What Recruiters Wish Employer Brand Teams Understood About Candidate Messaging

Why Candidate Messaging Falls Flat (and How Recruiters Would Fix It)

There’s a disconnect that most recruitment teams won’t say out loud. Recruiters and employer brand leads both work hard to attract top talent, but they don’t always operate on the same assumptions. The further you get from direct candidate contact, the easier it is to optimize for optics instead of outcomes. This causes big problems down the line when it impacts the way companies talk to candidates.

Recruiters are often left holding the bag when employer brand language misses the mark. And in a tight hiring market, vague messaging costs more than just attention: it costs conversions.

Let’s talk about what recruiters actually need from candidate messaging, and why the best brand assets won’t land unless they’re built with frontline insight.

“Culture” is not a hook

Ask a recruiter how often candidates bring up culture in early conversations, and most will say: never. That doesn’t mean culture isn’t important, but it’s rarely the reason someone applies in the first place. Think of it in terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Candidates won’t bother worrying about culture until they know what they’ll be doing, how much they’ll earn, and how the job fits into their life. That’s what gets them on the phone.

Messaging that leads with “our people are our strength” or “we’re passionate about excellence” doesn’t tell a candidate anything useful. Recruiters need language that answers the real questions:

• What does this team actually do?

• What are the hours and flexibility?

• What would make someone succeed here?

If brand content can’t be parsed into something a recruiter would say in a voicemail, it’s not helping them convert interest into action.

Job descriptions are a battlefield

Many brand teams assume the job description is just a compliance artifact. For candidates, though, it’s one of the only pieces of communication they’re guaranteed to read. Recruiters want it to do more than just list requirements. They want it to reflect what they’re hearing in intake meetings, feedback loops, and screenings.

If employer brand materials ignore the language candidates use to describe their own work, the company’s listings will feel abstract. And when listings feel abstract, candidates’ eyes glaze over and they self-select out.

Recruiters wish brand teams understood that job postings are not where you should be vague. Toning down jargon doesn’t mean teams should be just dumbing it down. In fact, it means the opposite. It means prioritizing clarity over polish to speak directly to people who are knowledgeable in the areas that your role requires.

Taglines don’t scale across roles

Brand teams often love a good tagline. Recruiters, on the other hand, are dealing with dozens of roles that have nothing in common besides a logo. A product manager in Austin and a nurse in Fresno have wildly different priorities. A single tagline can’t be expected to speak to both.

Recruiters need flexibility. They want messaging support that works at the role level, not just the employer level. And they want permission to localize language without having to escalate every edit through legal.

Trust is built one detail at a time

Candidates are skeptical of marketing copy. Recruiters know that, because they hear it in real time. When a candidate says “that sounds too good to be true,” they mean it. Messaging that glosses over risk, avoids trade-offs, or inflates benefits erodes credibility.

What recruiters need from employer brand teams is context-aware support. Give them materials that help address concerns. Include detail that preempts questions. Offer language that levels with candidates instead of selling to them.

If the messaging can’t stand up to a follow-up question, it’s not recruiter-ready.

Bridge the gap

None of this is about blame. It’s about communication.

The best employer brand teams treat recruiters as active partners, not downstream users. They hold feedback loops. They test new messaging in real conversations. They ask for phrasing that candidates actually respond to, and they make room for adaptability.

When recruiters and brand teams operate in lockstep, you get stronger pipelines, better fit, and a candidate experience that doesn’t just look good—it performs.

‍