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The Library

Field guides, references, essays and tools for TA leaders who want the right people to choose them. Free, and organized by the problem you're trying to solve.

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Everything in the Library

Four ways in. Pick the point of view you need: the business, the candidate, the message, or the work itself.

The Choosability Audit

The Choosability Audit

Is your employer brand real, or just employer bland? A self-audit you can run this week.

Reference
Tools
The 90-Second Hiring Manager Script

The 90-Second Hiring Manager Script

A short script that helps hiring managers close offers, without the awkward pep talk.

Reference
Tools
The Role Launch Pack

The Role Launch Pack

One page for every new role, so recruiters and hiring managers tell the same story.

Reference
Tools
The Proof Bank

The Proof Bank

Claims are cheap. Build a bank of numbers, rituals and receipts in 30 days.

Reference
Tools
The Role Value Stack

The Role Value Stack

Build the value case for one role, so recruiters have something real to say about why it's worth leaving a good job for.

Reference
Tools
SADR: The Four-Part Test

SADR: The Four-Part Test

Specific, Attractive, Different, Real. Run any employer claim through four questions before a candidate does it for you.

Reference
Tools
The Choosability Canvas

The Choosability Canvas

The whole choosability system on one page: Survey, Position, Orient, Communicate, Connect.

Reference
Tools
AI Skills for Employer Branders

AI Skills for Employer Branders

Free skill files for recruiting and employer brand work. Install them in Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and use them this week.

Reference
Tools
Featured
Employer Brand Buyer's Guide

Employer Brand Buyer's Guide

Agency, consultant or nobody? Work out which problem you actually have, what each option costs, and the ten questions that expose a weak vendor.

Field guide
Tools
What Actually Works in the Trades

What Actually Works in the Trades

Most employer brand advice is written for tech. What works when you're hiring in the trades.

Essay
Marketing POV
Employer Brand vs. Employer Bland

Employer Brand vs. Employer Bland

Twenty phrases that make you sound like every other employer, and why they need to go.

Reference
Marketing POV
The $10,000 Message and the $200,000 Guess

The $10,000 Message and the $200,000 Guess

What vague messaging actually costs, counted in hiring dollars.

Essay
Marketing POV
Calculate the Cost of Sameness

Calculate the Cost of Sameness

Stop defending ROI. Agency spend, rising offers and recruiter hours already show what sounding like everyone else costs. Here's how to find the invoice.

Essay
Marketing POV
Your Next Candidate's First Interview Is With ChatGPT

Your Next Candidate's First Interview Is With ChatGPT

AI explains you to candidates before your recruiter gets the chance. Run the ten-minute test on your own company and read what it says.

Essay
Marketing POV
8 Questions Candidates Ask ChatGPT About You

8 Questions Candidates Ask ChatGPT About You

Candidates are asking AI what your career site won't tell them. Eight questions, and what your employer brand needs to survive them.

Essay
Marketing POV
Your Employer Brand Is Hiding Half the Deal

Your Employer Brand Is Hiding Half the Deal

Every job is a deal: what you give, what you expect, what it costs. Most employer brands publish only the first part. Here's how to write the whole thing.

Essay
Marketing POV
Featured
Employer Brand Breakdowns

Employer Brand Breakdowns

Real companies' recruiting content, taken apart on video: what's working, what sounds like everyone else, and what to say instead.

Video
Marketing POV
Talent Out Loud

Talent Out Loud

Synthetic candidate panels react to a real company's job posts and careers content, at four stages of the funnel. Hear what candidates hear.

Podcast
Marketing POV
What Is Employer Branding?

What Is Employer Branding?

New to this, or explaining it to someone who is? The fundamentals: strategy, examples and frameworks.

Reference
Candidate POV
When You Can't Outpay the Giants

When You Can't Outpay the Giants

Pay matters. It's rarely the only thing deciding. How mid-sized companies compete when the offer can't be the biggest one.

