Molly Johnson-Jones

Hi, I'm Molly and I run Flexa: the careers platform designed to help people and companies find their perfect match - powered by verified data.The discovery phase of hiring has been ignored for too long - and at one point, it almost cost me my career.I lost a job after asking to work from home one day a week. It made me realise that people have no easy way to see what companies are really like, or to find workplaces that align with their lives, ambitions, and values. The hiring market simply isn’t transparent. That’s where Flexa comes in. Flexa turns employer brands into discoverable reality. Imagine being able to search for companies the way you’d browse for somewhere to stay. Instead of “cottage with a hot tub”, it’s “company with hybrid working and brilliant career progression”. You decide what matters - and we show you who actually offers it.For companies, Flexa is the operating system for employer brand. We don’t just make you discoverable in millions of searches by aligned talent - we show you how your brand performs and how to strengthen it. Built on more than 2 billion data points, Flexa analyses what talent wants, how they search, and what they think of what you have to offer.We work with forward-thinking brands like Mars, Huel, Airbus, and Microsoft to turn their employer brands into dynamic, searchable profiles browsed by over 4 million people, often generating more engagement and traffic than Glassdoor.Flexa owns the discovery moment - where attention, trust, and curiosity are built. Our data is reshaping how companies attract and retain talent, and how people discover workplaces that genuinely align with their priorities and values.I care about rebuilding the relationship between people and companies - through honesty, clarity, and proof. Because great companies deserve attention, and great talent deserves a best-in class experience.

Co-Founder & CEO

I fell completely out of love with LinkedIn. Five years of posting almost every weekday turned into a break over Christmas, and then the whole of January... then a real reluctance to start again in February. 

Seeing the change in engagement, original thought, and authenticity on this platform meant that the amount of work it took to turn up here daily, create quality content, and engage in thoughtful discussions just wasn't worth it anymore to me. 

Plus, the state of the world and social media's shift towards only encouraging binary discussions, ignoring the nuance that the majority of the world exists in, and the rise of individualism meant that what was once a community slipped into feeling more like a battleground.

I have no doubt that my disillusionment led to less love and care being put into my content, and in turn that led to less engagement and valuable conversation, but there's still, undeniably, been a huge shift in the kind of conversations that are rewarded on this platform. Like anything, it's a mixture of factors that are impossible to separate. 

However, it was my Birthday yesterday and it made me think about what I want to be and to achieve this year. 

One of the things I want to keep being is stubborn (in the right situations...!) and determined. I know that there are still so many people out there that want to engage with topics that aren't LinkedIn cheat sheets, pictures of billboards with motivational quotes, or AI-generated slop. 

So, in a bid to attempt to rekindle some form of love for this platform, I'd love to understand what you'd like me to post about. Whether you've followed me for a while, or this is your first time engaging with me, I'd like to know what you'd like to consume... so please vote with your reaction emojis!

👏 The future of work and flexible working
👍 Equality and societal observations
🫴 Startups and entrepreneurship
😂 Culture and observations about work
❤️ Honest stories about my experiences 

Or if there's anything you think of that isn't here, please just tell me in the comments. Thank you for your collective brains 🙏

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African Societies

Contemporary India

Geographies of Finance

Oxford Investment and Finance Society

CEO & Co-Founder @ Flexa | Employer Brand | DEI | Talent Intelligence | Future of Work Speaker

Hello, I'm Molly, CEO and Co-Founder of Flexa.

At Flexa, we're revolutionizing the future of work by showcasing what makes companies unique and bringing much-needed transparency to the job hunting process. With 3 million users globally, we partner with esteemed brands like Airbus, Mars, BT, and Verizon to create inclusive employer brands that attract the right talent. If you're keen to get your company on Flexa, reach out to Poppy at poppy@flexa.careers.

As one of the UK's foremost thought leaders on the future of work, I’ve been featured in major media outlets like Forbes and The FT. I’ve headlined talks at prestigious events such as Sifted, Recfest, and RunningRemote, and appeared on BBC News and TalkTV. I run workshops on a variety of topics, including EVPs and DEI, which I’ve delivered impactfully for GWI and Microsoft. Additionally, I’ve partnered with industry leaders like Mercer, Intel, Awesomic, and Samsung, consistently achieving excellent results for their campaigns.

If you're interested in collaborating on an influencer campaign or booking me as a speaker, please reach out at hello@mjj.work or connect with me on LinkedIn. Let’s build the future of work together!

