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Company culture is often described through polished careers pages and carefully selected workplace photos, but those materials don’t always show what it actually feels like to work there. Communications professionals can tell a more credible story by giving employees a visible role in shaping how the organization presents its culture and day-to-day experience. That might mean showcasing real projects, candid employee perspectives, career growth, team traditions or the less obvious details that reveal how people work together.
Below, Forbes Communications Council members share practical ways you can create culture content that speaks to current employees while giving prospective talent a more accurate sense of what to expect.
1. Celebrate Employee Contributions
Regularly celebrating employee accomplishments, like certifications, anniversaries and awards, shows how much you value your people. Our monthly DNA award spotlights an employee who lives out a company value in a tangible way. Because peers select the winner, it means even more. These posts consistently rank among our highest-viewed content, proof that authentic recognition resonates with people. We have employees who applied with us because of these posts. – Clay Tuten, KeyMark Inc.
2. Include Employees In Every Story
Center your employees in every story. Culture feels authentic when employees have the stage to share their experiences, whether through town halls, videos on social media or even in-person events. When employees feel genuinely valued, their experiences become stories prospective employees can connect with in a real way. – John Jorgenson, Cambium Learning Group
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3. Showcase Employees Beyond Their Roles
We’ve done fairly in-depth meet-the-team videos in the past that went well beyond a simple “explain your role at the company” approach. We had our videographer spend time with each person outside of work, getting footage of people surfing, hiking and doing other activities that helped provide viewers with a personal connection to each team member. They became some of our most popular videos and were very in line with how we present our company culture to the market. – Tom Wozniak, OPTIZMO Technologies, LLC
4. Show Culture Through Daily Actions
One of the best ways to showcase culture is to show how it comes to life every day. Companies should highlight the decisions they make, how teams work together and the behaviors they reward, not just publish statements about their values. The most authentic culture stories come from real employee experiences. When the external message matches the internal reality, people notice. – Evan Nierman, Red Banyan
5. Capture The Unfiltered Experience
Hand the camera to whoever just started. In their first week, someone who has nothing to defend yet will film what they actually see. Unedited, no marketing team standing behind them. It lands because it is not trying to land. It only feels authentic if the awkward parts stay in. Show only the good moments, and you confirm the exact suspicion candidates already have. Culture is not proven by images. It is proven by what you leave uncut. – Ramin Seyed, HuRa
6. Align External Stories With Reality
Be honest and transparent about who is successful at your company. Many companies overproduce culture to the point where the external story and the experience of employees are completely different. Not every culture has to be for every person; if you’re selling a different experience externally than internally, you’re attracting the wrong talent anyway. – Paula Mantle, Branch
7. Showcase Authentic Days At Work
Create an employee-led “day in the life” series showing how people work, collaborate, solve problems and grow. Feature different roles and career stages, including honest perspectives on rewarding moments and real challenges. Authenticity comes from letting employees speak in their own voices rather than scripting testimonials. When the stories reflect daily reality, current employees feel recognized and prospective talent gains a credible view of the culture. – Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions
8. Connect Employee Stories To Values
One powerful way to showcase culture is to let employees show how your values come to life. At our university, employee stories can connect everyday work to our hallmarks, from honoring the dignity of each person to building community and serving others. Authenticity comes from showing, not claiming, your culture. Ask employees to share one example of how a hallmark influences the way they work or serve students. – Kurt Allen, Notre Dame de Namur University
9. Document An Ordinary Workday
Record an ordinary Tuesday. Show how colleagues work together honestly in standups, during escalations and even during the occasional miss. Authenticity can draw more candidate interest than any polished corporate careers page. Current employees recognize themselves, and prospective employees imagine themselves working with your team. People join what they can picture. – Hope Frank, Wand AI
10. Explain Values Through Decisions
Culture becomes most credible when companies show how it influences real decisions. Instead of simply describing values, share the choices behind a policy, client decision or team practice and explain why they were made. Current and prospective employees can then see how stated values translate into everyday behavior, making culture something they can evaluate rather than something they are asked to believe. – Jessica Wong, Valux Digital
11. Adapt Culture Stories To Every Workplace
In-person companies can showcase culture through a video series featuring office life, team traditions and company events. Remote companies lack those shared physical moments, but can spotlight virtual celebrations, home office tours or employee takeovers. In either setting, let employees tell the story in their own words; candid perspectives resonate more than any polished corporate messaging. – Alexi Lambert Leimbach, Xcellimark
12. Recognize Employees Who Model Values
Feature employee accomplishments in internal newsletters and, when applicable, external communications, including public relations. Separately, develop an awards program where employees can be nominated for actions reflecting the collective values of the company. This enables employees to be celebrated while also reinforcing the company’s values. – Kimberly Osborne
13. Open The Door To Workplace Reality
Stop publishing staged employer-branding videos; give candidates public read-only access to your internal onboarding wiki. Prospective talent wants transparency into daily workflows, team documentation and operating norms, not polished corporate marketing. Publicly exposing your internal field guide proves radical cultural trust and lets candidates self-select based on operational reality. – Lauren Banks, RepuGen
