Episode 147

full
Published on:

4th Feb 2025

How to Attract and Retain Top Talent with Employer Branding | Bryan Adams

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In this episode of The HR L&D Podcast, host Nick Day sits down with Bryan Adams, CEO of HappyDance and a leading authority on employer branding. Bryan, co-author of Give & Get Employer Branding, shares groundbreaking insights on how organizations can craft a compelling Employer Value Proposition (EVP) that not only attracts but also retains the right talent.


What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

- What is an EVP? (And why every company already has one—even if they haven’t designed it!)

- The Give & Get approach: How to build a two-way value exchange that resonates with employees

- The biggest mistakes companies make when crafting an EVP (and how to avoid them)

- The role of leadership in employer branding: Why EVP must start at the top

- How storytelling transforms talent attraction and engagement

- The future of employer branding: Trends, technology, and the power of organic content


Key Takeaways from Bryan Adams:

- Transparency and authenticity are key to building trust with employees

- Employer branding is more than just a recruitment tool—it’s a retention strategy

- Storytelling makes your employer brand memorable and impactful

- Employer branding should be treated with the same importance as corporate branding


Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more expert insights on leadership and HR strategies!


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Find your ideal candidate with our job vacancy system: https://jgarecruitment.ck.page/919cf6b9ea


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Connect with Bryan: https://linkedin.com/in/bryanadams1


Connect with Nick Day: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickday/



Of course, if you are an HR or L&D professional listening to this podcast and you have an HR, HRIS or L&D related vacancy that you would love some specialist HR recruitment support with – please also get in touch with me! I would love to help show you what a great HR recruitment experience feels like! You can reach out to me directly at nick@jgarecruitment.com or give me a call – 01727800377.


Thanks for listening folks – I look forward to bringing you the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast real soon!


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(00:00) Introduction to Bryan Adams & Employer Branding

(03:15) What Human Resources Means to Bryan Adams

(04:08) What is an EVP & Why Does It Matter?

(05:48) The Benefits of Employer Branding & Culture Alignment

(07:50) How to Create an EVP That Works for Your Company

(10:45) Why EVP is Essential for Employee Retention

(12:13) The Give & Get Approach to Employer Branding

(16:49) The Cost of Misaligned Employer Branding

(19:12) The Power of Storytelling in Talent Attraction

(27:33) How Inclusion & DEI Should Be Reflected in Employer Branding

(30:52) The Biggest Mistakes in EVP Development

(34:20) Optimizing Career Pages & Hiring Journeys

(38:43) Should Companies Disclose Salaries in Job Listings?

(40:26) The Future of Employer Branding: Key Trends & Insights

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About the Podcast

The HR L&D Podcast
Leadership, recruitment, culture. Conversations with HR's best
HR gets handed the problems nobody else wants to own. The restructure, the grievance, the engagement survey that came back badly. And then gets asked why people are leaving.

I'm Nick Day. I run an HR recruitment agency, which means I spend most of my week on the phone to HR directors, HR leaders and people leaders talking about what the job is actually like rather than what's written on the job spec. This HR Podcast came out of those calls. I kept hearing things worth repeating, and nobody was repeating them.

Every week I sit down with HR leaders, chief people officers, L&D specialists and the occasional academic who has changed how I think about work and people engagement. We get into leadership, and what happens when someone brilliant at the technical side gets promoted into managing humans.

Employee engagement past the survey score. Diversity, equity and inclusion in a climate where saying those words out loud has become a decision in itself. Pay transparency, talent management, reducing bias in hiring, HR digital transformation and the HCM systems everyone is being sold. And of course we cannot forget HR AI tools and platforms that are flooding the landscape as AI in HR becomes a hot topic every people leader is keen to understand and leverage.

Wellbeing comes up constantly, and it usually turns into the same question. Who looks after the HR team.

I'm not an HR practitioner and I don't pretend to be. I'm the person who hires them, which puts me in a useful position. I get to ask the obvious question that everyone in the room already knows the answer to and nobody says.

No script and no polite version. Mostly it's the conversation you'd have with someone doing your job at a different company, if you ever got the chance to sit down with them.

If you work in HR, people management or L&D, or you're building a career in it, start by subscribing to The HR L&D Podcast. We have had guests including Stephen Covey, Alan Stein Jnr, Andrea Wareham and Dr. Thom Mayer among other HR Leaders who are shaping the future of work and leadership.

Need HR staff? I run JGA Recruitment, an HR and payroll recruitment agency. www.jgarecruitment.com or info@jgarecruitment.com

Want to be on the show? Nick@jgadigital.com

If payroll is closer to your world, I also host The Payroll Podcast, the most listened to payroll show in the world.

Topics include HR leadership, workplace culture, retention, people management, employee engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI strategy, AI for HR, AI recruitment tools, talent management, HR digital transformation, HCM, staff wellbeing, pay transparency, reducing bias, L&D and HR recruitment.

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Nick Day