Demand more from your employer brand.

Make it clear.
Make it actionable.
And deliver real ROI.

Your recruiters, hiring managers and leadership will thank you.
Employer Branding without the BS

Recruiting and TA Leaders:
Achieve More.

Employer branding attracts better talent at a lower cost, leading to happy hiring managers and impressed leadership.

Employer branding is how you to achieve more with less.
What your boss wants
Achieve more with Employer Branding As A Service
The best way to thrill your boss and get your seat at the table is to stop chasing applications and focus on attracting great hires.

Those two things aren't the same.

The purpose of a strong employer brand strategy is to set your company apart, to make it the top choice of people you actually want to talk to, not just generate more applications you don't want.

When you have a strong talent strategy:

🧲 You're attracting instead of chasing talent
🤝 You're building relationships instead of transactions
❣️ Hiring managers get better hires instead of more applications
🏁 You can take advantage of a useful pipeline of talent
💰 You'll save money through more offer acceptances

“[Our new employer brand] was extremely valuable and eye opening. We all knew we had some issues with our employer brand. Your ideas and perspective helps us design stronger recruitment messages and a much stronger employer brand marketing strategy.”
- Dennis M
Marketing and Culture Leader

Your employer brand is the core of your talent strategy. It helps you focus on the best audiences, increases outreach conversion, and makes more people say "YES!" when you offer them a role.

It lowers costs, helps build connections to the business, and makes every recruiter, sourcer, and hiring manager quantifiably more effective.

And the best part? Any company, no matter the size or industry, can create hiring success through their own employer brand.

It's so nice to meet you!
Let's connect!

Talent strategy isn't "off the rack." It's uncovering and leveraging your unique advantages to hire better.

"There were no surprises in what James shared from his findings, but rather a clarity we previously had trouble defining for ourselves. The Playbook provided by James gave us actionable steps to make our messaging clear and consistent so we can truly be a competitor for top talent. For a subject that has an ROI that is often hard to quantify, James helped put things in terms that would help create buy-in from other key members of the organization!“
-Ashley S
Head of TA

Employer branding is for every company

Here's a secret: Smaller companies, because they are more focused, because every hire has the potential to be transformative, because they can challenge expectations, they can do employer branding better than anyone.

Why Employer Brand Labs?

Employer Brand Labs was born out of a mission to address two critical issues:

ONE

Building Remarkable Employer Brands
We're here to help you create actionable, unifying employer brands that attract the ideal candidates, cut recruiting costs, and drive measurable business outcomes at every organizational level.

TWO

Accessible Branding for Every Company
Our approach isn't for the giants; it's for everyone—from small businesses to those in "boring" industries or heavily regulated spaces. We believe every company deserves an effective employer brand.

I specialize in helping companies recruit and hire more effectively by re-writing the rules of employer branding. By focusing on "what's the least amount of branding that will create the maximum impact?" I can create better hiring for a dramatically lower cost than typical employer branding.

This isn't a hiring solution, it's a business solution.

Welcome to The Lab!

Employer Brand Labs has spent the last decade pushing the boundaries and advancing the field of employer branding to help companies hire better talent more effectively. Take a look at just some of the frameworks, approaches and books that have changed the way companies around the world think about their employer brand:
🧪 Hierarchy of Recruiting Content (2015)
🧬 Recruiting Content Framework (2016)
⚗️ Comprehensive Talent Funnel (2018)
🧪 Employer Brand Maturity Model (with Richard Mosley 2019)
⚗️ Comprehensive Employer Brand Architecture (2019)
🧬 Work Motivations Framework (2019)
📕 Book: Talent Chooses You (2020)
🧪 The "Specific, Attractive, Different & Real" Model for Effective Brand Messages (2022)
📙 Book: Employer Branding for Small Business (2023)
📘 Book: 18 Laws of Employer Branding (2024)
🧪 Minimum Effective Employer Brand Process (2024)

Helping companies achieve more through their employer brand

“110% recommend! We got so much out of it and James was unreal. So patient, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, engaging, all the other great words! It really helped us open our eyes to what was already in front of us and really promote the great things that we offer!”
-Olivia
Human Resources Officer

The impact of employer brand isn't just for "big companies."

Making your company a more desirable company among the talent you relaly want to hire is within reach.

“Whether you are a talent acquisition professional with an interest in employer brand or an experienced employer brander who is looking for tools to set your organization up for recruiting success. I can guarantee that you will walk away wishing someone had given you these tools years ago.”
-Andrea M
Director of Talent and Brand

If “the usual way to recruit” actually worked, why don't we feel happier and more productive at work?

Collecting applications, spamming strangers, job postings that say nothing, burnt-out recruiters and resentful hiring managers.

Traditional recruitment methods aren't working. For anyone.

We serve companies who are ready to challenge the status quo and stand out from the crowd. 

The standard EVP process was never meant for everyone. Your challenges aren’t the same as a 150,000-employee global giant, so why would you take the same approach they do? Your unique challenges deserve a tailored approach, not a cookie-cutter solution.

The goal is simple: Deliver tangible, game-changing results for your company, not just a presentation deck with pretty words. It's time to revolutionize your hiring game with Employer Brand Labs. Let's make your brand work for you! 

Can you afford a boring employer brand?

Right now, your company already has an employer brand: the perception of what it must be like to work at your company. It’s a perception that comes from every single thing you do, from your recruiting and marketing to your products and customer service. The question is: are you shaping it to impact your company?

Your employer brand will attract the kinds of people your hiring managers would love to hire, but it will also increase retention, strengthen your culture, increase the level of talent you bring in, support your consumer marketing, and impress your executive leadership.

In other words, it’s too important to have an employer brand that isn’t working for you.

Every company has an employer brand that will drive business outcomes. That's not a question.

The question is whether or not you intentionally use your brand. If you consider what your hiring goals are, who make the best hires, and what strategy will bring them to you.

With the right branding and strategy, your recruiting gets easier.

Hi. I'm James Ellis.

"Thank you James for taking us on this journey. A step-by-step process with the right speed, the right methods and the right focus to find all the valuable insights in its own company. Thank you again, so much appreciated.”
-Theresa H
Employer Brand Manager

Having spent the better part of a decade developing employer brands and EVPs for Groupon, Roku, Enova, Recursion, TradeShift, SavATree, Gearset, CreditShop, and others, I focus exclusively on helping companies build and activate their employer brand so that they can compete (and win) against much larger companies. How? By creating and growing the next generation of employer brand leaders, managers, and specialists.

That's why Google calls me the employer brand nerd.

-James Ellis

Let's take the next step!

Talent strategy is never "off the rack." It is about uncovering and leveraging your unique advantages to hire better. So here are a few ways we can get to know each other.

Employer Brand Labs, LLC

EBL is dedicated to bringing the power and value of employer branding to every single company, regardless of size, industry, or region.

You can be an employer not just of "choice," but of desire.

If you're ready to start attracting great talent to you instead of chasing it, reach out.
Contact:
James Ellis [LinkedIn]
[employerbrandnerd@gmail.com]
421 W Melrose St
Chicago, IL 60657