Using employee-generated content to attract early talent

Early talent audiences aren’t consuming companies' employer branding the way they used to. With access to so much information, they’re scrolling, researching, and forming quick opinions based on what they see and who they see it from.

We’re now firmly in what can only be described as the age of the ‘digital detox’. Early careers candidates are actively reducing screen time and becoming more selective about the content they engage with. But social media hasn’t become less important; in fact, it remains a critical part of the candidate journey, with 79% of job seekers using social media during their job search and more than 80% considering employer brand before applying.

This means candidates are still consuming content, but they’re filtering through more than ever when attention is limited, and credibility becomes everything.

Why employee voices build trust with Early Talent

Employer branding is becoming more and more about trust, and we see it play out every day: employee-generated content (EGC) consistently outperforms a shiny, overproduced brand post, with content shared by employees receiving 8x more engagement than content shared by brand channels. The content is perceived as more authentic and more reflective of reality, which makes it far more influential when someone is deciding whether to apply.

We’re seeing a trust epidemic among early talent. It’s not really enough for a brand to simply say they’re a great place to work, this talent group are looking for more moments of authenticity and connection, to truly be able to picture what it’s actually like to work at a company before they press the big ‘apply’ button. They want to see themselves working there, understand the day-to-day experience, and get a sense of whether they would belong and if the company aligns with their motivations.

What is employee-generated content?

EGC is content created and shared by employees about their workplace, experiences, or company that reflects their real experiences at work. It’s less about polished brand approved messaging, and more employer-led content about honest insight, for example: 

• Day in the life videos
• First week impressions
• Behind the scenes of a project 

At its best, EGC comes across as genuine and authentic, giving a sneak peek into an organisation, and that’s exactly why it works.

Where to start when building an EGC strategy

Building an effective employee-generated content strategy starts with people, but it doesn’t end there. The most impactful voices are often those closest to your early talent audience: graduates, interns, and early-career hires who can speak directly to the experiences candidates are trying to understand. 
But asking employees to “create content” isn’t enough without direction; that’s where strategy plays a critical role.

You want to find the balance between freedom and focus, giving employees enough guidance to feel confident, through prompts and clear guardrails, but not so much that the content loses its authenticity. You want to support employees, not control them. Because if content creation feels like an additional task, participation will always drop. Instead, it needs to be embedded into everyday moments with simple processes and reinforced through recognition, reward, and visibility. 

Over time, it’ll become part of the culture rather than a one-off campaign and, as a result, feeds into your wider employer brand strategy.

Why EGC works so well for early talent

One of the biggest reasons employee-generated content is so effective is that it aligns perfectly with how people now consume content. In a world where audiences are spending less time online, they expect more from the content they do engage with. As highlighted in Wiser’s The Age of the Digital Detox report, candidates are looking for clarity and value almost instantly, and they don’t want to work hard to understand what a company stands for.

EGC delivers that, quickly and feels native to the platforms it appears on, which makes it far more likely to hold attention. 

Engagement today is no longer just about likes or comments, and is moving into private spaces like DMs and group chats. The content that performs best is the content people feel comfortable sharing with others. A graduate talking about their experience will always feel more natural to send to a friend than a branded recruitment post, because it offers something genuinely useful, such as reassurance or insight.

By adding ECG into your strategy, you can build trust faster with alignment between what a company says, what candidates see, and what employees experience, and the impact is significant: organisations with strong employer brands can reduce cost per hire by up to 50% and increase retention by up to 28%.