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

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 👇

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

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

Daniel Markovits

Creators + Community + Sports @ LinkedIn | Venture Scout | I help CEOs, execs, VCs, athletes & brands stand out and build authority

I’m a community builder and strategist obsessed with how people - founders, execs, athletes, creators - show up online and build trust at scale.Today, as CCO at Shake, I help B2B founders turn their ideas, experiences, and point of view into a content engine that drives authority, credibility, and long-term organic demand. We call it founder-led marketing: using the founder’s voice as the most powerful acquisition channel a business has. When done right, it makes sales easier, trust faster, and brand-building more human.Before Shake, I spent years at LinkedIn shaping how top leaders show up on the platform. I worked across editorial, product, and creator partnerships. Onboarding world-class talent like Lewis Hamilton, helping executives communicate with clarity and personality, and launching scaled video programs that grew community engagement across markets. I’ve supported 500+ high-impact members, from CEOs to rising operators, helping them grow their audience, sharpen their story, and build influence that actually moves people.My path has never been linear.. I’ve simply followed what made me curious: how communities form, how stories spread, and how the right piece of content can unlock opportunities for people. That curiosity has taken me from Tel Aviv to London and through roles that mix editorial instinct, product thinking, and deep talent partnership.At the core, my work has stayed the same:I help people communicate with more clarity, more confidence, and more humanity - so they can build the kind of presence that opens doors.If you care about founder-led marketing, storytelling, or the future of how leaders build trust online, we’re already speaking the same language.

Co-Founder

Club created to serve as a continuous bond between the diaspora community and the State of Israel.

• Successful crowdfunding campaign & world wide media coverage
• 150+ players from 25 different countries 
• Currently in Liga Gimel (5th division) of the Israeli Football League

Dani Markovits

If I had to start from zero on LinkedIn tomorrow, this is what I’d do

(I get asked this almost every week, so here’s my honest answer)

1. Fix the front door first
Strong photo. Clear headline. Bio that says who you help and why it matters.
 
2. Decide what you want to be known for
What's the one thing you want to be recognized for? The other day someone told me I’m the 'LinkedIn whisperer' (cringey, yes.. but I’ll take it 😆)

3. Show up in the conversations, not just the feed
Treat comments like content. Reply, add value, connect with the people already in the conversation. Comments (specially at the beginning) will get you way more reach/engagement than your own posts.

pro tip: comment on people with big, relevant audiences.
If someone has a million followers in your industry, you can 'hijack' distribution in the best way (by adding something genuinely useful to the conversation).

4. Send a few thoughtful DMs every day
Build your network intentionally. You want relationships before you actually need them.

5. Show up consistently for at least 3 months
Even 30 minutes a day across posting, commenting and engaging adds up fast.

That's it. 

No shortcuts but also not rocket science.

CCO @ Shake Content | Ex LinkedIn | I help CEOs, execs, VCs & brands stand out and build authority on LinkedIn

LinkedIn just became even more important.

AI systems like ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity now cite LinkedIn as their second most-referenced domain

(right after Reddit and ahead of Wikipedia).

This has huge implications for your business.

When potential clients ask AI: 'Who are the leading experts in (your industry)?' or 'what companies should I trust for (your service)?, the answer is being shaped by LinkedIn content right now.

Discovery is shifting:
➡️ From search → to synthesis
➡️ From ads → to authority
➡️ From brand pages → to people with real track records and opinions

This is especially important/relevant for businesses built on trust: B2B, tech, professional services, finance, cyber, healthcare, and more.

Your thought leadership isn't just building your personal brand anymore. It's training the AI systems that are pre-qualifying you before prospects ever reach your website.

The decision is being made in the AI conversation, not on your homepage.

This is exactly why, at Shake Content, we focus so heavily on helping founders and execs show up with real expertise, real stories, and real perspective.

bottom line: your prospects are having conversations with AI whether you like it or not.

The opportunity? This shift is still early. Most of your competitors aren't thinking this way yet.

s/o to Irina Novoselsky & Becca Chambers for already beating this drum👏

7 foolproof ways to go viral on LinkedIn (you’re welcome)

because people always ask me how to go viral and I take my research seriously.

1) Announce a 'hot take' that is not hot 
"People should be paid fairly and meetings are too long." Boom, you are a thought leader

2) Add a completely unnecessary selfie
Ideally: in a car or at an airport

3) Ask a question that forces people to expose their souls
My favorites: 'Is this just me?' and 'What would you do?'
Now Steve from HR is sharing his childhood in the comments. Engagement secured

4) Sell something but pretend you are not
Classic: 'Not selling anything, just sharing in case it helps.'
Link in comments to:
newsletter, webinar, ebook, course, startup, dog’s startup

5) Start with 'I'm going to regret posting this...' 
You wont. You workshopped this for three days and sent it to three group chats.

