Trending: Bit of a Slowdown, Hiring and What is Employee Branding?
After debating whether they need big podcast headphones purely for the look (pink, obviously — plugged into nothing), Vonda and Lori get down to two topics dominating their conversations with Flower Clique members: a strange new feeling in shops called "slow," and the never-ending challenge of hiring and keeping employees. Both are trending from California to Vermont, and both deserve a rethink.
Is it actually slow — or is this just normal?
For the first time since the pandemic began, Lori has heard a handful of members say the same thing: "it feels slow this week — is anyone else feeling it?" Her theory: after two years of running 150 miles an hour, shops have lost their sense of what slow even means. Eating a whole sandwich in one sitting without getting up to make a casket spray feels alarming when you've forgotten what a normal pace is. And tellingly, by the next day, many of those same shops were swamped again.
Vonda backs the feeling up with data. The National Retail Federation reported retail growth of 14% year over year in 2021 — an almost unheard-of number. This year's forecast is 6–8%, which sounds like a slowdown until you remember that normal pre-pandemic growth was 3.7%. In other words, business is still growing faster than it used to; it just isn't accelerating like the pandemic years. The wildcard is global unrest — the longer the uncertainty drags on, the more consumers pull back. So when a slow day comes, the hosts' advice is simple: don't jump straight to fear. Use the time productively, take a breath, maybe even give yourself a day off. The future holds more ebb and flow — be ready for both.
Employer brand vs. employer branding
The second trend is relentless: Lori manages prep school enrollments and is dealing with at least five shops a day adding or removing employees from courses — a real-time window into industry turnover. Her research turned up an article on employer branding with statistics that both hosts found genuinely eye-opening.
First, the distinction. Your employer brand is how you're perceived from the outside — think of how everyone once dreamed of working at Google, with the free lunches and on-site massage therapists. Employer branding is the internal work of deliberately shaping that perception to attract applicants. For a flower shop, your brand is what a job seeker feels when they walk in: is the store cluttered and the counter person flat, or is the team laughing in the back while beautiful work goes out the door? As Vonda puts it, people can read the culture of a shop the moment they walk in — and they decide whether they want to be part of it.
The statistics that should change your hiring
The numbers the hosts walk through (mostly from LinkedIn studies, plus McKinsey & Company): 72% of recruiting leaders agree employer brand significantly impacts hiring. A stunning 92% of people would consider leaving their current job for a company with an outstanding reputation — and Lori has watched it happen locally, when a friend's long-term employee left for the cool new shop in town with the off-the-charts Instagram, the food bank volunteering, and the town center events, for the same money. 70% of employees say their sense of purpose is defined by their work, which is why the hosts urge owners to share their story and vision in every interview and align it with the candidate's own goals — even if that candidate is a grad student who'll leave in five years, or an accountant like Tim Farrell who falls in love with flowers and never goes back.
The business case is just as strong: companies with a strong employer brand receive more than twice as many applicants, and a strong brand drives a 28% reduction in turnover and a 50% reduction in cost per hire — while poorly branded companies have to pay higher salaries just to get people in the door, and still lose them. Since 86% of HR professionals say recruiting is becoming more like marketing, treat your next hire like a campaign: make your social media inviting, get the whole team involved, and let your happiest employees post "we're hiring" themselves — nothing says "this is a great place to work" like staff who mean it.
Key takeaways
- "Slow" is relative: growth is forecast at 6–8% this year versus 3.7% pre-pandemic — a normalization, not a crisis.
- Use quiet days productively (or restfully) instead of spiraling into fear.
- Your shop's vibe, social media, and community presence are your employer brand — job seekers are watching before they ever apply.
- 92% of workers would leave for a company with a better reputation; keeping people is about brand and purpose, not just pay.
- Recruit like a marketer: share your story in interviews, involve your team, and make working at your shop look as good as it feels.