The hiring market feels easier.

But, Universum’s employer attractiveness data says be careful.

My guest in this episode is Mika Sallinen. He heads Universum's business in Finland and leads global analytics for the group. He brings fresh, multi-market research from 21 countries to this conversation.

What he is seeing in the data right now should concern every leader who thinks the talent challenge is over.

▪️Safety has replaced ambition.

▪️Employability is the new currency.

▪️A significant wave of talent movement is building beneath the surface.

▪️And AI is already changing how talents discover and evaluate employers, whether organisations are ready for that or not.

I, Susanna Rantanen and my guest, Mika Sallinen, cover:

▪️Why Great Resignation Part Two may already be forming

▪️ What Nordic talents mean when they say they want respect

▪️ How AI tools are shifting talent discovery (and what that means for your employer brand)

▪️ Why B2B brands cannot afford weak employer branding

▪️ Why young professionals are no longer aspiring to leadership roles

▪️ The one strategic shift every CEO should make in 2026

▪️ What employer attractiveness will depend on in three years

A sharp, data-led conversation for leaders, HR professionals and employer branding practitioners building brands that last.

Connect with Mika Sallinen on LinkedIn >>

Connect with Susanna Rantanen on LinkedIn >>

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This podcast is sponsored by our family business, ⁠Employer Branding Agency Emine, where we help business leaders turn strategy into action by aligning people, culture, and communication with business storytelling.

⁠Find the show notes to this episode here >>

🎙️ Is your organisation only using AI, or has it actually built the capability to transform with it?

There is a significant difference. And most leaders have not yet had to reckon with it.

In this episode, I am joined by John Munsell, who helps organisations operationalise AI fast and at scale, to explore why most AI initiatives stall, what separates AI curiosity from AI-first culture, and what leaders must do to close that gap before their competitors do.

What you will hear in this episode:

✅ Why 86% of companies that claim to have "adopted AI" have barely dipped a toe in

✅ The 10 Levels of AI Mastery and why most employees are stuck at Level 3

✅ Why individual AI experimentation without governance is a serious organisational risk

✅ What an AI-first culture actually looks like in practice

✅ Why AI transformation is, at its core, a leadership and culture problem

If your people don't know what excellence looks like, AI will just get you to average faster.

This episode is for leaders who want to shape AI transformation intentionally, not react to it when it is too late.

🎧 Story-Driven Business Podcast with Susanna Rantanen

This podcast is sponsored by our family business, ⁠Employer Branding Agency Emine, where we help business leaders turn strategy into action by aligning people, culture, and communication.

⁠Find the show notes to this episode here >>

📕 Story-Driven Employer Branding available at ⁠http://storydrivenemployerbranding.com⁠

Most business transformations don't fail because the strategy was wrong. They fail because the meaning never reached the people who needed it most.

If you've led or lived through a transformation that felt heavier than expected, where the strategy made sense, the team was aligned, and execution still wobbled, this episode is for you.

In this episode, Susanna unpacks why change initiatives lose momentum in the same place every time, why it has nothing to do with people resisting change, and what leaders can do differently to make transformation actually stick.

You'll learn:

• Why what leaders call "one transformation" is almost always five changes happening simultaneously
• What the meaning gap is and why it causes people to default to old behaviours
• Why middle management is the hidden breaking point of most change initiatives
• The specific communication gaps that quietly kill execution
• Why meaning, not motivation, is the missing layer in change leadership
• How story-driven communication turns compliance into genuine ownership

This episode is essential listening for leaders driving change, middle managers caught between strategy and reality, and anyone who has wondered why well-designed transformations so often run out of steam.

Hosted by Susanna Rantanen, a story-driven business and employer brand strategist.

This podcast is sponsored by our family business, ⁠Employer Branding Agency Emine, where we help business leaders turn strategy into action by aligning people, culture, and communication.

⁠Find the show notes to this episode here >>

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