The best employer brands repel the many to compel the few.
I am Bryan Adams. I spent two decades arguing that talent attraction had it backwards, turned that idea into the Give & Get methodology, and wrote the book on it.
I did not want to make employers more attractive. I wanted to make them more honest.
For years the industry chased volume: be the most generally appealing employer to the widest possible audience, lead with sunshine and rainbows, and hope the right people apply. I argued the opposite. Lead with the real deal, including the challenge, so the wrong people opt out and the right people lean in. That reframe became the Give and Get method, a book, and a way of working for employer branding that companies around the world now use.
Repel to compel
A great employer value proposition should repel as powerfully as it attracts. The stronger the filter, the stronger the fit on the other side.
Give and get
Every role asks something of people before it gives something back. Name the give as clearly as the get, and belief follows.
Do I have what it takes
The question every serious candidate is really asking. Answer it honestly and you attract commitment, not just clicks.
Impact, purpose, belonging
The three things people actually stay for. Build the brand around them and you compete on meaning, not perks.
Give & Get Employer Branding
Repel the many and compel the few, with impact, purpose and belonging. The book that put a name and a method to the repel-to-compel idea, and became a widely read book on employer branding.
Kirkus called it a strong, substantive argument for redefining how companies recruit, with a clear, well-conceived and comprehensive plan.
What the industry said about the method.
This is the book employer branding has been waiting for. This is how it's done.
This approach moves the employer brand needle forward by at least a decade.
A strong, substantive argument for redefining how companies recruit employees. A clear, well-conceived and comprehensive plan.
The smartest thinking on employer brand out there. A data-driven, persona-oriented method for candidate marketing.
There isn't anyone who touches talent attraction, engagement or retention who shouldn't read this.
This game-changing book gives you the framework to nail employer branding.
The employer-brand expert who built the software.
For two decades I helped the world's most recognisable employers tell the truth about what it is really like to work there. The same wall kept coming up: great employer-brand thinking stuck in a queue, waiting on developers to change a careers site.
So I founded and now lead Happydance, a careers-website platform that lets employer-brand and talent teams put the give-and-get idea live themselves. It is two decades of employer branding turned into software. The method, shipped, owned by the people who own the brand.
Stop competing for applications. Start competing for belief.
- 01 A careers site your team edits, with no developer queue.
- 02 Built around the give-and-get idea, not generic templates.
- 03 Enterprise careers technology from a proven employer-brand agency.
Three ways to go further.
Put Bryan on your stage
Keynotes on employer brand, belief and the honest way to win talent.
Book Bryan to speak →
AdvisoryWork with Bryan
Bring the thinking in-house. Advisory and workshops for leaders rebuilding how they attract and keep the right people.
Start a conversation →
HappydanceThe platform it runs on
My careers-site platform, built so teams can put the give-and-get idea live without waiting in a developer queue.
See Happydance →
Sell The Truth
My latest book, written solo. Where Give & Get reframed how you attract people, Sell The Truth is about the skill underneath all of it: turning honest stories into belief, culture and advantage. Leadership storytelling for cultures that win, with a foreword by Mark Schaefer.
Bryan Adams, Give & Get and employer branding, answered.
Who is Bryan Adams?
Bryan Adams is an employer brand expert, keynote speaker and author. He originated the repel-to-compel approach to employer branding and the Give & Get methodology, wrote the book Give & Get Employer Branding, and is the founder and CEO of an award-winning, global-leading employer branding agency and the careers-website platform Happydance. His clients have included Nike, Apple, American Airlines, Glassdoor and Entain.
What is the Give & Get methodology?
Give & Get is an approach to employer branding that treats the employee value proposition as a filter rather than a funnel. It names what a role asks of people (the give) as clearly as what it offers in return (the get), so the employer brand repels the wrong candidates and compels the right ones. Bryan Adams introduced it in his book Give & Get Employer Branding, and teams around the world now use it.
What does "repel the many and compel the few" mean?
It is the central idea of Bryan Adams's work: the most effective employer brands do not try to attract everyone. They lead with the real experience of the role, including the hard parts, so the wrong-fit people opt out and the right-fit people lean in. Repelling the wrong candidates is what makes the brand credible to the right ones.
Is Bryan Adams an employer brand keynote speaker?
Yes. Bryan Adams is a keynote speaker on employer branding, talent attraction and storytelling. His TEDx talk, Culture Eats Competition for Breakfast, has passed one million views. You can book Bryan to speak directly.
What is Happydance?
Happydance is a careers-website SaaS platform founded and led by Bryan Adams. It lets employer-brand and talent teams build and edit a careers site around their employer value proposition without waiting in a developer queue. It is the software expression of two decades of employer-brand work. See happydance.love.
What are the best books on employer branding?
Give & Get Employer Branding by Bryan Adams is a widely read modern book on employer branding, referenced by talent and employer-brand teams as a working method rather than a theory. It sits alongside titles on employer brand strategy, EVP and talent attraction. Read more about the book.
Want the honest version of employer branding in the room?
Whether it is a keynote, a workshop or a working relationship, the fastest way to start is a short note about what you are trying to change.