Randstad Employer Branding Research 2025 with Olivier Lefevre
What do 170,000 people across 34 countries really care about in an employer? Randstad’s Global Employer Brand Research has the receipts and Olivier Lefevre, Director at Randstad Talent Advisory, joins Emily Firth to break them down.
Introduction
Employer branding has an identity crisis. Too many companies still think it's recruitment marketing - a campaign you switch on when you need to hire and off when you don't. But when 67% of British workers feel demotivated (Randstad) and trust in employers is eroding, the stakes have never been higher.
In this episode you'll hear:
- Why work-life balance might be losing relevance
- The real reason 67% of UK workers feel demotivated (Randstad)
- What leadership gets wrong about EVP - and how to fix it
- Why middle management is your make-or-break group
- How to future-proof your employer brand in a world of shrinking talent pools and AI hype
Olivier brings global insight with local nuance and a challenge for any business still treating EVP like a tagline.
If you look at talent as a cost, it doesn't work. If you look at it as an investment, it works.
Chapters
00:00 - Olivier's role at Randstad and what talent advisory actually means
00:50 - 25 years of employer brand research - what the Randstad report is and why it matters
02:52 - The top five things people actually want from an employer
05:37 - Is job security back? How economic anxiety is shifting priorities
07:42 - Is the war for talent really over - or just on pause?
09:56 - Why cutting junior talent is a dangerous long-term bet
10:57 - 95% of AI projects are failing - and it's a people problem
12:27 - The emotional side of change that companies keep ignoring
14:16 - Why HR needs to become human capital - not human resources
15:07 - Employer branding is falling down the priority list - and that's a problem
16:20 - Employer branding vs recruitment marketing - they are not the same thing
17:09 - The employer promise: a value exchange, not a tagline
21:07 - Why 67% of British workers feel demotivated - and what's really driving it
22:19 - The revival of middle management as the solution to disengagement
25:00 - DEI: why equity and fairness matter more than ever - even when it's hard
29:18 - Why bias gets baked into your AI if you don't fix inclusion first
31:22 - You can't switch employer brand on and off - trust takes time to rebuild
34:36 - Why the CEO conversation is the one you can't skip in employer branding
35:36 - Eight board members, eight different answers - the alignment problem
38:00 - What Olivier predicts will shift in next year's report
40:18 - Where to invest now: internal first, middle management, strategic workforce planning
Key Take-aways
- Employer branding is not recruitment marketing. It's your DNA as a company - who you are, what you promise, and whether you deliver on it. Treating it as a hiring tool is how you end up with a revolving door of talent who feel misled.
- Demotivation is an expectation management problem. When what you promise doesn't match what people experience, they disengage. The gap between your EVP and lived reality is where trust goes to die.
- Middle management is the missing link. They are the compass between leadership's ambitions and employees' experience - but they're burned out, under-resourced, and promoted for expertise rather than people skills. Fix this and you fix a lot.
- The war for talent isn't over - it's on pause. Demographic decline is baked in. Companies pulling back on employer brand investment now are making a short-term call with long-term consequences they haven't fully priced in.
- Internal first, always. If your board can't give you a consistent answer about your own values, your employees have no chance. Your employer brand has to be lived before it's communicated.
- Switching it off is easy. Switching it back on is hard. Candidates remember. People talk. The companies that quietly deprioritise inclusion, junior talent, or their EVP commitments will find rebuilding that trust far harder than they expect.
Need an Expert for your challenge?
Our experts all benefit from a rich and thriving private community of peers sharing ideas, methods and tools as well as offering support and collaboration opportunities.
Explore experts