Graham Quinn’s career journey is proof that marketing and employer branding are more connected than you might think. As a Partner at Flexa, and an Employer Branding Consultant, Graham draws on his marketing background to help companies build authentic and standout employer brands. 

What inspired your transition from marketing to employer branding, and what similarities did you immediately notice between the two fields?

Candidly, marketing always felt too disingenuous to me, and I’m a very sincere and empathetic person, so I often found myself at odds with marketing. However, employer branding is inherently human—people are at the core of the work we do. People join companies and may find that they’ve either been misled or the company has been undersold, only to discover how great the company, culture, and environment actually are.

Choosing a company is an expensive decision—financially, emotionally, and mentally.

I wanted to come in and make it a better, more empathetic experience for everyone. Not shying away from why we may not be the right fit for everyone, but also flexing my creativity to highlight the amazing programs, initiatives, and culture that are often hidden away. It's about creating pride and engagement, helping people see how they’re needed (as individuals and for their unique skills), and how we can help benefit their career journey—or discovering what they care about and what they’re after (growth, development, etc.).

When I transitioned, there were more similarities than differences. You still have the same principles (research, strategy, marketing funnel, etc.), except now the focus shifts from a consumer product or service to people as the product. How do you sell this product (the company) to people who want to buy it, are on the fence, or are already customers of yours—without just selling the company, but rather showing the benefit of being part of it?

It shifted from "they need our product" to "we want them, just as they are."

In your experience, why are marketing principles such as storytelling and audience segmentation critical to employer branding success?

I love that you brought this up. There’s a fallacy in believing we can be the ‘everything for everyone’, the ‘Porsche’ when we’re a Vauxhall. 

You need to understand who your target audience is, and this will look different across your key talent segments; one persona won’t work for everyone. Otherwise, you’re spreading yourself thin on who you’re trying to attract. This will lead to a generic storyline with little impact on your efforts or capturing the hearts you need.
Knowing who your key audiences are allows you to create captivating content across various mediums that speak to their needs. People will join with the story we tell and the future we paint; content that shows people as individuals (our uniqueness), stories of humble beginnings, why people join, why they stick around, and how they’ve grown in their career and their life.

We need to get to the bottom of what talent cares about and craft a human-centric storyline that not only shows how we connect to it but also resonates with our audiences.

How does the concept of a company’s “employer value proposition” parallel a marketing brand’s “value proposition”?

Sure! There are a lot of parallels between the two. A brand’s value proposition is the promise to customers of the value they’ll receive from a product or service. Similarly, an EVP is the promise you make to current and prospective employees. It outlines the benefits and experiences they’ll gain by working there.

The focus shifts from customer service, product features, and quality to company culture, career growth, and employee satisfaction. Both are about attracting and retaining their audience. They need to clearly communicate unique benefits while building a strong emotional connection. Authenticity and consistency are crucial—mislead on either front, and you risk losing both customers and talent.

What makes a strong value proposition—whether for consumers or talent—is uniqueness and differentiation. Patagonia is a great example of this, doing it exceptionally well on both sides.

In the end, a strong value proposition aims to build long-term relationships. For an EVP, that’s about retaining employees, reducing turnover, and keeping them satisfied. For a brand, it’s about creating loyal customers who keep coming back.

What are some specific marketing tools or frameworks that you’ve found invaluable in shaping employer branding strategies?

Having the right framework and tools makes all the difference. While a budget can help, you can still build a strong employer brand with limited resources. The key is starting with a solid framework—an Employer Value Proposition (EVP) that provides the foundation to guide your efforts. Once you have your EVP, it’s essential to understand how to guide candidates and employees through a journey, similar to the marketing funnel, to build and sustain your employer brand.

From there, the tools you use depend on the stage you're at in the process. For example, Qualtrics gathers real-time feedback; Google Analytics tracks website performance. Tools like Adobe Photoshop and Canva help create brand-aligned visuals.

For social media, Buffer keeps posts consistent across platforms, and CMS platforms manage content on our career site. SurveyMonkey collects employee feedback to keep our employer brand relevant and aligned with employee expectations.

Together, these tools refine strategies, track progress, and ensure we tell a consistent, compelling employer brand story.

Can you share an example of how you’ve applied marketing strategies to create a standout employer brand?

