Overselling a role during recruitment but under delivering in reality? This is called job-washing, and if you’re guilty of it, you may drive away new employees and damage your company’s reputation. 

Ever sat in the interviewee chair while a hiring manager waxes lyrical about all the amazing things a company will offer you, only to face a different reality when you start? Sorry to tell you, but you’ve been job-washed.

Job-washing takes inspiration from the term greenwashing, which describes companies that make bold claims around sustainability and environmental consciousness but fail to back them up. In the case of HR, job-washing is when companies overpromise on the employee value proposition (EVP) during recruitment but underdeliver in practice. 

Why does job-washing happen? 

It’s important to note that most employers are not intentionally setting out to mislead candidates. Quite often, job-washing happens due to miscommunication or misunderstanding of policies. 

“Job-washing is an interesting new phenomenon that’s become more common during this critical labour shortage,” says Angela Anasis, Executive General Manager at Randstad ANZ. 

“There’s a risk in a hyper-competitive environment that employers may overpromise and that the employee experience won’t be what was promised during the recruitment process.”

Recent data around Australia’s skills shortage illustrates why some employers might be over-emphasising elements of their EVP. Between 2021 and 2022, there’s been a 42 per cent increase in occupations seeing shortages, according to the 2022 Skills Priority List. The release found shortages in 286 occupations, compared with 153 in 2021. 

Behind these numbers, we’re seeing talent poaching on the rise, with research showing that 98 per cent of employers target candidates who aren’t actively seeking a new role. 

Alongside this, employee confidence has risen, especially for younger generations. Randstad’s 2022 workmonitor report found that 61 per cent per cent of Gen Z respondents felt confident they could find a new job quickly, followed by 54 per cent of younger Millennials (aged 25-34 years) and 50 per cent of older Millennials (aged 35-44 years).

For hiring managers, this amounts to a pressure cooker situation. They have roles to fill, which can lead to ‘panic hiring‘ or overpaying talent. However, more often than not, the ball is in the candidate’s court. Your organisation is likely one of many trying to lock them in.

Knock-on effects of job-washing 

Overpromising and underdelivering on the employee experience or EVP will likely have dire consequences for your business. 

The majority of employees won’t put up with feeling misled, with 67 per cent of respondents actively open to new job opportunities, showing no hesitancy to move on if a role doesn’t match their expectations. 

Notably, younger employees indicate they’d rather be unemployed than unhappy in a job. The Randstad report also found that 50 per cent of Gen Z and 42 per cent of younger Millennials are open to leaving if they don’t feel happy. 

But it’s not just attrition you’re risking, says Anasis. Turnover includes costs of retraining, recruitment and lost productivity, with research finding that the cost to hire an employee more than doubled in 2021, rising from $10,500 in 2020 to $23,860 per worker. 

“Employees aren’t expecting the job or company to be perfect. They want it to be authentic.” – Angela Anasis, Executive General Manager at Randstad ANZ

But what about an employee who feels misled yet still sticks around? 

“If someone does stay, they’re just not as engaged. And we know how important engagement is for driving productivity,” says Anasis.

“Doing that extra bit doesn’t necessarily mean extra hours. It’s about thinking and engaging with the business and feeling like they’re really contributing.” 

Job-washing can also negatively impact your employer brand and EVP. 

With the rise of tools like Glassdoor and the ability to contact existing employees at a company using tools like LinkedIn, it’s easier than ever for employees to gain the inside scoop on an organisation’s practices. If you’ve overplayed certain elements of your culture or work, candidates have tools at their fingertips to find out. 

“Employer branding is so critical in attracting great people. If you’re insincere, it will come out.” 

Expectations versus reality

So what might job-washing look like in practice? 

There are a number of ways your company may accidentally (or even intentionally) mislead a candidate during the recruitment process. 

For example, you might emphasise flexible work policies during the recruitment stages but gloss over the details of what it would look like in reality. 

“That employee would start their role thinking they can work from home five days a week, or choose when they come in, only to be told they must come in on certain days and work certain hours,” says Anasis.  

Another example could be training and development. During recruitment, the hiring manager may discuss a culture of coaching and development, but when an employee starts they have a poor onboarding experience and no clear development path. Or worse still, they start and feel like they have to stay in their lane and can’t learn new skills.  

Another way job-washing might manifest is when a hiring manager only focuses on the  exciting or fun elements of a job. 

“It’s important to manage their expectations. This means not only covering the company vision, but also the downsides.” 

According to EVP specialist Mark Puncher, part of being upfront means articulating the more challenging elements of the job. He suggests that employers could add a line to a job ad that says “Here’s why we hope you’ll love working for us, and here’s why we fear you may not.” 

“When you do that, candidates are more likely to trust you on the good stuff,” says Puncher. “More importantly, they are more prepared for what they’re getting themselves into. So you can reduce the number of times someone says, ‘This wasn’t what I was sold.’  

“Let’s say you’re advertising a role for a telco. Why would you have career videos with satellites and galaxies if their days will be spent in a call centre or a van? Show the vans, the call centres and the people in them,” he says. 

Culture, values and equity also need to be factored in, says Anasis. Randstad’s report found that 55 per cent of Gen Z and 47 per cent of younger Millennials won’t work for a business that’s not making a proactive effort to improve its diversity and equity, compared to 28 per cent of their older counterparts. 

“Particularly for Gen Z, it’s important they feel connected to a company’s values. And even if things aren’t perfect, they want to know that you’ve got steps in place and are working towards your values and equity”  

How to avoid selling a dream

You may not even realise that you’ve misled an employee. So the first thing you should do is ask them, says Anasis. 

Start by checking internally to gauge whether your employees actually feel misled. If your company conducts regular internal engagement surveys, you could include a question like: “Is the job what you expected?”

From there you can glean whether your employees feel like they’ve been job-washed.  

Next, review what your brand says externally. Some of the elements you want to check off include: 

• What messages are you presenting? 
• What do your hiring managers or recruiters say about the company? 
• How are they articulating the company’s benefit? 

For example, what are your job ads telling the world? Are your job ads full of slick actors drinking coffee in pristine workplaces? Or are you featuring real people doing the work?  

Employees are clocking how your company presents in marketing, and the less authentic it is in practice, the poorer it will present on your brand. 

Anasis gives the example of a company that went all out on a recruitment marketing campaign where it espoused how great it was to work there and the flexibility it offers. Afterwards, the CEO put out a directive that every employee had to return to the office.  

“The brand saw huge backlash. It was such a 180-degree switch and people voted with their feet.” 

Authenticity above all else  

It’s a common adage: job interviews are a two-way conversation and an employee’s opportunity to interview you right back. To avoid misleading them, you also need to make sure hiring managers are answering tricky interview questions authentically. 

“The danger with job-washing is that you will skim through the narrative and nuances, instead of being upfront about the challenges the company is facing.” 

For example, if you’re striving for equal representation in leadership but aren’t quite there yet, be open about that but always show that you care and are working towards a solution.  

“You could say, ‘We’re not quite there yet and there’s more work to be done. Here’s the progress we’ve made so far, and here are some of the ways you could contribute,” says Anasis.  

“You want to be open and realistic about what that looks like and where you are on that journey.” 

“Employees aren’t expecting the job or company to be perfect. They want it to be authentic.” 

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