EMPLOYER BRAND & EVP

A promise people can recognise and believe.

The strongest employer brands connect what an organisation promises with what people truly experience. We help you find that connection, name it clearly, and turn it into a promise people can trust and carry. 

The Problem

Most employer brands don’t fail in the deck. They fail on contact with reality.

Built once. Signed off. Then left to hold for years in an organisation that won’t stop changing. We call that the static EVP, a promise that stopped moving the day it launched.

And it’s rarely the strategy that lets people down. It’s the manager who’s never heard it properly explained. The recruiter repeating a line they don’t quite believe. The first week that doesn’t match the story that got someone through the door.

That’s the gap we close. Not the deck. The distance between it and what people feel.

Infographic showing the source of employer brand, including workshops, interviews, review documents, and comparison with competitor companies.

Find what’s true. Make it distinctive.

An EVP can’t just sound good. It has to be grounded in the reality of working inside your organisation, while giving people a real reason to choose you and stay. 

We listen to employees, leaders and candidates. We look closely at the culture, the business and the experience you already create. Then we find the ideas that are true, distinctive and useful. 

Wherever You're Starting From

Not everyone needs the same thing. You might recognise one of these. 

We need to build something new. Our existing EVP is out of date. The EVP is good, but nobody uses it. The employer brand and employee experience have drifted apart. We need to activate what we already have. We've inherited research and aren't sure what to do with it. 

Different starting points, same first move. We find what to retain, what needs retuning, and what needs rebuilding, before we decide what kind of work this is. 

Illustration with the quote 'Our people write our story' in green and blue, with small decorative elements including a heart, star, and rocket.

How we work

Five senior partners do this, not a delivery team waiting for direction, the people who shape the thinking are the people who see it through. Fewer layers mean faster decisions and less time spent briefing people in. 

  • Listen. We go straight to source, employees, leaders, candidates, plus whatever research and data already exists. We don’t charge you to rediscover what you already know.

  • Shape. We turn what’s real into a promise that’s distinctive and believable, not just accurate.

  • Test. Before it goes anywhere, we check it holds up against how people experience the organisation, not just how leadership wants it framed.

  • Land. We build the story, messaging and creative so managers can use it, recruiters can say it, and employees recognise it. Then we keep listening, and when something shifts, we continuously re-tune.  

An agent can move fast through the research and the data. But what’s true, what’s distinctive, and what will land, that call is made by the senior partner in the room, not the machine.

What you get

  • A promise leaders can stand behind. 

  • A story recruiters can tell naturally. 

  • Messaging managers can and will use. 

  • A creative platform that can keep generating. 

  • Clear implications for the employee experience. 

  • An activation plan with ownership and priorities. 

  • A practical way to test whether the promise is holding. 

See the work, not just the words

We’d rather show you than tell you. Have a look at the employer brand work we’ve made - the promise, the craft, and what it changed.

Selected Hits

A woman playing a small blue ukulele with handwritten text in green and blue paper cutout style that reads, "Flexibility to live my life- no strings attached." She has dark hair and is looking upwards, with musical notes around her head.
A promotional poster featuring a smiling man, hand-shaking, with text emphasizing the impact of playing a part to improve millions of lives. The poster includes the company logo 'Kainos' and the tagline 'Our people write our story,' along with the name and title of Caomhain Graham, Cloud Practice Technology Lead.
A graphic announcing a hiring event with the message "We're Hiring! Come and Join Us" in green and blue text, with the company logo and slogan at the bottom.
Social media post featuring a person with the head of a young man, holding a frisbee, with the company's logo and slogan. Handwritten text reads, "Every new project brings a fresh new spin." The person's name is Likkan Chung, a graduate software engineer at Kainos.

Let’s find the promise worth making.

Whether you are building from scratch, retuning what exists or struggling to make it land, we’ll help you work out what needs to change.