brand, Global Employer Brand Lead at Rolls-Royce and a very well respected figure on the global EB circuit, to talk about what really happens to employer brand when things get tough.

Not when you're launching a shiny new EVP.

Not when you're celebrating growth or looking to attract bucket loads of talent.

But when people are leaving, redundancies are happening and restructures are taking place... what happens then?

We explored:

• Why employer branding often gets “switched off” during tough moments.
• The danger of silence (and what fills the gap when leaders don’t communicate)
• Survivor’s guilt — and how quickly trust can erode internally
• Whether employer brand should be closer to offboarding and exit data
• Why values mean nothing if they only show up in the good times

One line that stayed with me:

“You see the strength of your employer brand in the bad times, not the good.”

If we say we stand for transparency, integrity and people-first leadership… That has to apply when it’s raining too.

Steven shared some brilliant insights on a topic that doesnt often get the airtime I feel it warrants.

Hope you enjoy!

In this episode of the Employer Brand Podcast, I sat down with Ventsislava Nikolova (Ventsi) to unpack what employer branding really means — beyond ping pong tables, fruit bowls, and career fairs.

We covered:

• Why employer branding needs to stop sounding like… employer branding
• How to connect storytelling to profit (without making CEOs’ souls leave their bodies )
• Why internal mobility is one of the most underused retention levers
• The KPI she looks at first (and it’s not traffic, clicks or impressions)
• Why employees — not companies — should be the hero of the story

Hope you enjoy!

• (00:00:02) - Ventislava on the Employer Branding Summit
• (00:00:43) - Introducing Vanzis Leva
• (00:02:25) - Employment branding: Growing up
• (00:07:42) - How to Build a Employer Brand: Bridging the Gap
• (00:09:12) - The lack of visibility for early-career professionals
• (00:11:30) - What's the Background of the Employer Branding Summit
• (00:16:31) - Startling a new summit
• (00:18:29) - Is community building a big part of your organization?
• (00:19:52) - Employer Branding Summit
• (00:23:39) - Employment Branding and its Relationship with Profit
• (00:25:54) - Internal Mobility and Employee Brand
• (00:28:16) - Employer Branding: The North Star Metric
• (00:32:01) - How to Build a New Employer Brand
• (00:34:01) - Venti on Catching Up With Larry

I recently had a great conversation with Global Employer Brand & Recruitment Marketing Leader, Leah Lenihan. We went deep on a topic that I think sits right at the heart of employer branding in 2026: The gap between declared culture and felt culture.

Not what’s written in your EVP deck.

Not what’s on the posters.

But what people actually experience day to day.

Leah shared some powerful, real-world insight from her time leading employer brand and recruitment marketing across multiple regions and brands.

It reinforced something I see time and time again:

A global EVP only works when it’s translated into local, lived reality.

Consistency matters - but so does nuance.

Culture isn’t what leaders say. It’s what people live.

Trust lives in the gap between promise and experience.

We also talked about:

How local teams should be empowered to interpret EVP, not just receive it

The danger of glossy campaigns without operational follow-through

Why advocacy only works when people actually believe what they’re sharing

How leaders can unknowingly undermine their own EVP in micro-moments

One stat that really stuck with me:

Less than 23% of employees typically agree with their company’s EVP promise.

That’s a massive disconnect and a big opportunity.

If you’re working on EVP, employer brand, EX, CX or culture at scale, this episode is well worth a listen.

• (00:00:01) - Employer Land: Two weeks off for the boss
• (00:00:35) - Employer Branding: From promise to felt culture
• (00:02:54) - A Single Global EVP
• (00:04:22) - Global Evp: The Need for nuance
• (00:10:07) - The Evp: Local & Global?
• (00:17:02) - As a value, is innovation valued?
• (00:17:47) - The Need for Open Feedback
• (00:20:50) - Vinod Sinha: How Often Does an EVP Need
• (00:22:49) - Employer Brand Advisory: Testing the Experience
• (00:26:54) - Post-it Guardrails
• (00:31:00) - The Evp vs. Feeled Culture
• (00:33:12) - Employee Experience and Campaigns
• (00:36:13) - Leah on Taking a Break

I recently sat down with Sang-Kyun Park (Sanny) for an episode that made me stop and reassess how we’re all using AI in employer branding and talent attraction.

Not from a hype perspective.

Not from a fear-led perspective. But from a human one...

