What an authentic employer branding journey – from zero EVP to beating Netflix for one of the industry’s most coveted global awards – can teach South African early careers teams.
Not all employer branding success stories begin with a big budget, and years of brand equity. Some of the most compelling ones begin with a blank page, a clear problem to solve, and a team with the courage to be genuinely honest about who they are.
Skyscanner’s story is exactly that. Earlier this year, the global travel search company – best known for helping millions of travellers find flights, hotels and car rentals – walked away with the prestigious RAD Award in the Employer Branding category. They did it by beating some of the biggest names in tech, including Netflix and Workday.
I recently chatted with three of the people behind the win: Bob Athwal, who leads Culture and Belonging at Skyscanner and has been with the company for nearly eight years; Lou Monkhouse, who heads up all hiring for their software organisation; and Claudia Prat, who has been instrumental in the execution and rollout of the campaign.
First, What are the RAD Awards?
The Recruitment, Advertising and Design [RAD] Awards are widely regarded as the gold standard for employer communications and branding internationally. Entries are judged by a rotating panel of senior leaders from creative agencies and talent acquisition, who evaluate both the quality of the creative work and, critically, the measurable results it produces. This is not an award for a campaign that is simply attractive; it is for one which demonstrates impact.
“We didn’t think we were going to win. Not when you’ve got Netflix on the list. When they called our name, Lou and I just looked at each other. We celebrated properly that night.” Bob Athwal, Head of Culture and Belonging, Skyscanner
Starting From Zero: The Case for An EVP
When Bob and Lou started this project around three years ago, Skyscanner had no formal Employee Value Proposition [EVP]. As Skyscanner emerged from the disruption of COVID into a fiercely competitive tech hiring market, the absence of a clearly articulated employee proposition presented them with a unique opportunity to build an EVP that would resonate in a changed world.
“The challenge we were trying to solve,” Bob explained, “was how do we stand out in a very crowded space? We’re a tech business, but we’re not big tech. We have 1 600 employees but 160 million customers every month. People know us as a travel product, but not necessarily as a place to build a career.”
The post-COVID hiring landscape added urgency. Mass layoffs at Meta and other large tech companies had shifted candidate priorities – people wanted stability, belonging and genuine human connection, not just a tech-giant salary. Lou saw this as an opportunity: “We thought, this is our chance to really stand out and tell a different kind of story.”
The business case they brought to their exec team was straightforward and honest: we’re competing in a crowded market, we have a remarkable culture that nobody knows about, and we can do this cost-consciously without pretending to have a Netflix budget.
Deriving The EVP: Listening Before Telling
What strikes me most about how Skyscanner approached their EVP is the discipline with which they listened before they built anything. Rather than sitting in a room and deciding what the EVP should be, they went out and found it.
The process included:
- A company-wide survey of over 100 employees across different levels, disciplines and locations
- Focus groups that unpacked what was truly distinctive about the Skyscanner experience
- Conversations with their CEO and executive leadership
- Close collaboration with their consumer brand team to ensure alignment between how Skyscanner presents itself to customers and to candidates
What emerged was a campaign they called “The Real Deal” – a playful, honest, human-first articulation of what it is actually like to work at Skyscanner. And crucially: “The EVP should be an organic byproduct of your already-existing culture. It doesn’t work if you prescribe something. You almost need to hold up a mirror to your own organisation – and that’s what you’re showcasing.”
“Before you create your EVP, look at your current culture. Celebrate what’s genuinely worth celebrating — and fix what needs fixing first. Don’t build an EVP on a foundation that won’t hold.” Claudia Prat, Culture and Belonging, Skyscanner
Making It Global, Keeping It Local
Skyscanner operates in multiple countries, from the UK to China, India, Miami, Barcelona and beyond. Their solution to the global-versus-local tension was elegant: keep the themes consistent but localise the execution.
Take one of their headline messages: “You’re worth more than pizza Fridays.” It lands perfectly in the UK, where free pizza is a well-worn tech-company cliché. But in China? The reference means nothing. So, for their Chinese offices, they used a different headline – a reference to the notorious “996” culture (working 9am to 9pm, six days a week) that is the norm in many Chinese tech companies: “To us, 996 is just another number. But that’s one thing you’ll never be to us.” Same theme – belonging, respect, being seen as a person and not a resource – but expressed in a way that resonates with that specific audience.