Reach an engaged audience of HR decision makers all over the world, and add credibility to your products and services. Whether you're looking for your new product to be considered by my audience, or want to ensure your data and reports are seen by millions, we can work together to generate measurable results.

Influencer Campaigns

An expert in the future of work, I speak on topics ranging from how to attract top talent using data, through to how the world of work is changing and what companies need to do about it. Whether you're looking for an inspirational keynote, a hands on workshop, or an data-packed presentation, I deliver talks all over the world to educate, advocate, and inspire.

Speaking Slots

I've built an engaged following of over 80,000 followers, and have opened up a limited number of sessions to share my learnings and help you to do exactly the same. Whether your goal is to monetise your following or generate leads, I can give you the tips and tricks on how to get there, fast.

I also work with companies to bring workshops to their employees about personal branding, and employee advocacy - your company's most powerful talent attraction tool.

Personal Branding

CEO & Co-Founder @ Flexa | Future of Work Speaker & Creator | Employer Brand | DEI | Talent Intelligence

We see a huge uptick in people looking for a new company in January. Probably because “New year, new me” isn't just limited to people's personal lives; and many people want change in their professional lives too. 

Here are some companies actively hiring right now, all of whom go above and beyond to show exactly what it’s like to work there:

📡 Vodafone - with a WFA scheme and a hybrid working setup

🌊 Anglian Water Services - with a range of alternative working patterns

🔗 Boomi - offering amazing family friendly benefits

🛡️ BAE Systems - who are open to compressed hours and part-time candidates

🍺 The HEINEKEN Company - with gym memberships and financial coaching

🏗️ Mott MacDonald - offering tax free childcare and on-site yoga classes

🎮 Improbable - with skilled worker visas and equity packages

🧠 Tyk - offering unlimited annual leave and sabbaticals

🚆 SilverRail - with L&D and travel opportunities

📊 Connected Places Catapult - working a 9-day fortnight

🌍 Flash Pack - with total pay transparency and stock options

🏦 Brit Insurance - with a great pension and volunteer days

📈 EY - offering clear career progression and mentoring

🎁 Not On The High Street - with true autonomy and team-building days

🧩 SAPI - with a dog friendly office and equity packages

Discover these and more intentional employers on Flexa 👇

We’ve just come back from our company-wide shutdown over Christmas. Nearly two full weeks, the whole business off at the same time.

Here are some other brilliant companies offering company shutdown periods alongside annual leave:

🎄 Peak PEO | B Corp™

📘 Bradshaw Advisory

🌍 ClientEarth

🧠 Tyk

🌐 Veramed

☀️ Picnic

🎓 Oak National Academy

🛠 MBDA

💼 tms

🚴 Deliveroo



Discover these and more intentional companies on Flexa

#futureofwork #employeebenefits #burnoutprevention

Work feels different when it’s tied to a mission you actually believe in. Here are some mission-driven companies featured on Flexa:

🐾 Battersea
Rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming dogs and cats, and pushing for lasting change in animal welfare.

🐕 Support Dogs
Training assistance dogs to help people with autism, epilepsy and physical disabilities live more independent lives.

⚖️ ClientEarth
Using the law to protect the planet, hold governments and corporations to account, and drive systemic environmental change.

🧩 Patchwork Health
Fixing workforce gaps in healthcare by making it easier for clinicians to work flexibly and sustainably across the NHS.

🧠 Unmind
Helping organisations support mental health proactively, not just when someone reaches crisis point.

🌱 Livestock Information Ltd
Improving animal health, welfare and food system resilience through better data across the livestock sector.

🌍 Cool Farm
Supporting farmers and food companies to measure and reduce their environmental impact, from soil to supply chain.

🏗 NHBC
Raising standards in housebuilding to create safer, higher-quality homes for people across the UK.

✈️ Airbus
Building the future of aerospace while investing heavily in sustainability, innovation and long-term skills.

🛵 Deliveroo
Connecting people to food they love while evolving how flexible work can function at scale.

📡 Vodafone
Using connectivity to support economic inclusion, digital access and social impact worldwide.

⚡ OVO
Accelerating the transition to clean, affordable energy and helping customers reduce their carbon footprint.

🚆 Northern
Keeping communities connected across the North while modernising transport and access to work.

🍺 The HEINEKEN Company
Brewing responsibly, investing in communities, and setting ambitious targets on sustainability and inclusion.

Looking for a company that aligns with your purpose?

Check out these and more mission-driven employers on Flexa 👇

Over the past two years, we’ve seen a sharp rise in candidates actively filtering for companies based on whether employers offer meaningful mental health support, and whether it’s real rather than just lip-service.

