As recruitment marketing and employer branding continue to grow more nuanced, Morgan Smith, a strategic marketing leader and former employment brand builder at Caterpillar shares why companies need to look past frantic, top-of-funnel hiring fixes and instead diagnose the deeper root causes holding their cultures back.
1. Stop Treating Symptoms, Diagnose the Root Cause
When executive leaders panic about hiring, they usually approach talent teams with a symptom: “We need to hire 100 people by next week—turn on the marketing campaigns!”
However, turning on a marketing faucet into a leaky bucket won’t solve the underlying problem. True employer brand strategy requires digging beneath the surface to find out why the talent gap exists in the first place.
Symptoms vs. Root Issues
| The Symptom (Quick Fix Mentality) | The Root Issue (The Real Problem) |
| “We just need a massive wave of new applicants.” | High attrition, poor local management, or unaligned expectations. |
| “Let’s just post happy, polished news on social media.” | A damaged local reputation caused by previous layoffs or bad word-of-mouth. |
| “Talent just isn’t interested in our open roles.” | A frustrating, multi-step application process that takes 20 minutes to complete. |
2. “Natural Horsemanship”
Beyond marketing, Morgan is an expert in natural horsemanship—a practice rooted in horse psychology rather than a traditional “do-as-I-say” mentality. This patience and deep listening translate directly to corporate culture.
“When you’re working with an animal as big as a horse, you have to be so patient and really truly listen to them… It gives the horse a say. It translates directly into how we build relationships at work.”
— Morgan Smith
Instead of forcing directives, modern leaders need to step back, read the room, understand what actually motivates their teams, and “hold their horses” before rushing into structural changes.
3. The New Reality: Job Seekers are Using GenAI
Your corporate career site is no longer the primary filter for candidate research. Job seekers are actively using Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to ask: “What is it really like to work at this company?”
Because AI models scrape organic platforms like Reddit, Glassdoor, and community boards, they prioritize authentic human experiences over polished corporate marketing. Furthermore, people trust peer word-of-mouth 5 times more than a company’s official stance. If your internal culture is broken, the AI summaries will reflect it, directly impacting your talent pool.
Here is a guide to build a sustainable, high-retention employer brand:
- Launch a Candidate Journey Audit: Step into the shoes of an applicant (from an intern to a shift worker). Search your company from scratch. Identify broken links, typos, or confusing copy that causes candidate drop-off.
- Implement a “One-Click to Jobs” Experience: Minimize the friction between discovering your company and applying. Streamline your digital ecosystem so candidates never have to click more than once to see open roles.
- Diversify Your Review Ecosystem: Don’t just focus on Glassdoor. Proactively build up your presence and volume on Indeed, Comparably, and industry-specific review sites to ensure AI algorithms pull a balanced, high-volume representation of your workspace.
- Align the Candidate and Customer Experience: Remember that a bad interview experience turns away potential buyers, and a bad product experience turns away potential talent. Audit how your consumer brand and employer brand overlap in local communities.