Essay
Candidate POV
How I'd Beat the Fortune 500

How I'd Beat the Fortune 500

You can't outspend them. You don't have to. How a challenger wins the people the giants want.

Essay
Candidate POV
Choosability, Defined

Choosability, Defined

How easily the right person can understand what you offer, believe it, compare it and say yes. The definition, and the frameworks behind it.

Reference
Candidate POV
How Talent Chooses

How Talent Chooses

The people who grow your company don't behave like applicants. They behave like buyers. Here's how they decide.

Reference
Candidate POV
A Better World for Talent Acquisition

A Better World for Talent Acquisition

The usual way of recruiting rewards sameness. Five short pieces on a better way, ending with what you can do Monday without asking anyone.

Field guide
Candidate POV
Talent Chooses You

Talent Chooses You

The book that started the thinking behind choosability. Older, and still holds up.

Book
Candidate POV
Becoming Choosable

Becoming Choosable

The whole argument in one place: why the right people choose one employer over another, and how to become the one they pick.

Book
Candidate POV
Featured
What If Employer Branding Started Before the Job Opening?

What If Employer Branding Started Before the Job Opening?

By the time you get the brief, the big decisions are already made. Survey findings, plus three things to try, for moving the work upstream.

Essay
Business POV
New
We Know What Great Employer Branding Looks Like. So Why Aren't We Doing It?

We Know What Great Employer Branding Looks Like. So Why Aren't We Doing It?

Employer branders told us what valuable work looks like. Then they told us what fills their week. The gap isn't their fault. It's how the job is built.

Essay
Business POV
New
20 Recruiting Metrics That Waste Your Time

20 Recruiting Metrics That Waste Your Time

Stop reporting numbers nobody can act on. The eight that actually change hiring outcomes.

Reference
Business POV
Talent P&L

Talent P&L

A simple model that puts recruiting in the money terms your CFO already uses.

Reference
Business POV
Six Questions to Ask Before You Approve the Growth Plan

Six Questions to Ask Before You Approve the Growth Plan

Written for your executives. Six questions that test whether the people part of a growth plan is real before the date gets locked in. Forward it.

Reference
Business POV
The Talent You Never Met

The Talent You Never Met

Your hiring data only counts the people who considered you. This is about everyone who didn't, and what the business never became without them.

Essay
Business POV
The 2029 Manifesto

The 2029 Manifesto

Where employer branding is headed by 2029, and what you can stop doing now to get there first.

Essay
Business POV
You Can Only Build What You Can Staff

You Can Only Build What You Can Staff

Only 13% of 1,246 AEC job postings explain why anyone should join. What that costs engineering and construction firms in work they have to turn down.

Reference
Business POV
New
The Chief Growth Officer

The Chief Growth Officer

Every growth plan has a people assumption in it. TA already holds the intelligence that assumption depends on. Here's how to get it in front of the people deciding.

Field guide
Business POV
The Complete Business Case for Employer Branding

The Complete Business Case for Employer Branding

Unclear positioning is a tax on every hire. The numbers, organized by who you're talking to: your CFO, your COO, your CEO.

Field guide
Business POV
The New Dictionary of Hiring

The New Dictionary of Hiring

Hiring has a vocabulary problem. Borrow sharper words for talent risk, capability and hiring economics, then use them in your next leadership meeting.

Reference
Business POV
Updated
Featured
Let's Revisit Next Quarter

Let's Revisit Next Quarter

Everyone agrees with you. Nobody funds you. Seven weeks and ten tools to turn one hiring problem into a business decision leadership can't shelve.

Field guide
Business POV
Featured
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Articles and InsightsNew Dictionary of HiringWhat Is Choosable?Becoming Choosable (book)AI Skills for Employer BrandersEmployer Brand Buyers Guide2029 Manifesto: The Future of employer brandingBuilding The Exec-Ready Business Case

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