To help cut through the spoof, here’s a list of organisations on Flexa with verified mental health support, based on what they actually offer:

🧠 Virtalent
💬 Puzzel
🌱 Cool Farm
🏗 Leighton
🎨 Clock
📐 Cahill Design Consultants
💛 Tangle Teezer Ltd
📊 Hurree
🧪 Redgate Software
👩‍💼 EY
🌍 SAP
📡 Vodafone
☎️ BT Group
👗 ASOS.com
✈️ BAE Systems
💻 Microsoft UK
🔁 Boomi
🎮 tombola

Discover more companies based on what you care about on Flexa 👇

Ad | Burnout gets talked about so casually now that I think we’ve lost sight of what it actually is.

Real burnout is severe, and when it hits, it can wipe people out for months and even hospitalise them.

That’s the version that should worry SMEs.

Because when genuine burnout happens, it’s expensive. £21k per employee per year expensive (BenefitsPro, 2025). When burnout happens, the fallout is huge: lost knowledge, long recovery times, disruption to teams, and cultural impacts.

What makes this harder is that traditional health insurance only steps in once someone is already unwell. 

This is why I’ve been working with Bupa Business UK and YuLife. They’re approaching this proactively, rather than reactively: treat the early-stage signs seriously before they spiral, and make prevention something people actually do.
Fast clinical support when you need it, and daily engagement that fits into the day rather than becoming another task. And the fact that 1 in 2 members use the YuLife app daily suggests something important: if you design prevention properly, people will actually use it.

For SMEs, that matters, because stopping one real case saves months of disruption… and a huge amount of money and stress.

Burnout shouldn’t be the default vocabulary for feeling overwhelmed, but it also shouldn’t be something we only acknowledge once someone is already falling apart. 

More on how Bupa Business UK and YuLife are doing that here https://lnkd.in/eR7HwJiu

Most EVPs are built on what leaders think employees want, not what they actually want - and that's a problem

In 2026, the companies that will win the war for talent are the ones using data to understand their people. Not hunches, not trends - real, actionable insights about what matters most.

We've analysed over 2 billion data points from Flexa, and three trends caught my attention:

📈 Demand for benefits in London doubled in 12 months 
🏠 Parents wanting remote-first roles up 43% 
🌈 LGBTQIA+ demand for diversity up 50% in 6 months

This isn't what people might want. It's what they're actively searching for right now.

This year, my newsletter is shifting focus towards data. Because having a strong EVP in 2026 isn't just about good policies anymore. It's about using data to guide smarter, more intentional decisions.

In this week's newsletter, I'm breaking down:
💡 Why data matters more than ever for your EVP 
📈 How to use data to improve employee retention 
🔧 4 practical ways to start making data-driven decisions 
🎯 A sneak peek at our 2026 Insights Report (coming soon!)

Because data turns your EVP from a guessing game into a strategic advantage.


#EVP #EmployerBranding #TalentStrategy #FutureOfWork #HR

Hello and welcome back to my newsletter! I write about the future of work, flexible working, startups, and DEI. If you've been forwarded this newslett

Open article: Why data will define the strongest EVPs in 2026 by Molly Johnson-Jones • 8 min read

Why data will define the strongest EVPs in 2026

Ad | I see millions of data points about what makes people stay or leave their companies, and so many organisations get their approach to reward and benefits wrong. 

More often than not, managers react when they realise someone is leaving, rather than keeping an open dialogue about what makes them tick.


Tech’s Hidden Health Costs (2026), a new report from Bupa UK and @YuLife really added to my thinking about proactivity versus reactivity.

😮‍💨 33% of tech SME employees experienced mental fatigue (YouGov, 2025)

😱 69% delay seeking care because of workload pressure

😵‍💫 And 70% of leaders experienced poor mental health in the past year (BIMA Tech Inclusion & Diversity Report, 2025)


Managing my health while building a company means that I know firsthand that preventing health crises is far easier than recovering from them.

But here's what else the research shows: most workplace health benefits fail because of the engagement gap. 18% of businesses offer health insurance (FCA Financial Lives Survey, 2024), but only 1 in 10 employees use preventative care (Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, England, 2023/4)

Traditional benefits don't tend to fit into real working life, so when companies close that engagement gap - making prevention part of the daily routine, not an afterthought - the results compound across retention, productivity, and culture.
The full report breaks down what's working to prevent burnout before it costs you your best people. 