When I joined Zalando, our career site hadn’t been updated in five years. With our 15th anniversary coming up, it no longer reflected the evolving company culture. It was crucial that the site reflected the dynamic environment we’d built to attract the right talent.

I championed the refresh, working closely with senior stakeholders to align the user journey with our marketing funnel: from the structure of the site menu to the flow of content on the pages. We revamped the navigation and content to guide candidates smoothly from learning more about Zalando, our teams, our work, culture and locations to applying for roles. With targeted content, clear calls-to-action, and intuitive navigation, we made the site more engaging and user-friendly.

The results were impressive: a 202% increase in Time on Page, a 300% rise in daily unique page views, and a 28% boost in application conversions. These improvements not only enhanced the user experience but also strengthened our employer brand, helping attract top talent and reinforcing our inclusive, modern culture: where people are invited to ‘come as you are and wear what you love’.

What role does data and analytics play in both marketing and employer branding, and how do you use it to inform decisions?

We can only move forward if we reflect on what worked and what didn’t.

Marketing has a fundamentally easier time with this. We use both traditional marketing and talent acquisition metrics, but employer branding relies on a combination of both. Employer Brand practitioners need to analyze and distill large data from both sides, and remove the noise to help us understand whether our work has made an impact.

On the flip side, we’re educating senior stakeholders on how the two overlap when measuring employer brand. So we need to speak in terms they understand: How have we shaped HR/People & Culture and/or business outcomes? We need to focus on the direct correlation—not causation—of our work when sharing results.

Helping us review the data ensures we’re hitting the mark or shows us where there’s more work to be done. Does our application completion rate drop off once users are prompted to create an account? If yes, let's reskin the job search page so the ATS sits in the backend. Do we have low uptake in our employee benefits package? If not, that’s great—we know that personally sharing how employees have used their benefits has helped increase interest.

Our focus needs to shift to removing our biases and reviewing the data to see what that story is telling us. Even if ‘everyone is on TikTok,’ it doesn’t mean it’s right for us.

How can companies balance authenticity with aspirational branding when communicating their workplace culture?

Too many companies today are competing with the same messaging and branding, failing to stand out and differentiate themselves. This results in a lack of recognition and makes it difficult for employees and talent to see what sets one company apart from another. So, how can talent make a choice, and how can employees feel that this company truly cares and is better than where they’ve worked before?

Be honest about who you are, why you might not be the right fit, and what makes you unique. This differentiation helps you stand out amidst a sea of noise and allows you to focus on your EVP, making your brand both authentic and aspirational.

To further differentiate yourself, showcase real employee stories that highlight both the challenges and rewards of the job, or how unique benefits help employees balance their lives. For example, if you're a Menopause Friendly Workplace (UK), highlight relevant initiatives. Be transparent about the good and the bad—you build trust and credibility by being honest. Do you have a great eNPS because you listen and act on feedback? Or maybe your board is working on becoming more diverse, and listing the ways it aims to achieve this? Lastly, ensure your visuals reflect the true reality of your company, showing real moments that add credibility to your brand.

Ultimately, you need to ensure your EB and EVP align with your core values.

How do you approach internal buy-in for employer branding initiatives, and what lessons from marketing help you navigate this?

Great question! Start by identifying your key stakeholders and ensuring you have their support from Day 1. Take the time to understand their goals and the challenges they aim to address. Educate them on what employer branding is, our objectives, and how we can help address their specific challenges.

The ultimate goal is alignment, and helping them understand that a top-down approach is essential for success. Employees won’t engage in programs or initiatives if they don’t see their leaders leading by example or showing genuine interest. Additionally, frame the conversation in terms that resonate with their priorities. For example, how can employer branding help solve their retention challenges?

One of the big lessons from marketing is the importance of using both data and storytelling to make an impact. When it comes to employer branding, there are many unknowns—especially around how EB uses both marketing and talent acquisition metrics. That’s why building strong relationships with stakeholders is so important. You need to help them understand that it’s not just about having data—it’s about using it to show correlation, not causation, and measure the real impact of what we’re doing.

Looking ahead, how do you see the relationship between marketing and employer branding evolving in the next five years?

There's a growing focus on employer branding and its impact on the broader people experience. You can already see it in the redesign of office spaces as community hubs, shifting from the traditional 'second place' to the more aspirational 'third place' concept. This shift is just the beginning, and it will soon influence how our employer brand narrative evolves.