Employer brand content in the age of AI search: Why you still need it and how to track its ROI
We’ve all been there. You get invited to a job interview or phone screening and immediately launch into a deep dive to learn everything you can. Suddenly, you’re lost down a rabbit hole of careers pages, job boards and review sites, managing more open tabs than you can count well into the wee hours of the morning.
With the new normal of AI-assisted search, this experience is becoming rarer and rarer - and while our sleep schedules might be better for it, our careers shopfronts are crying out for more attention. Today’s candidates are far more likely to prompt an AI search engine with ‘What’s it like to work at [Organisation]’ and receive a curated answer in seconds, effectively shaping their decision without ever setting a digital foot on your careers page.
ROI is becoming harder to measure when we need to prove results the most
This makes the job of HR, marketing and employer brand professionals increasingly complex - especially when measuring ROI is sometimes the only way to prove your brand strategy is translating into tangible outcomes.
If candidates are no longer lingering on your careers pages, how can you measure whether your employer brand is having any effect? Organic Google rankings could previously be influenced by a strong Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy, but in an AI-driven world, it’s now important to look at GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation.
What content contributes to having a strong GEO?
Here are three key elements that are likely contributing to an AI’s summary of your organisation:
Concrete evidence: Despite its hallucinatory tendencies, AI favours facts. It latches onto specific perks around flexibility, career progression or financial benefits. (For example, referencing a ‘9-day fortnight’ carries far more weight than the generic ‘flexible working options’)
Third-party sentiment: Think industry news posts, awards submissions or even a Glassdoor review from an ex-employee
Authentic employee voices: Posts, quotes and real employee perspectives carry significantly more weight in AI search summaries than polished corporate copy - music to our ears!
So, how do you maintain control over your employer brand when the way it’s accessed is taken out of your hands?
Though you can’t control the algorithm, you can control your own channels, your messaging and how this aligns with your employee experience.
Build trust through transparency: Prioritise clear, engaging content on your careers shopfront that details the pathways, benefits and culture candidates can expect from joining your team. In addition to being AI-bait, this attracts high-quality applicants who are genuinely aligned with your offer
Don’t hide from the hard reviews: Not every negative review is accurate, but ignoring them isn't the answer. Responding constructively on Glassdoor or SEEK shows prospective talent that you listen, take feedback on board and care about continuous improvement
Tell the stories that matter: Encourage your team to share everyday workplace moments online. Authentic employee advocacy is employer brand nirvana - AI will prioritise third-party reviews, testimonials and stories over anything your organisation says about itself
Tracking the metrics you can control
Measure your employer brand strategy success through these core internal metrics:
Quality candidate rates: Each time you hire, assess whether your recruitment marketing content is attracting the people you actually want to hire. It’s great to get hundreds of applicants for one role, less so if only five are worth pursuing
Time to consistent success: Track how quickly new hires get embedded, pass probation and hit their stride
Alignment with authentic stories: Ask candidates during their initial screening, ‘What inspired you to apply?’ Track how often they cite an employee story, user-generated LinkedIn post or word-of-mouth referral
PRO TIP: Use human storytelling to beat the bots
For hard-to-fill roles, publish an authentic employee story of someone currently in that role - share it on your careers page, social channels and intranet and track whether your application volume (and quality!) increases over the next 30 to 90 days
The bottom line
You can’t control when an AI model crawls your careers pages. What you can control is the experience your people have, how they advocate for your employer brand (online and IRL) and how you measure success.
Having a GEO-optimised careers shopfront presents a strong, united brand identity that’s more likely to bring great people into your organisation and turn them into proud employer brand advocates. And the metrics above? They’re the proof in the pudding that your strategy works.