The video filming honoured this too. Employees from their Shenzhen office speak in Mandarin in the EVP video, with English subtitles, even though everyone at Skyscanner speaks English. “It was about letting people feel comfortable expressing what the Real Deal means to them, in the way they want to articulate it,” Bob shared.
The Campaign: What They Actually Built
The Real Deal campaign is an ecosystem of touchpoints, built to reach candidates wherever they are:
- A flagship EVP video featuring real employees across global offices, unscripted
- Office poster campaigns with localised headlines rolled out across every global office
- A refreshed LinkedIn and Glassdoor presence, as well as their own job site – all re-skinned with Real Deal content
- Social content “snips” – short video clips of employees telling their stories – shared regularly on LinkedIn
- Photo booths (physical and digital) deployed across offices during company-wide strategy events
- A candidate pack given to all applicants during the recruitment process, with video links to the campaign
- A candidate survey sent to everyone who completes the hiring process, regardless of outcome, asking whether the content made them feel more positively about Skyscanner
The result of that candidate survey? 96% of respondents said the Real Deal content made them feel more positive about potentially working for Skyscanner.
Being Honest About the Hard Parts
One of the things I found most refreshing about my conversation with Bob, Lou and Claudia is that they did not shy away from the fact that working at Skyscanner is demanding.
“It’s not all cakes and cuddles,” as Bob put it. “You will work hard. But if you lean into that, if you’ve got the right mindset and genuine curiosity, you will thrive. And we’ll look after you.” Skyscanner backs this up with meaningful wellbeing benefits – two dedicated wellbeing days, a wellbeing allowance, the ability to work from other offices or home countries, and a five-week sabbatical for employees who reach the five-year mark.
This kind of honesty in an EVP filters in the right people and filters out the wrong ones before either party wastes any time or money.
How They Measure Success
Measurement is as important as execution – Skyscanner tracks a range of metrics:
- Engagement survey scores: Currently at 83% engagement with an 84% participation rate. Within that, 87% say they’re proud to work at Skyscanner and 89% say they would recommend it as a place to work.
- Offer-to-accept rate: Around 75% of candidates accept offers – above market rate.
- Quality of applicant pool: Are the people applying the right kind of people for the organisation?
- Boomerang employees: People who have left and come back because they missed the culture.
Bob is also clear about what winning the RAD Award itself represents: validation, not the goal. “We never set out to win awards. If you build an EVP for external glory, you’ll go down the wrong path. We built it to solve a real business problem and to be honest about who we are. The award told us we’d done it right.”
Key Lessons for South African Early Careers Teams
So, what does this mean for those of us working in the South African graduate and young talent recruitment space?
Start with listening, not telling
Survey your people, run focus groups, talk to alumni and candidates. The most powerful employer brands are discovered, not invented.
Fix the culture before you brand it
Identify what is genuinely worth celebrating – and address what is not – before you start communicating. An EVP built on an unstable foundation will eventually crack, and the cost is not just reputational.
Be honest about the hard parts
South African candidates are increasingly savvy about marketing speak. If you work hard, say so. If the environment is fast-paced and demanding, own it. Authenticity builds trust; over-promising destroys it.
Think local, even within South Africa
Skyscanner localised across countries; we can localise across provinces, sectors and university contexts. What resonates with a student at Stellenbosch may be different from what resonates at UKZN or the University of Limpopo. Think about tailoring your messaging accordingly.
Your EVP is not a brochure – it’s a living system
The Real Deal spans video, social, posters, candidate packs, internal comms and engagement surveys. Think about every touchpoint a candidate or employee has with your organisation and ask whether it consistently reflects who you are.
Don’t lose your voice to your agency
If you are working with an external agency or creative partner, remember: you know your organisation better than they do. Bring them the creativity – but push back when something does not feel authentic.
Measure what matters
Engagement scores, offer-to-accept rates, candidate survey feedback, application quality – these are the metrics that tell you whether your employer brand is actually working. Track them consistently and use them to iterate.
A Final Word
What struck me most in my conversation with the Skyscanner team was not the sophistication of their campaign – it was the warmth and conviction with which they talked about their people. Bob has been at the company for nearly eight years, something he attributes directly to the culture. Claudia is based in Barcelona, working across time zones with genuine flexibility. Lou talks about candidates who take pay cuts to join, and colleagues who leave and come back because they miss the culture.
That is not something you can fake in a brochure or a beautifully produced video. That is the real deal. And perhaps that is the most important lesson of all – creating a culture you can be proud of and being authentic about it.