Employer Branding Glossary: 40 Key Terms

If you’re working in talent acquisition or employer branding, there’s a good chance you’re juggling a thousand different terms, many of which sound similar but mean very different things. Confused between EVP and UVP? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. That’s why we’ve put together this employer branding glossary. It’s designed for recruiters, HR professionals, and employer branding specialists who want to speak the language of modern talent marketing with confidence.

Think of this as your go-to cheat sheet of our talent acquisition resources section. Whether you’re presenting to leadership, building a recruitment campaign, or just trying to decode the latest tech vendor pitch, this guide has your back.

Let’s dive into these 50 must-know terms (in alphabetical order, of course).

A–C Terms

Applicant Tracking System (ATS): A tech tool recruiters use to manage, track, and organize candidate applications throughout the hiring process.
Authentic Culture: The true day-to-day employee experience, warts and all. Not just what you post on social media.
Brand Advocacy: When employees actively promote the company to their networks. Think LinkedIn posts, Glassdoor reviews, or TikTok videos about company life.
Boomerang Employee: Someone who leaves the company and then comes back later. Often brings back fresh ideas with familiar understanding.
Candidate Experience: The overall perception a job seeker has of your hiring process, from reading your job ad to receiving an offer (or rejection).
Candidate Persona: A fictional profile representing your ideal candidate. Helpful for targeting the right people in your recruitment marketing.
Career Site Optimization: Improving your career pages so they attract and convert more qualified applicants. SEO and product play a big role here.
Compelling EVP: A strong Employee Value Proposition or Employer Value Proposition that shows employees why they should work for and stay with you.
Content Pillars: Key topics your employer brand messaging consistently returns to. Like culture, flexibility, DEI, or all three.

D–F Terms

DEI: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Essential not just for compliance, but for building a workplace that reflects the world outside it.
Employer Brand: The public perception of what it’s like to work for your company.
Employer Brand Activation: Turning your employer value proposition into actual content, campaigns, and actions.
Employer Branding: The strategy you use to shape how current and potential employees see your company.
Employee Advocacy: Similar to brand advocacy, but focused specifically on what workers say about your company, often through personal storytelling.
Employee Stories: Real experiences shared by employees. Ideal for humanizing your brand and storytelling across channels.
Engagement Rate: A metric that measures how people interact with your brand content online. Likes, shares, comments, it all counts.
EVP Strategy: Your company’s unique offer to employees, communicated through consistent brand messaging.

G–L Terms

Gen Z Talent: The newest generation in the workplace. Digital-first, purpose-driven, and highly value flexibility and authenticity.
Glassdoor Branding: Managing and responding to reviews on platforms like Glassdoor or Indeed to shape perception.
High-Volume Recruiting: Hiring many people in a short timeframe. Think warehouses, retail, call centers.
Hiring Automation: Tools that speed up recruiting tasks like scheduling interviews or screening resumes, without sacrificing quality.
Internal Comms: Communications designed specifically for current employees, from executive updates to DEI initiatives to team news.
Internal Brand Stories: Narratives from inside your organization that show off your culture, values, or traditions.

M–R Terms

Mission Alignment: When employees can clearly connect their individual role to the organisation’s purpose.
Offboarding Experience: How you treat people when they leave your company. A respectful send-off goes a long way for your brand.
Onboarding Experience: That critical first impression. Great onboarding can boost retention and engagement in the first year.
Passive Candidates: Talented individuals who aren’t actively job hunting, but could be tempted with the right offer.
Programmatic Advertising: Automated ad buying to strategically place job ads across websites, targeting the right audience at the right time.
Recruitment Analytics: Using data to track the success of your hiring strategies, from source-of-hire to offer acceptance rates.
Recruitment Funnels: Just like sales funnels, but for candidates. Attract, engage, nurture, convert.
Recruitment Marketing: Applying marketing techniques (like content creation, programmatic advertising or social targeting) to attract talent.
Remote Workers: Employees who work outside of traditional office locations, either part-time, full-time, or hybrid.

S–V Terms

Social Recruiting: Using social platforms (LinkedIn, Instagram, even TikTok) to find and engage talent.
Talent Market Insights: Trends and data about what job seekers want and how employers are competing. Super valuable for shaping strategy.
Talent Nurturing: Keeping potential candidates warm through content, newsletters, events, etc. (even if they’re not applying yet).
Template Libraries: Pre-built employer branding materials like job descriptions, content calendars, or interview guides.
UVP (Unique Value Proposition): What makes your organization different from every other employer. Part of your EVP, but often focused on niche advantages.
User-Generated Content (UGC): Any brand-related content created by employees or candidates, not marketing. Raw, real, and effective.
Value-Driven Hiring: Prioritizing alignment with company values during your recruitment process.

W–Z Terms

Workforce Trends: Patterns and movements shaping the future of work, from AI to 4-days work weeks.
Workplace Belonging: A sense employees have that they’re accepted, included, and valued for who they are.
Work Tech Stack: The suite of tools and platforms (ATS, CRM, scheduling software, etc.) your team uses to attract and hire talent.

How to Use This Employer Branding Glossary

Bookmark this page and come back when you’re:

Building strategy decks
Explaining terms to stakeholders
Training new team members
Upgrading your recruitment marketing approach

Understanding the language of employer branding isn’t about sounding smart, it’s about communicating clearly with the people who matter: your team, your leadership, and your candidates.

And remember: terminology evolves. As the world of work keeps shifting, so will the words we use. That’s why this glossary will grow too: new trends, new tools, and fresh insights will always be added.