ROEL TIMMERMANS

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The Brutal Truth About Your Employer Brand 

Roel Timmermans

And Why It’s Costing You Millions

Imagine this you’re sitting across from a CEO who has everything going for him. Great product. Rising revenue. Margins improving. But he has one massive problem he just cannot solve: Nobody wants to work for him.

“We’re hemorrhaging talent,”

“And the cost of replacing people is killing us.”

Here’s what bothers me with situations like that: Companies like his actually can have an incredible culture. But there’s often a massive disconnect between who they really were and how they try show up to the world.

Image companies like to show to the outside, being awesome.

The Brand Identity Crisis That’s Killing Your Business

Let me paint you a picture of what most companies do:

  • Post motivational quotes on LinkedIn

  • Plaster “we’re a family” all over their careers page

  • Share staged photos of team building events

  • Write cookie-cutter job descriptions

Meanwhile, their actual employees are telling a completely different story. The gap between who you say you are and who you actually are? That’s where trust dies. And trust is worth more than any ping pong table or free lunch policy.

The stuff that makes people run, cringe statements that are far from reality.

The real problem with your employer brand?

Your “employer brand” isn’t what you say it is. It’s what your employees say when you’re not in the room. And right now, they’re saying things that are not the same as what you’re saying.

Let’s break down some costs:

  • Average cost per hire: € 4.494 
    (number from 2019, so add at least 20% to that)

  • Average time for a mid-level manager to get up to speed: 6.2 months

  • Total replacement costs of an employee: 1,5– 2x annual salary

  • Cultural damage from bad fits: Exponential

  • Ripple effect on team morale: Priceless (and not in a good way)

The Employer Math That Should Keep You Up at Night: 

In the EU the average salary in 2023 was a small 40K a year. Now that’s average across the board. Say you’re a tech company and you’re looking at 100K average. If you’re losing just 5 employees a year (at that 100K), that’s easily costing you €750,000 annually. In missed revenue, lost productivity, and replacement costs.

But the secret here, and I took this from Alex Hormozi’s 100M offers:

Make your employer value proposition so good that top talent would feel stupid saying no.

And value goes beyond rewards, bonuses, salary.
Value is about what people value, which is also something like getting clarity on a path of growth.

Going of track, so now let’s call this The Grand Slam Employer Brand Framework:

  • Find Your Truth 
    Fictional person, let’s call him Mike. His company isn’t the coolest. They make industrial parts. But you know what? The team is obsessed with precision. They geek out over measurements to the thousandth of a cm.
    So, instead of trying to be “fun and dynamic” like every other company, lean into that. Their new employer brand? “For the Perfectionists.” Job posts talking about the satisfaction of achieving microscopic precision. Suddenly, they’re attracting exactly the right people.

  • Amplify Your Reality, Don’t Invent Values
    Discover them:

    • Watch what people actually celebrate

    • Notice what makes them stay late (willingly)

    • Listen to the stories they tell new hires

    • Pay attention to what pisses them off

      Then turn it up:

    • If your team loves data, make every decision transparent

    • If they’re creative, give them blank canvases

    • If they’re competitive, gamify everything

    • If they’re nurturing, build mentorship into your DNA

  • Create Culture-Brand Bridges 
    Here’s where most companies screw up. They have one face for candidates and another for employees. And forget those are actually the same people. Instead:

    • Let employees tell their unfiltered stories

    • Show your work-in-progress

    • Share your struggles openly

    • Celebrate your peculiarities

  • Flip the Risk 
    Instead of making candidates prove themselves, prove yourself to them. Offer paid trial periods (which could go beyond a probationary period). Show them exactly how much they’ll earn in year 1, 2, and 3. Name the specific skills they’ll master.

  • Stack Value, Don’t just offer a salary
    Stack it:

    • Base compensation

    • Performance bonuses

    • Equity or profit sharing

    • Skill development worth €X

    • Career acceleration program

    • Personal brand building support

  • Remove the Friction 
    Kill every obstacle that makes great people hesitate:

    • Flexible work arrangements

    • Decision-making authority

    • Clear advancement paths

    • Rapid feedback loops

    • Resources to succeed

Most companies think employer branding is about looking good on LinkedIn. But real employer branding is about creating an offer and experience so compelling that when your employees tell their friends about their job, their friends say, “Holy shit, how do I get in?”

The ROI is simple:

  • Slash hiring time 

  • Cut turnover costs

  • Boost referral hiring 

  • 10x your applicant quality 
    (not sure about that 10x, but you get my point)

What This Means For You: You have two choices:

  1. Keep playing the old game and watch your best people leave

  2. Create an employer value proposition so good it spreads like wildfire

This works across industries — tech, manufacturing, services, you name it. The results are the same: 

✅ More talent. 
✅ Less churn.
✅ Better business.

Want to know if your employer brand is actually working?
Ask yourself one question: Are your employees’ friends begging to work for you?

If not, you know what to do.