An EVP is more than a decorative piece for a career site—it serves as a warehouse of raw material. Many companies confuse the outcome with the starting point, crafting attractive statements but failing to create a real-life narrative. Effective marketing approaches this differently, treating core messages as resources from which new formats are consistently developed. Employer branding should follow this approach as well. The key is simplification. Three credible messages ar

Building and leading successful recruiting teams between global governance and local reality Matrix organisations are no longer an exception. They are the default operating model for larger companies. Global functions intersect with regional entities, business lines with country organisations, and projects with line management. For Talent Acquisition (TA), this means one thing above all: permanent simultaneity. Strategic and operational at the same time. Globally consistent,

Many organizations operate their recruiting based on ambitious targets: shorter time-to-hire, more applications, and lower costs. These goals are meaningful — but they are not a strategy. Goals define what  should be achieved. A TA strategy explains how  to get there and why  this approach leads to success. In today’s competitive labor market and global race for skills, operational efficiency alone is no longer enough. Talent Acquisition must chart a long-term path that ensur

Recruiting is designed to build. Increase headcount. Fill pipelines. Optimize time to hire. And then comes the phase no one likes to talk about: hiring freezes, restructuring, downsizing. Suddenly, there is nothing left to recruit. Nothing to do. At least at first glance. In these situations, many Talent Acquisition teams slip into a defensive mode. Waiting. Keeping a low profile. Tidying up. Doing the operational minimum. Hoping for better times. That reaction is understanda

Job advertisements are a paradoxical form of communication. They are expected to inform, inspire, set expectations, remain legally compliant, and, ideally, exclude no one. At the same time, they have an average attention span of less than 30 seconds. If they fail to convince within that window, they are skipped. Not out of disinterest, but out of efficiency. Here is where the true power of language emerges. The words chosen can make someone feel addressed, foster trust, and e

This week marked one of my personal highlights of the year: the mother of all HR barcamps — HRBC in Berlin. I’ve been attending since the very first one back in 2012, which was still hosted in Sarah Wiener’s restaurant. And every year, the event quickly reveals whether HR is in a comfort or an orientation phase. This time it was clearly the latter. And honestly, it was more interesting than it has been in years. Crises sometimes have their upside. Even the session pitches sho

Recruiting does not end with the job advertisement. From that moment on, the most sensitive phase of the candidate journey begins: communication. Application confirmations, follow-up questions, interview invitations, and rejections. All of it appears to be operational communication. In reality, these are highly influential touchpoints. Language in the application process is felt more strongly than in many other settings. Candidates invest time, emotion, and hope, yet have no

Employer branding and HR communication have never been quiet. But rarely have they been as interchangeable as they are today. Career pages, job ads and recruiting posts sound polished, friendly and professional. At the same time, they sound remarkably similar. With the widespread use of artificial intelligence in content creation, this effect has intensified. Texts are produced faster, are linguistically correct, and are formally well-structured. What often gets lost in the p

Recruiting is no longer a linear process. The way people interact with employers has changed. Candidates no longer move through a predictable funnel—they encounter companies at many touchpoints: career sites, social media, review platforms, networks, job boards, referrals, and more. This diversity presents both opportunity and challenge. Recruiting is no longer just communication; it’s experience design . And that’s where touchpoint management  comes in: a marketing concept t

Employer branding faces its greatest pressure since the rise of social media. Generative AI now produces content, variants, and formats at speeds that once demanded a dedicated team. Meanwhile, candidate expectations and scepticism are rising. As communication scales, the cost of interchangeability increases, and small missteps quickly turn into systemic trust issues. A clear perspective appears when the topic is viewed through three lenses: automation, authenticity, and risk

Leading Talent Acquisition today is a balancing act on several levels. You’re constantly navigating talent shortages, rising expectations from the business, endless KPI discussions, new tools, employer branding, candidate experience, team dynamics, and political stakeholder management. Anyone who believes TA leadership is mainly about filling open roles as quickly as possible is missing the point. Recruiting has become one of the most strategic functions in the company. Recru

The digital landscape is evolving faster than many recruiting teams can keep up with. For more than a decade, everything revolved around Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But today we are standing at the threshold of a new concept: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) . GEO refers to the optimization of content for AI-driven answer engines such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, or Microsoft Copilot. These tools are rapidly becoming the primary information source fo

In 2026, your career site will determine whether candidates can find you—both directly and through AI engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity. Traditional career pages resemble “job boards in corporate branding,” but modern sites must make skills visible, be structured for generative AI, and act as an analytics cockpit. Leading industry publications and market analyses agree: the future belongs to employers who unite skill-based hiring, GEO, and data-driven optimization i

…or: Things we REALLY don’t want to repeat in 2026. The Christmas decorations are barely back in their boxes, the leftover cookies are still calling from the kitchen, and yet — as every TA professional knows — January does not wait. It arrives loudly, with fireworks, unrealistic hiring forecasts, and an inbox already judging your life choices. So let’s embrace it with style. Here comes my official, slightly-too-accurate list of New Year’s Resolutions for TA Teams. Sharpen yo

Because Santa isn’t the only one who needs help this season. Ho ho ho, dear TA elves and wizards, sourcing sorcerers, candidate-whisperers, hiring–manager therapists, and everyone else who has survived another year of “urgent” reqs — gather ‘round the digital fireplace. It’s that magical time of year again when we stop pretending everything is under control and instead write a wish list. Not for Santa, no — but for something far more mysterious and unpredictable: Talent Acqui

As recently discussed on LinkedIn in response to Persoblogger Stefan Scheller ’s  post about the future of job boards , I also believe that job boards are gradually losing relevance for both jobseekers and employers. However, it will likely take a few more years before this shift is complete. To understand this shift, let's examine which types of job boards offer the most value to jobseekers and employers in today's landscape. The job platform landscape is vast and complex.

If you’ve noticed a significant drop in your LinkedIn reach over the past few months, you’re far from alone. Many users, companies, and marketers report the same trend: despite a consistent strategy, solid content, and an active community, impressions, comments, and interactions have dropped sharply. So what’s behind these shifts in your LinkedIn metrics? A closer look shows LinkedIn itself is evolving—both technically and  strategically. The algorithm (the software that deci

TRM with a little helper. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of Talent Relationship Management (TRM)  as a recruiting tool — and that I’ve built and implemented it multiple times. Yet TRM is still heavily underused in recruiting today. Many companies chase applicants, conduct interviews, make a decision, and then delete every trace of the interaction. The contact is gone, the interest fades, and the relationship ends. But that person might not have been a “no” — th

Seed your hirings tomorrow in today's crises. When companies downsize, recruiting is often paused. Positions are cut, budgets shrink, and talent pools get neglected. Crisis management takes priority over relationship management. This reflex is costly. Organizations that neglect talent relationships pay for it later. Every crisis passes. And when the market rebounds, those who stopped everything today will lack the right people tomorrow. In times of economic uncertainty, it’s

Facts beat poetry in Recruitment Few areas of employer branding show a greater gap between intention and reality than benefits communication. While many employers still rely on vague phrases like “attractive perks”  or “exciting employee offerings,”  today’s jobseekers want something far simpler — clarity. The days when a fruit basket or free coffee inspired enthusiasm are long gone. In 2025, winning talent means communicating, precisely and credibly, what employees actually