Worth a read if you're building a team that can actually sustain what you're building, download here: https://lnkd.in/en5Fcd9E

#burnout #workplacetransparency #healthinsurance

Brand partnership • CEO & Co-Founder @ Flexa | Future of Work Speaker & Creator | Employer Brand | DEI | Talent Intelligence

Product Manager @ Flexa Careers

I thrive in messy and ambiguous situations where you need to move fast and figure things out as you go. An eclectic background demonstrates my aptitude to up skill fast, my appetite for growth and my ability to adapt.
At UnlikelyAI, I lead client engagements for neurosymbolic AI solutions in financial services, accountancy and insurance where the stakes are too high for the probabilistic outputs generated by LLMs. I run discovery, scope technical solutions and translate between what the technology can do and what the business needs. 
Before this, I was Head of Product at Flexa where I owned the full B2B2C product lifecycle. I've founded two businesses and have a PhD in exercise physiology - the analytical rigour carried over even if the domain didn't!

Dr. Ailish McLaughlin

Solutions Lead @ UnlikelyAI | Enterprise AI for Regulated Industries | Product and Technical Pre-Sales

We’re delighted to welcome Dr. Ailish McLaughlin to the SoundBoard Advisor Panel.

Ailish’s career journey is anything but linear - from exercise physiology and working with Olympic athletes (and competing internationally herself), to founding multiple health businesses, and now pivoting into tech with a strong focus on helping individuals and organisations navigate and implement AI.

It’s a rare mix of deep technical expertise, lived experience, and genuine curiosity about what’s next.

Here’s what Ailish shared with us on why she’s excited to join the SoundBoard community:

“Over a long and winding (and eclectic) career, the people who took time to advise me, make introductions, and help me figure out my next steps have been instrumental. Soundboard is a chance to return the favour. Linear careers are no longer the norm - and I'd love to offer what I've learned to others navigating the twists and turns of their own.”

Welcome, Ailish - we’re so glad to have you!

Dave O' Mahony Eimear O'Halloran MBA

AI prompting is dead.

Not even six months ago, I had a whole framework for writing the perfect prompt. I even shared it in AI workshops I ran during the summer.

Then last week, a friend said she felt like she wasn't very good at prompting.
And I found myself saying: just give it context about what you're trying to solve. Then let it ask you the questions it needs.

And I realised that how I engage with AI has completely changed since I held those workshops.

It got me thinking. Is this because my understanding of how to use AI has evolved? Or has something fundamentally changed in the tech?

Turns out, it's mostly the latter. Models have genuinely improved at understanding what you mean without needing rigid prompts. Anthropic even talks about the shift from "prompt engineering" to "context engineering"; it's less about finding the perfect words, more about giving it the right information.

Six months ago, prompting felt like a skill to master. Now it's your ability to brief well that matters.

The shift from "ask AI questions" to "get AI to ask you questions" is small. But it changes everything about how the interaction feels.

Another reminder that the way we use these tools is evolving as fast as the tools themselves.

Everyone's talking about AI replacing jobs or creating new roles.

But I think the biggest change will come from something else entirely: speed.

Anthropic built and shipped Claude Cowork in 10 days. Using Claude Code.
That's the new baseline.

AI will compress timelines in ways we've never experienced. 

But human brains haven't evolved to match that pace.

"Sleeping on it" is a thing for a reason. We need time to process, to let ideas marinate, to make good decisions. Our best thinking often happens in the gaps between the work.

When AI compresses those gaps to almost nothing, we lose something. And I think we'll see two things happen:

🤿 Stress massively increases. The speed will bring a constant feeling of being underwater, where no one can ever quite catch up.

🦥 Poor decisions and badly thought out plans. Because speed often doesn't equal quality. Sometimes slow is how you get it right.

But I think this will also eventually lead to another evolution.

We saw a resurgence for in-person time after everything could feasibly be done online. People craved what they'd lost.

I wonder if we'll see the same thing here. Purposeful slowing down. Thinking time built into delivery plans. Strategic pauses as a feature, not a bug.

What do you think?

Americans spend more on OnlyFans than ChatGPT and the New York Times combined.

I know nobody who (openly) admits to using or paying for OnlyFans. But almost everyone I know uses and pays for AI.

This graph was a great reminder of the echo chamber I exist in.

It's also a reminder of what actually drives human behaviour. Research consistently shows that our deepest psychological need is connection. Social isolation is more harmful than alcoholism or smoking. And s*x often isn't really about s*x; it's about reducing alienation and loneliness through physical connection.

So it shouldn't surprise us that people turn to technology for connection. P*rn, social media, AI companions - the delivery mechanism changes but the need stays the same.

