Why is ESG an untapped treasure of employer branding?

The second edition of the survey “Do companies in Poland care about sustainable development?“, shows that 56% of Polish companies conduct ESG activities, and 25% have a formal strategy in this area. 80% of the surveyed organizations also see ESG as strengthening relationships with customers and partners, 76% as an increase in employee engagement, and 75% as a contribution to attracting talent tailored to the organizational culture. However, when we look more closely at the use of the company’s advantages from sustainable activities, it can be seen that the potential benefit is not necessarily translated into practice. The same study shows that only about 19% of companies actually include ESG in a systemic way in the strategy of building the employer’s image and consistently show it in recruitment . The rest is limited to occasional mentions or purely internal communication. For a candidate who sees a company mainly through the prism of advertisements, career pages and social media, this means that a huge part of ESG activities is… invisible.

Candidates vote with their wallets, but also with their values

Global research only reinforces this picture. Deloitte’s research report “2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey” shows that candidates evaluate the companies they want to work for in terms of ESG. 23% of the so-called Zetkas and 22% of Millennials declare that they check the environmental impact of an organization or its environmental policies before accepting a job offer, and 15% and 13%, respectively, have changed jobs due to concerns about the employer’s impact on the environment. Significantly, as many as 70% of representatives of both generations consider the company’s environmental activities to be very or quite important when assessing a potential employer.

On the Polish market, similar conclusions are brought by the eRecruiter report “Transparency instead of CSR slogans“. The authors point out that 96% of candidates pay attention to a culture based on respect and understanding, and generational differences in the perception of ESG are becoming more and more visible, as younger candidates are more demanding when it comes to the consistency of company values and practices. This is an important signal: it is no longer enough to write that “people are the most important”, you also need to skillfully show how this translates into practice.

In addition, according to the LeasingTeam Group and TalentPoint survey mentioned at the beginning, 51% of companies consider sustainability to be important, but do not treat it as a priority, even though they also see the benefits of such activities. Candidates can easily notice this discrepancy: on the one hand, good-sounding declarations, but on the other hand, there is a lack of specifics.

What do companies do as part of ESG that you can’t see in recruitment?

If we look at a typical “package” of ESG activities in Polish companies, the facts are much more interesting than many career sites suggest. In the report by LeasingTeam Group and TalentPoint, there are optimistic numbers to name two: over 90% of companies have implemented basic solutions in the area of waste management and energy efficiency, and over 80% declare that they have anti-discrimination policies and ethical standards.

In addition, there is an intensive digitization of HR processes: more and more companies use HR and payroll systems, e-files and development platforms, which supports both efficiency and the environment (less paper, less repetitive administrative work). At the level of reports and presentations, we can see an increasingly mature approach to ESG. At the level of communication to job seekers, often only general slogans, which means that a candidate who reads an advertisement or browses the “Career” tab sees a standard set: scope of duties, range, benefits package, “friendly atmosphere”. However, he does not see information that:

• the company has a whistleblowing policy,
• actively supports equal opportunities,
• runs an employee volunteering program,
• reduced energy consumption in offices,
• It digitizes processes to make them more friendly to employees and the environment.

Therefore, it is difficult for him to distinguish this organization from the competition, which does not carry out such activities at all.

How to translate ESG into the candidate’s language? A few practical directions

The key question for HR is: how to “translate” ESG into recruitment communication? The first step is a kind of… inventory, but not at the level of strategy or report, but from the candidate’s perspective. What specific experiences does the company give him thanks to the fact that he conducts ESG activities? Does this mean the possibility of hybrid work, real support in a crisis, transparent remuneration rules, access to development programs, a sense of security in reporting abuse?

Next, it is worth asking yourself a few questions:

• Where does the candidate have a chance to come across this information?
• Is there any information in the ads showing how the company cares about people and the environment?
• Is there a separate section on the “Career” page describing ESG activities from the perspective of an employee, not just an investor?
• Do social channels, if they are run regularly, feature stories showing employees or the entire company involved in social and ecological projects?

In practice, such a change in communication often does not require a lot of work, and it can change a lot. Let’s look at some examples:

• Instead of the general phrase “we care about the well-being of employees”, the announcement may contain more specific information: “we provide access to a psychological support program and recurring mental health webinars”.
• Instead of the slogan “the company is socially responsible”, you can point to a volunteer action and mention its effects or purpose.
• Instead of saying “we respect diversity”, it is worth including a few words about what the recruitment process looks like, whether it has standardized questions, whether salary gaps are verified.

Employer branding 2.0: ESG as proof, not a declaration

In the context of the above data and examples, employer branding 2.0 can be defined as a transition from “nice declarations” to showing what is really happening in the organization. For HR, this means two things. First, it is worth making ESG communication more realistic: showing actions as they are, instead of promising. Secondly, it is good to consider which elements of ESG are really important to candidates and how they can be woven into the recruitment process, starting from the first contact, through recruitment interviews, to onboarding. It is worth remembering that examples do not have to be spectacular. It is important that they are real.

What HR can do right now and without an extra budget

In practice, many companies can start using ESG in communication with candidates without new financial outlays. This requires a change of perspective rather than new projects. Talking about activities so that they respond to the need for information from candidates, supplementing the ads with at least 2-3 specific sentences about culture and responsibility, updating the “Career” page with a section “How we care for people and the environment”, using existing photos and stories from CSR activities in social media channels – these are all steps that can be taken “here and now”.

From the perspective of the labor market, 2024-2025 is a good time to stop treating ESG as a separate project and incorporate it into the everyday language of EB. Especially since some lessons have already been learned in the job market: companies are investing in sustainability, and candidates have learned to ask questions about values and examine their compatibility with their own. So the question is not “whether to talk about ESG in employer branding”, but rather “how much can companies afford to be silent about it today”?

And if you want:

• understand how ESG feeds EB and EX: from pay transparency and employment stability, through equal processes and psychological security, to the meaning of work and compliance of values,
• get an EVP × ESG (economic – functional – emotional) framework with examples of decisions and messages that build attractiveness and retention, and not just look good in the campaign,
• learn to recognize and limit green- / social- / rainbow- / woke- /purpose-washing in EB: what to say, what not to promise and what evidence to publish to avoid a contrast between declaration and practice,
• Embed actions in the context of key regulations (CSRD, CSDDD, Pay Transparency, whistleblowers) and market trends (employer trust, Gen Z/Millennials expectations) to combine legal compliance with competitive advantage.

then we invite you to watch the recording of the speech of the labor market expert, EB and HR consultant and trainer Mateusz Jabłonowski: “ESG in EB and EX – fashion or real advantage?“.