Employer Brand & Employee Experience: How HR Crafts the Workplace of Choice

 

In a workplace shaped by hybrid culture, rapid technological shifts, and younger generations seeking purpose and well-being beyond traditional employment, HR has moved into a brand-defining role. Employer brand and employee experience (EX) are no longer simply recruitment tools. They are strategic, culture-building elements that determine whether people choose to join, stay, or leave. In fact, 75% of job seekers now consider an employer's brand before applying (LinkedIn, 2023). Meanwhile, organisations that prioritise exceptional employee experience outperform competitors in productivity, retention, and customer loyalty (McKinsey, 2021).

Why does this matter now? Because today's workforce seeks more than financial compensation. They want pride, purpose, and personalised growth. HR is at the centre of designing this workplace reality. This blog explores how employer brand and employee experience work together to create workplaces people want to be part of.

Employer Brand and Employee Experience in the Modern Workplace

Just a decade ago, employer brand meant career websites and slogans such as "A Great Place to Work." Employee experience was often confused with staff engagement or HR processes. Today, the perspective has shifted. The employer brand is defined by the stories employees tell, and the employee experience is determined by every interaction people have with the organisation—before, during, and after employment.

In modern HR practice, these two elements are deeply interconnected. A strong employer brand attracts talent, but only a genuine employee experience retains it. This shift is reflected in companies replacing transactional HR with people-focused design, using tools like journey mapping, sentiment analytics, and employee personas, which were once exclusive to customer experience (Deloitte, 2023). Today, people do not work for a brand. They work with it, and they expect to feel that alignment every day.

How HR Builds a Workplace People Choose

Crafting a strong employer brand and employee experience starts within the organisation. Here is how HR can make that happen:

Create a Clear Employer Value Proposition (EVP): Your EVP should be a living promise. It should reflect what employees actually experience, align with corporate values, and be visible in leadership actions, not just marketing materials.

Design the Experience from Hire to Retire: Map employee touchpoints, from recruitment to onboarding, daily work, career progression, and exit. Make each moment genuine, inclusive, and personalised.

Use Real Feedback, Not Assumptions: Frequent listening is essential. Tools such as employee surveys, AI sentiment analysis, and stay interviews offer HR current data to drive experience improvements.

Connect People to Purpose: Particularly for Gen Z, meaningful work and social impact matter. Integrate corporate social responsibility and sustainability into the experience, not just the branding.

Recent data indicates that companies with highly engaged employees report 23% higher profitability (Gallup, 2022), while those offering strong career development see retention rates 2.5 times higher (SHRM, 2022). HR now leads not just in operations but in designing culture, strengthening values, and enabling purpose-driven performance.

Building Human-Centered Employer Brands

To see how leading organisations shape authentic employer brands and purposeful employee experiences, watch this informative HR-focused video:

This video highlights how companies align their culture, values, and employee stories to attract and retain the right talent, making it a valuable resource for today's HR brand builders.

Workplace Stories from Around the World

Across industries, organisations are using employer brand and employee experience to differentiate themselves. In Sri Lanka, Dialog Axiata has built a purpose-driven culture centred on innovation, learning, and inclusion, earning repeated recognition as a top employer. Their investment in digital HR tools and leadership development has maintained high morale and low turnover in a competitive industry. Meanwhile, Unilever integrates sustainability and purpose into the employee experience through wellbeing programmes, flexible work arrangements, and values-led leadership. The result is that their Connected 4 Growth model strengthened business results and increased engagement. In the Sri Lankan tech sector, Virtusa leverages hybrid work, agile learning paths, and internal mobility to create personalised growth journeys for employees, helping retain specialist talent. 

Globally, Salesforce embeds well-being and social advocacy into its organisational identity, offering mental health support and career coaching while empowering employees to volunteer on company time. These companies demonstrate that when HR creates genuine experiences aligned with brand values, work becomes meaningful, and culture becomes attractive.

Why It Matters to Business and People

Employee experience and employer branding matter because they build emotional trust. That trust leads to commitment, which ultimately drives performance. Today's best workplaces do not simply manage talent. They nurture belonging, enable growth, and reflect purpose. With employees now acting as brand ambassadors on social media, employer brand is no longer a campaign but a culture, and HR owns that culture.

Investing in EX and employer brand has proven results: 50% fewer candidate dropouts, 40% lower turnover, and stronger financial performance (LinkedIn, 2023). With talent shortages and changing work styles becoming the new normal, the companies that thrive will be those that elevate experience, not just expectations.

Conclusion

Employer branding and employee experience are not two separate HR projects. They are a unified journey that starts at "Why join us?" and continues long after "Welcome aboard." When HR leads with authenticity and designs people-centred experiences, the result is a workplace that employees do not simply accept. They choose, advocate for, and grow within. In today's world of transparency, culture is your currency, and experience is the return on investment.

 

References

• Deloitte (2023) Global Human Capital Trends 2023. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/articles/global-human-capital-trends.html (Accessed: 5 November 2025).
• Gallup (2022) Employee Engagement and Performance: The New Workplace Meta. Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/388468/employee-engagement-performance.aspx (Accessed: 5 November 2025).
• LinkedIn (2023) Global Talent Trends Report. Available at: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/trends-and-research/2023/global-talent-trends (Accessed: 5 November 2025).
• MAS Holdings (2023) People & Sustainability Report. Available at: https://masholdings.com/sustainability (Accessed: 5 November 2025).
• McKinsey & Company (2021) The Future of Employee Experience. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-next-normal-employee-experience (Accessed: 5 November 2025).
• SHRM (2022) State of Employee Retention Report. Available at: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/employee-onboarding.aspx (Accessed: 5 November 2025).
• YouTube (2023) In 9 Minutes, I’ll Make You a Better Employer Branding Pro. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBzqtl2VGzE(Accessed: 5 November 2025).