6) Line breaks. So. Many. Line. Breaks.
If your post looks like a normal paragraph, the algorithm gets suspicious.

Every thought.
Must feel.
Profound.

7) Use the phrase 'Let that sink in'
After stating something extremely obvious.
Let that sink in.

ps: I am probably guilty as charge of all of the above 🤪 

Real talk now: Going viral is fine. But being remembered for saying something true/different/insightful is way better.

Had a really nice full-circle moment this week.

The LinkedIn Alumni team did a spotlight feature on my time at LinkedIn and what we are building now at Shake Content. From working with creators and finance leaders, to breaking new ground with athletes on the platform, to some very personal stories in between.

It brought back a lot of great memories:
 • building creator programs from scratch
 • helping athletes show who they are beyond the pitch
 • seeing first-hand how personal branding can genuinely change careers

Here’s the full interview 🙌🏼

https://lnkd.in/eVKENUh9

Huge thank you to the LinkedIn Alumni team for including me and for putting so much care into keeping this community connected.

It also reminded me how powerful alumni networks can be when companies truly invest in them. There’s so much value in staying connected, sharing opportunities, and supporting each other long after the job title changes.

If you’re a former LinkedIn employee and haven’t joined yet, it’s well worth being part of: https://lnkd.in/eV-mVxDg

I honestly wish more people knew these communities even existed… because they’re an extension of the culture, not just a nice-to-have.

Very proud to be a LinkedIn ambassador 💙

Had a great catch-up with Jason Jung 정세진 at the Netflix office yesterday. 

We first met when I was at LinkedIn and he was at TikTok. Now he’s at Netflix and I’m building Shake. 

Funny how much changes, and how much doesn’t.

Still talking creators, content and platforms… just with different logos behind us.

Grateful for friends who work at places with great offices and free snacks 😆

It's not just you. More people are actually spending time on LinkedIn now.

And I'm weirdly happy about that.

I spent 4 years at LinkedIn, and a big part of what my team pushed for (even if it was never officially called this) was changing the premise that people only used the platform to look for a job.

And you can see it now. 

People scrolling on the tube/subway. Checking in daily (sometimes just for the games). Athletes sharing opinions, not just sponsorships. Founders talking openly about what's working and what isn't.

The WSJ shared an interesting article this week.

Apparently, inside LinkedIn there were constant debates about whether the platform should allow handles instead of real names.

And according to Gyanda Sachdeva (VP of Product), the question kept coming up: “Should we add handles?”

But the team always came back to the same answer — stick with real identities to protect trust.

And I'm glad they did.

Because when your name and reputation are attached to what you post, you show up differently. You think a bit more. You try to add something useful. 

That’s also why founder-led marketing works so well here.

LinkedIn isn’t perfect, but sticking with real identities might be one of the smartest decisions they ever made.

Full article here (worth the read) - https://lnkd.in/ewZ32kXJ

Everyone keeps asking me:

Should we invest in organic or paid on LinkedIn?

(and I think we're asking the wrong question)

They're not competing strategies, they work together.

Organic is your audition.
Test your messages, angles, and formats with 'zero' risk. See what actually makes people stop scrolling. What gets real comments, not just friendly likes. What people save or share.

If something doesn't work organically, paid won't save it. You'll just pay to help more people ignore it.

Paid is your amplifier.
Once you know what resonates, that's when you invest. Put budget behind what's already proven. Extend its reach. Get it in front of more of the right people.

Now you're not guessing (you are just scaling what works).

Most companies do this backwards. They create something, skip the test, and immediately spend money promoting it. Then they're surprised when it underperforms.

The issue usually isn't the targeting. It's that the message was never validated.

Better approach:
Let your audience tell you what's working first. 

Then amplify it.

It's easier to become a billionaire than a LinkedIn Top Voice.

0.001% of LinkedIn's 1+ billion members have the badge. You're more likely to get struck by lightning or live to 100 than earn it.

We spent an entire episode unpacking this (and yes, we recorded it before LinkedIn announced they're changing the whole program last week.. apparently we were onto something).

Today, we're launching What Just Happened: a monthly show where James, Harry, and I break down what's actually going on on LinkedIn. The stuff people are thinking but not always saying out loud.

What to expect:
→ The biggest platform moments each month
→ Hot takes on what's working (and what's cringe)
→ What's in, what's out
→ The trends you need to know about

Will it be a hit? No idea. But if it flops, we can always blame the algorithm 😆 

Part 2 of Episode 1 is coming soon 🍿 

If you care about LinkedIn, founders, execs, authority, and how this platform really works…

You’ll enjoy this.

Adam Mosseri just dropped 1,000+ words on AI's impact on creators and social media.

The most important line (imo) was:

'The internet already shifted power from institutions to individuals'

He's talking about Instagram - but this shift is already happening on LinkedIn.

