How We Approach Employer Brand Content — And Why It Starts Before the Camera Does

Last month we wrote about why employer brand content lives or dies on authenticity — and why the brief matters as much as the production itself. If you haven't read it, it's worth a few minutes of your time.

The response to that piece raised a question we probably should have answered in the original: fine, but how do you actually approach it differently?

That's what this post is about.

The problem with starting at the brief

Most production commissions begin with a brief. The client describes what they want, the production company prices it up, and both parties get to work. That process is efficient. It's familiar. And for a lot of content — an event film, a product shoot, a corporate headshot day — it's entirely appropriate.

Employer brand content is different. The brief the client arrives with is almost never the brief that would produce the best result. Not because the client doesn't know their organisation — they do, better than anyone. But because the questions that would unlock the right brief haven't been asked yet.

What are the two or three stories that genuinely represent this organisation? Which roles are hardest to recruit for, and why? What does a new starter typically get wrong about what the job involves? Which parts of the culture are you most proud of — and are they visible in anything you've produced so far?

Those questions take time. And they can't be answered in a production brief.

What we do instead — the Communications Content Planning Session

Before any production is commissioned, we run a structured working session with the client. For employer brand and communications work we call it a Communications Content Planning Session. It's a half or full day, and it has a specific structure.

We work through four stages. First, we listen — properly, without an agenda — to understand the organisation, the workforce, the culture, and the communications challenge. Second, we map the year together onto a twelve-month calendar, identifying the recruitment peaks, the internal communications moments, and the stories that need telling at different points in the cycle. Third, we agree which two or three stories are genuinely worth telling first, and why. Fourth, we confirm next steps and what the production programme looks like.

Within five working days of the session, the client receives a content framework document. It sets out which stories to tell, to whom, in what format, on which channel, and when — with a proposed shoot programme planned against their actual calendar and three clear pricing options. The document belongs to the client regardless of whether they commission the production.

The session fee is deducted from the first production invoice if they proceed. But the reason it works isn't the deduction — it's that by the time the framework document lands, the brief has already been written collaboratively. There are no surprises. The client knows exactly what they're commissioning and why.

What every project includes as standard

Every employer brand project with The Production Dept. is built on three foundations — and these apply whether a client has come through the planning session or arrived with a fully formed brief.

The first is value-added inclusions. Consultation and content strategy planning, location scouting and recce, logistics coordination, multi-format delivery across channels, and a full Google Workspace handover with a delivery note explaining every file and how to use it. These aren't extras — they're part of every project as standard.

The second is bespoke service. Crew scaled to the job. Shot lists built around the client's actual stories rather than a generic template. Creative direction matched to the workforce, the culture, and the audience being targeted. No two projects look the same because no two organisations are the same.

The third is production compliance. Full production insurance, location-specific risk assessments, filming permits, GDPR-compliant consent and model releases, and IP and usage rights clearly defined in the contract. For large multi-site organisations this extends to stakeholder sign-off processes, shift-pattern aware scheduling, and site-specific access coordination. The client shouldn't have to think about any of this. That's the point.

What this looks like in practice

The employer brand work we've produced at scale — for a leading UK travel operator and for National Highways — was built on exactly this foundation. Complex organisations, dispersed workforces, multiple stakeholders, sustained content programmes across twelve months or more.

The planning session made those projects possible. Not because it's a clever product, but because there's genuinely no other way to produce content at that scale without first understanding the organisation well enough to know which stories are worth telling.

If your organisation is planning employer brand content — whether that's a single film, a recruitment campaign, or a sustained programme — we're happy to talk through what the right approach looks like for you specifically.

And if you'd like to see case study examples from the work we've produced for national organisations, get in touch directly. As we mentioned in last month's post, the work speaks better in conversation than on a webpage.

Get in touch here for more a case study.