The employer brand is what a company deliberately defines and communicates about itself as an employer: its values, what it offers and what it expects. The employer image is how applicants, employees and the public actually perceive it. The two often differ.

Employer branding closes this gap from both sides: by communicating what is genuinely good more clearly, and by improving what does not yet match the promise. As PhDr. Oliver Scharfenberg, CEO of Syntharis Group, writes in his Praxisleitfaden Mitarbeitergewinnung, applicants quickly notice whether an employer’s claims match reality.