When Meta came calling with eye-watering compensation offers for Anthropic employees, they expected people to bite. After all, money talks - and in tech, it tends to shout. But as Anthropic cofounder Jared Kaplan explained, hardly anyone left. Why? Because they didn’t join for the money in the first place.
Kaplan made it clear:
“We pay well, but we don’t pay what Meta pays… People come to Anthropic because they believe in the mission.”
And that single line should be a wake-up call to every employer still treating “mission” like a slide in the onboarding deck.
A Mission-Driven Employer Brand Is Your Moat
You don’t build a resilient employer brand with perks or pay alone. You build it by standing for something people care about, and backing that up with culture, clarity, and consistency.
Anthropic’s team isn’t sticking around just because they’re nice folks. They’re sticking around because they chose a company where the why matters more than the how much. Once again proving that skilfully articulating and communicating your mission creates gravitational pull. The right kind of people come in, and the wrong kind don’t even knock.
Live Webinar
Building Employer Brands Through a Trust Recession
When faith in business is thinner than a budget‑airline blanket, it pays to stand out.
🗓 Wed 20 Aug 2025 – 10 am SAST / 4 pm SG·HK
Host: Celeste Sirin (EBA) | Guest: Mike Parsons (CEO, Fathom)
In partnership with
Poaching Is Expensive / Losing Great People Costs More
Hiring is expensive. Attrition is expensive. Backfilling hard-to-replace roles is even worse. When your top talent leaves you don’t just lose skills, you lose knowledge, momentum, and morale. The emotional tax can be just as damaging as the financial one. Lost productivity, starting things again, relationships being reset to zero, secrets reaching your rivals, the list goes on. And not all of this pain can be measured in dollars... at least not easily.
A strong employer brand keeps your best people close, not with golden handcuffs but with shared purpose that's well communicated through the ranks. It’s truly your best defence against opportunistic recruiters, rival employers, and the lure of fat paychecks from companies with deeper pockets but shallower souls.
Helping HR, talent acquisition, employer branding, and company culture professionals find careers worth smiling about.
Good EB Doesn’t Just Attract Talent - It Filters It
Anthropic is benefitting far more than by just keeping their best people, they’re now attracting the kind of talent who want to be there even more. The kind who aren’t driven purely by stock options or bonuses, but by impact and alignment.
This isn't an accident or a fluke, it's the result of deliberate brand building: understanding what the company stands for, articulating it clearly, and repeating it often... not just to the outside world, but internally too.
A great employer brand acts like a magnet and a sieve: drawing in believers and repelling mercenaries.
Employer Brand is a Form of Strategic Defence
Let’s kill the myth once and for all: employer branding is not window dressing. It’s not the careers site, the TikTok intern, or the tagline you came up with after too much liquid brain juice. It’s a strategic asset that protects your people, your culture, and your roadmap.
Done well, it saves you millions in hiring, retention, and performance. Literally millions. It makes you less vulnerable to market shifts and more attractive to the talent that drives real business growth. Important in times of boom and times of bust.
So next time you leaders tell you “we can’t afford to invest in employer branding right now,” ask them this: Can you afford to lose your best people to the next Meta-shaped paycheck that walks through the door?
Takeaways
Mission Is More Powerful Than Money
Anthropic’s ability to retain talent despite Meta’s massive offers proves that employees will stay for purpose, not just pay. Your EVP must tap into that deeper motivation.
Employer Branding Is a Retention Strategy
Replacing top performers is costly — in dollars, time, and momentum. A strong employer brand protects you from losing great people in the first place.
Great EB Attracts and Filters Talent
It’s not just about bringing in people. A strong EB brings in the right people — those aligned with your mission — and keeps the wrong ones out.
Employer Branding Is Strategic, Not Fluffy
Forget the myths. Your employer brand is a core business asset. It reduces risk, boosts performance, and gives you a lasting edge — even against the richest rivals.
Brand Strength = Poaching Resistance
A well-defined and well-communicated employer brand makes your people far less vulnerable to external offers. It’s cheaper than counteroffers, and far more effective.
EBN
