# Employer branding: show candidates who you are

[Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/employer-branding-design)

Candidates research you long before they apply. What they find, from team posts to the careers page banner, is your employer brand, and it exists even if nobody designed it.

## The short version

- Employer branding is the reputation a company has as a place to work, shaped by everything a candidate sees before applying.
- Strong employer branding starts from a few specific, true things about working at the company, each backed by visible proof.
- Team spotlights work best when people speak in their own words, with their consent, about real work rather than slogans.
- A careers page needs a hero image, a link preview image and a matching LinkedIn company cover so it looks consistent wherever it is shared.
- Employer branding should use the same visual identity as the customer brand, with a slightly warmer, more personal tone.

**Employer branding** is how people see your company as a place to work. It is built from everything a candidate finds before applying: your LinkedIn page, the faces in your posts, the careers page, how a job advert reads. Design shapes it in three places above all. Culture posts show what the work is like, team spotlights show who does it, and careers page visuals make the whole thing look considered. The rule that ties them together is simple: show specific, true things, in your own look, consistently.

## Start with what is actually true about working there

Most employer brands say the same four things: great culture, flexible working, amazing people, growth. None of it is proof. Before designing anything, write down three things that are specific to you and can be shown, then plan the evidence.

| True thing | Proof you can show | Post it becomes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Engineers talk to customers | A photo from a customer visit, a quote from the engineer | Team spotlight |
| People get promoted from within | Two or three real promotion stories, with permission | Carousel |
| We write things down | A page from your onboarding guide or handbook | Behind the scenes post |
| Fridays are for learning | What the team learned this month | Monthly recap |

Turn each claim into evidence, and each piece of evidence into a post. If you cannot find proof, the claim is not part of your employer brand yet.

This exercise also protects you. Candidates compare your posts with what employees say elsewhere, and a mismatch costs more trust than saying nothing.

## Culture posts that don't look like stock photos

A stock photo of diverse people laughing at a laptop tells a candidate nothing, and they know it. Culture posts work when they are specific and slightly unpolished in content, while staying polished in design: your real people and real moments, set inside a consistent, recognisable frame.

A culture post with the generic line We value our people

A slogan. Any company could post it, so it says nothing about yours.

A culture post stating the team read fourteen customer calls this month, styled as field notes

A specific fact about how the team works, in the same frame used every month.

Recurring formats help here. A monthly recap, a quarterly milestone and an annual review give the team a rhythm and give candidates a body of evidence to scroll through. [Milestone posts](https://gradiently.design/guide/milestone-post) and [event recap posts](https://gradiently.design/guide/event-recap-post) have layouts that suit them.

## How to run team spotlights

Team spotlights persuade like little else, because they let candidates meet future colleagues. They also involve real people, so handle them with care.

1. **Ask, and make it easy to say no** Get clear consent for the photo, the quote and where it will appear. Let people review the finished post.
2. **Ask about work, not adjectives** "What did you ship last month?" gives better answers than "Describe the culture in three words".
3. **Use their words** Edit for length, never for meaning. A plain, honest sentence beats polished marketing copy.
4. **Keep one layout for every spotlight** Same position for the name and role, same type, same background family, so the series reads as a collection.
5. **Plan for people leaving** Agree that posts can be taken down on request. It is respectful and avoids awkwardness later.

A team spotlight card quoting an engineer about shadowing customer support in their first week

A spotlight built on one concrete memory. Swap in a photo of the person, cropped into a circle or arch, if they are happy to be shown.

## Careers page visuals

The careers page is where your employer brand is checked. Candidates land there from job boards, LinkedIn and search, so it needs to look like the rest of you. Four images do most of the work.

- Careers hero 1920×1080: 1920 × 1080
- Link preview 1200×630: 1200 × 630
- LinkedIn company cover 2256×382: 2256 × 382
- Profile banner 1584×396: 1584 × 396

The careers page hero, its link preview, the LinkedIn company cover and a banner your team can use on their own profiles.

The company cover is very wide and very short, so keep words in the centre and treat the edges as background. [LinkedIn company cover size](https://gradiently.design/guide/linkedin-company-cover-size) covers the crop. A matching profile banner offered to employees is a small gesture that makes your people visibly connected across LinkedIn, without asking anyone to post.

## One look for customers and candidates

Some companies build a separate employer brand with its own colours. It usually ends up looking like a different company. Keep the same identity, and shift the tone: warmer photography, more people, more first person. A softer variant of your main background can signal the change without breaking the family.

- Customer brand: deep blue: `linear-gradient(150deg, #0f172a 0%, #1e3a8a 55%, #3b82f6 100%)`
- Careers variant: blue to blush: `linear-gradient(150deg, #1e3a8a 0%, #6366f1 55%, #fbcfe8 100%)`

The same blue family, pushed slightly warmer for careers content. Candidates see one company, with a more personal voice.

This is also where [brand consistency](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-consistency) pays off. In practice, employer branding is often made by people in recruiting, not design, so the look has to be easy to apply. A shared brand kit with the logo, palette and fonts, and a background that is yours alone, lets anyone on the team produce a post that looks right. In Gradiently, a claimed Mark is a background only you can export with, and team workspaces on Pro let recruiting and marketing design together with editor and viewer roles.

## A simple monthly plan

- Week one: a team spotlight.
- Week two: a behind the scenes look at how work gets done.
- Week three: a recap of something the team learned, shipped or celebrated.
- Week four: open roles, linked to the careers page, using your [hiring post](https://gradiently.design/guide/recruiter-hiring-posts) template.
- Every quarter: refresh the careers page hero with a recent photo or result.

## FAQ

### What is employer branding?

It is a company's reputation as a place to work: what candidates and employees believe about working there, shaped by posts, the careers page, job adverts and word of mouth.

### What are good employer branding posts?

Team spotlights in people's own words, behind the scenes looks at real work, monthly recaps of what the team learned or shipped, and clear posts about open roles.

### Should employer branding use different colours from the main brand?

Usually not. Keep the same identity so candidates recognise the company, and shift the tone with warmer photography and more personal copy.

### What images does a careers page need?

A 1920×1080 hero, a 1200×630 link preview image, and a matching 2256×382 LinkedIn company cover so the page looks consistent wherever it is shared.