Sanny brought a brilliantly grounded view from the front line — working in a small global employer brand team, operating at scale, with all the same pressures most of us feel right now.

A few things that really stuck with me:

AI is powerful and expedites so many tasks - but fast doesn't always equal good.

Over-reliance creates an illusion of efficiency

The “what” of EVP must stay human-led - AI should help with the “how”

Authenticity erodes quickly when everything starts to sound the same. AI amplifies 'same' by the very nature of how it works.

Human judgement still matters most at emotional moments in the journey

We also got into some tougher territory:

AI as a crutch vs AI as an amplifier

The risk of AI damaging employer brand at scale

Why rejection without human contact feels so unsettling to candidates, the long-term employer brand damage could be huge

How employer branding risks becoming generic if creativity is outsourced

Why HR and EB must move from cost centre → value driver (and how data can help connect these dots to highlight genuine bottomline business impact)

+ Lots more... We hope you enjoy!

• (00:00:00) - It's sunny in Berlin
• (00:00:40) - Meet the KWS HR Executive Sanny Park
• (00:04:52) - Employer Branding
• (00:09:33) - Is AI Eating our Creativity?
• (00:19:06) - Analyst: The Amplification of AI
• (00:24:37) - Do you think with all of this Saniya, there could be
• (00:33:52) - AI enhancing the work, but without replacing independent thinkers
• (00:38:27) - Employee Branding and Its Impact
• (00:42:24) - Do We Need More Independent Thinking in Talent Assessment?
• (00:46:59) - Different audiences, different experiences
• (00:48:39) - Steve Bartlett on the AI in the Recruitment Process
• (00:58:09) - How can we Strive for Authenticity in an Age of AI
• (01:04:57) - Interview

As part of Chris Le'cand-Harwood and my Employer Content Club series, we explore the 5 pillars of Employer Content.

Among many other points, we discuss how most people don’t announce disengagement... they drift away. This conversation looks at how employer content can create space for honest voices, surface hidden signals, and help organisations listen before people leave.

Hope you enjoy!

• (00:00:00) - The 5 Pillars of Employer Content Club
• (00:00:38) - In the Studio With Chris Evans
• (00:01:02) - Co-Created: The Content Creation Series
• (00:03:42) - 5 Pillars of Employer Content Creation
• (00:06:49) - How to Get Out of the Monkey Cage
• (00:09:08) - Budget and Employer Content Strategy:
• (00:12:28) - In the Elevator With Eric Reese
• (00:12:58) - Employment Branding: The Need for Iterative Budget Spending
• (00:14:22) - How to Gain the Right Feedback on Content
• (00:18:08) - How to get vets to create content for VCA Animal Hospitals
• (00:19:41) - Be visible in the workplace
• (00:23:37) - The Voice of the Workplace
• (00:25:57) - Co-Create: The Agile 4 Week Sprint
• (00:31:54) - Talking to colleagues about disengagement
• (00:33:03) - Pillar 5: Experience in the Next Year
• (00:39:10) - Episode 5

Welcome to Employer Content Club and our Autumn Series! In this episode, we're launching our exciting Autumn Series: "Co-Created: How to Build Authentic Content with Employees."Chris Le'cand-Harwood and Chris Murdoch [co-hosts of Employer Content Club] discuss why employer content is the beating heart of effective talent attraction, and why creating community around content creation is so crucial for in-house teams.

• (00:00:01) - Employer Bland: A Year in Review
• (00:01:51) - Employer Content Club
• (00:03:47) - Employer Content Club
• (00:06:16) - Co-Created: How to Build Authentic Content With Employees
• (00:14:10) - Auum: Celebrating the Year in the Job

Chris sat down with James Whitelock (MD of ThinkinCircles & long-time podcaster) to tackle a familiar frustration in recruitment: why roles stay unfilled after 30–45 days — and what recruiting teams can do to turn things around.

From rethinking job ads to building brave, human storytelling campaigns, Chris and James break down the process into three powerful stages:

Attraction – How to identify your real candidate personas, cut through the noise with authentic video content, and stop playing it safe in the “River of Meh.”

Engagement – How to personalise job content, add honesty that helps candidates self-select, and make every touchpoint a great experience.

Application – Why broken processes kill great candidates, and how to balance friction, fairness, and flow in your funnel.

Candid and practical, this episode is a must-listen for anyone in TA, EB, or recruitment marketing who’s ready to ditch the copy-paste job ad, get creative, and start hiring smarter.