In this episode of The Talent Tango, Amir sits down with Caitlin Kamm, Director of People Growth at Envoy, to unpack a real-world employer branding initiative tailored specifically for engineering talent. Caitlin walks through how her team developed a laser-focused EVP to support a return-to-office mandate—balancing culture, candidate persona, and business needs. From strategy to stakeholder alignment to creative execution, it’s a playbook for anyone in talent roles grappling with attracting high-caliber candidates in a hybrid world.
Start with specificity: Crafting an employer brand around a targeted persona—like engineers—yields clearer messaging and stronger impact.
Authenticity over perks: The EVP focused on purpose, innovation, and collaboration, deliberately leaving out compensation and benefits.
Match the medium to the message: They pivoted from real employee footage to an animated video to better reflect Envoy’s brand and voice.
Metrics with context: A 5% increase in offer acceptance was a win—but measuring deeper attribution requires embedding branding assets across the candidate journey.
00:00 – Intro to Caitlin and episode scope
01:01 – Defining employer branding at Envoy
03:02 – Aligning brand with return-to-office policy
07:24 – Why engineers were the initial focus
10:07 – Communicating the 'why' of coming to the office
12:55 – Making intentional branding choices
14:24 – Measuring success: acceptance rates and Q1 plans
17:01 – Applying a product mindset to employer branding
19:56 – Lessons learned and the power of anchoring to the ideal candidate persona
"You have to treat the soft stuff like the hard stuff—when you bring rigor to planning and persona targeting, the strategy actually sticks." — Caitlin Kamm