CEOs are outperforming their company pages by 10x
Founder posts get more engagement than brand campaigns
Executive voices drive more pipeline than corporate content

As AI makes content easy to produce, what becomes scarce is: perspective

Real stories, real insights from real people.

The question shifts from 'can you create?' to 'can you create something only you could create?'

That's exactly what founder-led content does.

Your career pivots
Your failures
Your 3am decisions.

AI can replicate format but it can’t replicate lived experience.

This is the premise behind our work at Shake Content

Not because it’s trendy.. but because when everything looks the same, who it comes from is what matters.

---

Adam's full post here: OP Here: https://t.co/VGruvVXiSQ

The “who” is becoming more important than the “what”

What you say matters. But who says it now matters more.

This is the biggest shift I am seeing in 2026.

In the age of AI, credibility beats content.

Recent data shows that AI systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity are now citing LinkedIn 4–6x more than they were just a few months ago. And around 80% of those citations come from content written by real people on LinkedIn (not company pages).

That’s big.

AI isn’t only asking: Is this information relevant? It is asking: Who is saying this, and should I trust them?

LinkedIn makes that easy. Your role. Your experience. Your track record. Your network. All verifiable in seconds.

Which means the internet is shifting from: 
websites as sources → people as sources.

This is becoming one of the most important priorities for our clients, and exactly why, at Shake Content, we focus so heavily on founder and executive voice.

Source: https://lnkd.in/ezWsTazM

More context. Less urgency.

My friend George Mack once shared this take that went viral.. and honestly, it’s pretty bang on.

For a long time, I saw that as a bad thing about LinkedIn.

Boring. 
Too slow.
Always catching up.
Not where new ideas start.

But lately.. I have started to see it differently.

Maybe LinkedIn isn’t where things break first. But it might be the best place to actually make sense of them.

There are plenty of places to spot trends early: Twitter/X, Reddit, TikTok, Discord, group chats, wherever.

We're drowning in real-time takes. Every platform is racing to be first. Everyone is trying to go viral. 

LinkedIn's 'slowness' is starting to feel like the thing we might actually need.

So yeah, George is right. If it's big on LinkedIn, you're definitely late. 

But late to the hype means early to the insight.

We don't talk enough about the work we do with our clients.

So here's what happened when we partnered with shipshape.vc & Daniel Sawko.

Shipshape is an investor search engine that's helped 4,000+ companies raise over £1bn. They aggregate data from 25,000+ global funds and layer in private growth signals to show founders where capital is actually moving.

Their CEO, Daniel, had a strong LinkedIn presence but was frustrated by how much time quality content required. The platform had genuinely differentiated data, but the challenge was making that value immediately clear to both founders raising capital and institutional buyers.

What we focused on:
We stripped away feature-heavy messaging and built founder-led storytelling around:
- Why private growth signals matter in fundraising
- How attribution and precision targeting translate into ROI
- Making complex value propositions instantly understandable

Content became a dual-purpose asset - educating at the top of the funnel while supporting mid-cycle sales conversations.

The results over 4 months:
60% increase in impressions
44% increase in engagements 
13% follower growth 
30% uplift in platform signups vs. the prior period

That last metric is the one that matters. The content didn't just build awareness.. it drove adoption.

As Daniel put it: "We've got relevant insights to share, but finding the time was always challenging. Working with Shake Content has made content easy - we're producing studio-grade video content and tapping into new channels like YouTube."

This is what happens when you turn a technically powerful product into clear, consistent storytelling. Content becomes a growth driver, not just a brand exercise.

Excited to see where Shipshape goes next.

The full case study is here: https://lnkd.in/e-a_uJHZ

Hot take for 2026:

Your company shouldn’t act like a corporate page.
It should operate like ESPN.

ESPN doesn’t just run one show announcing scores. They have:
1/ First Take (debate and hot takes)
2/ SportsCenter (news + highlights)
3/ 30 for 30 (deep storytelling)
4/ Around the Horn (rotating expert panels)

Each show has distinct personalities. People tune in for Stephen A. Smith not 'ESPN Corporate Communications'

So why is your LinkedIn strategy just one bland corporate feed?

📺 Here’s the play for 2026
- Your VP of Product should be breaking down roadmap decisions like they're analyzing draft picks

- Your Lead Designer should be showing works-in-progress and debating design philosophy like it's film study

- Your Customer Success team should be sharing war stories from the trenches (not just case studies)

- Your Data Scientist should be dropping insights that make people stop scrolling

One corporate voice = changing the channel
Multiple expert voices = must-watch content

Give your experts their own shows. Let them have a point of view. Let them disagree with each other sometimes. Let them be interesting.

Nobody remembers the NBA's official press releases.

But everyone remembers the analysts who had something real to say about the game.

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