With social media, we didn't act fast enough to protect vulnerable users. That need for connection made people easy to exploit. We're already seeing echoes of this in AI - companions designed to keep you engaged, responses tuned to tell you what you want to hear. But this time, we have a chance to build it differently.

I used the Claude Chrome plugin to build an app a few weeks ago. It took a few hours.

I didn't question it. I just assumed this was the cost of using AI agents. Building things takes time. Makes sense.

Then I tried Claude Code. And did something similar in minutes.

How? Why?

Listening to the hard fork podcast the other day I learned that the Chrome plugin is essentially blind.

It works by taking screenshots of the webpage, analysing what it sees, identifying which pixel to click, then performing the action. Every single interaction requires this loop. 

Did everyone already know this? I didn't.

Claude Code works directly in the terminal. It reads and writes code as text. No visual interpretation needed. No pixel hunting. It just does the thing.

Another reminder that understanding how this stuff works impacts how you use it.

OpenAI just announced ads are coming to ChatGPT's free and Go tiers.

Cue the outrage. 

But is this a betrayal? Or a clarification?

AI is a (very) helpful tool. But it is built by companies who have incentives.

Some estimates project OpenAI to have >$115 billion in cash burn by 2030. They've committed $1.4 trillion to infrastructure. That money has to come from somewhere.

This is actually useful information. It's a healthy reminder that understanding what the business who builds the technology cares about matters.

Because when you understand what a company is optimising for, you can use their product more strategically. You know what they want from you. And you can decide what you want from them.

I'll continue beating the drum that AI is incentivised to capture your attention. Because this is crucial for the companies that make it to win the AI race. And now, with ads, they can monetise that attention directly.

We talk a lot about understanding AI. But we should be talking just as much about understanding the businesses that build it.

I genuinely believe we're heading towards a future where apps as we know them no longer exist. One super interface, customised for you, where you do everything.

And that excites me.

But Clawdbot, the latest explosion in AI, just gave me a glimpse of how messy the road there is going to be.

It's an open source, proactive AI assistant that connects to your email, calendar, Slack etc. It has full terminal access to your machine and you talk to it through WhatsApp or iMessage. It's been described as "what Siri is supposed to be." And if you know me at all, you'll know properly AI enabled Siri was on my 2025  Christmas wish list!

But there's no company behind it that must comply with security laws, there's no accountability. And it's most useful when you give it access to everything.

Security researchers have already found 900+ exposed instances leaking credentials. The creator's own docs say: "There is no 'perfectly secure' setup."

I would love to try it. But I know my limits. I can't set up a sandboxed environment or understand the technical documentation well enough to harden it properly. So it's too risky for me right now.

And this made me think about how much trust we place in companies and governance. Sometimes that trust is misplaced. But it definitely offers more protection than this.

En route to an exciting future, there is so much to figure out. And so much potential for disaster.

Hugely exciting opportunity for my product network to join our very talented team on a very exciting mission as an IC.

Ethan Mollick recently shared a study saying role prompting (telling the AI to act as a data scientist, copywriter, etc.) had no impact on the quality of output.

Meanwhile, Parth Patil and Reid Hoffman were on a podcast talking about how assigning roles to AI agents gives you wildly different outcomes and perspectives. Parth even generated 100,000 unique expert personalities to tap into different viewpoints.

So which is it? Does role prompting work or not?

I think the reality is that there are no blanket truths in AI yet.

The tools are changing faster than anyone can keep up with. What worked last month might not work this month. What works for one person might not work for another.

All we can do is keep experimenting, stay curious, and decide for ourselves what actually works. There's no "right" way to AI....

The future is fully customisable. But what if we don't actually want that?

I've been building apps and tools with Claude Code. They're pretty good. They mostly work. But I've noticed I'd rather experience friction when using them than spend time perfecting them.

And this made me think about the friction baked into the software we use today. The apps and tools that aren't designed specifically for us. They're built for everyone and as a result we have to bend to fit them.

The promise of AI is that everything becomes fully customisable. Built just for you and perfectly fitted to your workflow.

Which, in theory, sounds amazing.

But do we even have the cognitive bandwidth to know exactly what we want? Every decision about what it should do is another decision we have to make.

Decision fatigue is real. There's a reason Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day - he was reducing meaningless decisions so he could focus on the important ones. 

Maybe the best software does the same thing and customisation won't provide the freedom we think it will.

AI can now read, sort, and respond to your emails for you.

It’s one of the things Clawdbot (OpenClawd? Moltbot?) gets praised most for.

But what if there’s a different way…..? 😅

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