A hiring blueprint for brands in 2025: How to stand out as an employer

Building and maintaining a strong team is an important but challenging task for many senior marketers. When done right, it can set the foundation for an organisation’s success.

Yet more than half (51%) of marketing leaders reported difficulties in hiring over the last year, according to research featured in Michael Page’s 2025 Salary Guides, citing reasons ranging from salary expectations to the availability of skilled candidates in the market.

Throughout the UK there are “mismatched expectations between employers and employees, resulting in many organisations struggling to hire”, explains Michael Page operating director James Nally.

With 2025 approaching, the market for skilled marketing candidates is becoming increasingly competitive; brands will need a clear, specialised strategy for finding and attracting talent to strengthen their teams in the year ahead. Below are five key steps marketing leaders can take now to set their organisations apart from the competition and get their hires right first time.

1. Look to hiring strategies that go beyond salary

Matching salary expectations is marketing leaders’ biggest hiring barrier, according to 41% of respondents in Michael Page’s 2024 Talent Trends Report, which surveyed 49,407 people globally, including 2,400 from the UK. But with salary pressures likely to continue in 2025, most employers will need to build their offer to prospective employees around other pillars too – not just pay.

“For any organisations looking to hire, I would encourage them to first hone a clear employer value proposition before beginning the recruitment process,” Nally says. “It’s critical to first take the time to consider what you can offer potential candidates and why people in this market would want to work with your organisation – especially in cases where compensation might not be immediately competitive with market rates.”

Fortunately, money is not the only thing applicants are looking for from a new role. There are several other factors influencing their job decisions such as benefits, flexibility and work-life balance. Marketing leaders therefore have the opportunity to entice new talent through compelling, holistic offers that take these additional factors into account.

2. Craft – and communicate – a compelling employee experience

“Ultimately, an offer doesn’t boil down to just salary. In fact, when asked what is most important to their overall job satisfaction, more marketing professionals say work-life balance (56%) than salary (45%),” Nally continues, citing the Talent Trends Report.

Michael Page’s latest Talent Trends Pulse – a nationally representative survey of 5,000 UK workers – found flexible working hours (41%), proximity to home/commute time (37%), and a positive and inclusive work environment (23%) are the top factors outside of pay that candidates consider when looking for a new role. In summary, today’s marketers favour some level of flexibility as standard from their chosen employer.

“Knowing that flexibility ranks highly in UK worker priorities – particularly in the marketing industry – organisations that offer flexible working should absolutely be including this as a benefit in their candidate offers,” says Nally. He adds: “We continue to see businesses offering two or three days in the office recruiting more easily than those requesting more.”

3. Emphasise the value of non-cash benefits

While salary is important, businesses shouldn’t underestimate the value of a carefully curated benefits package. Whatever perks your organisation can offer, it’s worth making sure potential employees know about them.

An online survey of Michael Page candidates in September 2024 found company pension plans (83%) and private healthcare/life insurance (71%) were rated highly as considerations when applying for a role. These were followed by other financial incentives such as stocks and shares (57%), wellbeing initiatives including gym memberships (55%), and discount schemes (40%).

“Increasingly, we see candidates asking about benefits beyond just salary,” says Nally. “As candidates prioritise these additional benefits, it’s critical for businesses to include these in candidate offers and make potential candidates aware of them from the early stages of the process.”

4. Make your interview process candidate-friendly

Prolonged interview processes are off-putting to candidates, according to Michael Page’s latest Talent Trends Pulse. A disconnect between candidates and hiring managers is emerging, with UK workers citing common hiring practices such as requiring more than two interviews (38%), attending interviews in person (31%), and preparing presentations (31%) as the top reasons they would be dissuaded from applying for a new job.

Just as marketing employers must make the right personnel choices from the talent available, candidates are becoming more selective with the time they invest in applications. As a result, Nally says, when hiring managers’ requirements appear too tedious, top talent may drop out to focus their efforts elsewhere.

“I would advise organisations to reassess their processes and focus on a skills-first hiring approach,” he adds. “This encourages hiring managers to shift their focus from a candidate’s experience to the skills they have to do the job. Not only will this remove the need for superfluous assessments, it will also make the process more accessible – in turn, broadening the candidate pool.”

5. Be open to candidates from different backgrounds

‘Nobody gets fired for buying IBM,’ goes the well-worn corporate adage. Similarly, senior marketers may look at a candidate’s CV outlining an established marketing background and see a safe pair of hands – and anything else as too big a risk.

According to research featured in Michael Page’s 2025 Salary Guides, 31% of marketing leaders say finding candidates with the right skills is a significant hurdle. A third (33%) identify a lack of candidates among the main challenges – but they might find greater success by casting their nets wider.

“Organisations should be prepared to be more creative in their hiring, to challenge the ‘traditional profile’,” Nally suggests. “For example, they could consider different industry experience, international experience, part-time profiles and candidates re-entering the workforce. There is great talent out there, but it takes strong leadership to challenge key decision-makers; we are more often seeing that the reward is worth the perceived risk.”

Working with a recruitment partner

While the hiring process can be challenging in today’s market, there are plenty of opportunities for marketing leaders to improve their chances of finding talented new hires. Key to that will be clarifying their offer to candidates before they start, and simplifying their recruitment processes as much as possible.

The average time from posting an ad for a permanent marketing role to making an offer is 41 days, according to Michael Page’s 2025 Salary Guides, with many companies taking significantly longer. Working with a specialist recruitment partner to communicate a compelling employer offer can not only help to streamline the hiring process, but also secure the best talent for a role.

For more information, download the 2025 Michael Page Salary Guides here.