On employer brand and applicant experience
This analysis of On’s career page is written from the perspective of someone considering applying for a job. I’m still exploring and improving the format of these articles, but the main goal will stay the same: examine the employer branding of different companies and help (future) applicants make their decisions.
Key points from the analysis:
- On employer branding team did a great job
- Job position descriptions as “converting” landing pages work
- More details on benefits and WFH policies could be quick wins
Previously covered: SumUp.
This time I went for a more informal POV and added a chapter. Consider this as the second attempt in the format exploration and stay tuned for more.
Basic company information
Basic Information (data collected: 3.2.2025)
| Founded | 2010 |
| Industry | Sportswear, Sports equipment |
| Headquarters | Zürich, Switzerland |
| Company Type | Public; NYSE: ONON |
| CEO | Martin Hoffmann, Marc Maurer |
Financial & Funding
| Revenue | CHF 1,771.7M (2024, Q1-Q3) |
| Latest Funding | - |
| Total Funding | - |
Workforce
| Number of Employees | 2,353 FTE (2023 annual report) |
Digital Presence
| Monthly Website Visits | 10.29M, Dec 24 (SimilarWeb) |
| Career Page Performance (Berlin) | 26/100 mobile, 57/100 desktop |
| Career Page Accessibility (Berlin) | 75/100 mobile, 78/100 desktop |
Social Media
| 359k followers | |
| 2.4M followers | |
| TikTok | 153.3k followers |
Content & Updates
| Blog Posts on Career page (6 months) | unclear, no dates |
| Press Releases (6 months) | a lot, several per month |
Apps & Reviews
| Apple App Store | 4.9/5 (20.9k reviews) |
| Google Play Store | 4.8/5 (3.3k reviews) |
Customer Satisfaction
| Trustpilot | 1.4/5 (2,321 reviews) |
| Google Reviews | - |
First impression of the career page
The general career page is extremely well done. Welcoming. I can quickly explore the roles. A voice message from the co-founder is a great touch. I like the data (employees, offices, stores, employee survey data).
When I want to check the locations, I can watch a very nice video about the Berlin office. Clap clap.
On (sic!) Berlin page I am greeted with a lot of nice photos. The number of teammates! A local Spotify playlist! A local lunch recommendation.
They even included location FAQs, for example about the weather: “Berlin has mild summers and rather long winters - we think all you need is the right kit.” True, On, true.
The photos give diversity vibes. There are two employees inviting me to join, but Michael’s photo isn’t available. Schade.
The vibe: “Colorful, nice people, nice office, nice shoes, let’s go!” There is even someone walking around the office in socks!
Digital experience and access
Jobs are really easy to find. “Discover our open roles” button is prominent and there is “Search” on the top menu. The first filter is already on the locations, nicely matching the copy of the page “Where we are” and “What we do”.
When I select the “Berlin” filter I need to scroll down. The designers really wanted to make sure that the page breathes, so there is really a lot of space. Buttons have a lot of padding. Maybe they were inspired by the soles of their shoes?
I can also filter by departments (“What we do”). It’s not what I usually go for.
The search works on the jobs but also acts as a filter. If I type in “product” and press enter, it nicely guides me to the results.
The page is responsive, if I am on a smaller screen, filters become a menu. The page looks great on mobile as well. Unfortunately, there are no job alerts available.
What I especially like is the sliding menu on the search. When I am in the middle of the page, reading something, and scroll a bit up I see the menu and can immediately search for a job.
Team On, this is all great. But not perfect. On the Berlin page, clicking FAQ is somehow throwing me back up to “Team in Berlin”. The implementation of a scroll on the departments is extremely annoying because it prevents me from easily going back down. It’s also pointless to show so many “0 jobs”.
But they do save the day with a direct link to Berlin roles.
They close the page with another big call to action. Where’s the like button? Just kidding.
Content authenticity and transparency
On the mission and values side they keep it simple. Their mission is to support us move. Values are called Spirits: Explorer, Athlete, Team, Positive, Survivor.
The copy for all of them is good. It makes me wanna ask the recruiter what they mean by “There is no phone to call home” in the Explorer section.
They also stress their “holistic approach to learning, development, well-being and work.” This is going in the direction of benefits (flexible vacation, work hours, community events, team days, buddy system and Inclusion Groups). They do Radical Candor, Anytime Feedback, leadership programs and personal learning budgets.
Diversity & Inclusion also features prominently. But it’s not just photos, but also a lot of numbers from internal surveys. They report employing 48% women, 47.6% men and 0.7% nonbinary/3rd gender (I guess 3.7% were “don’t want to answer?” category).
It’s not just words. They are, for example, committed to Pay Equity to make sure there is no gender pay gap. I find this remarkable. They also list all their Inclusion Groups (for example, R&She for women, VeterOns and more). Sustainability has a dedicated page.
On to Berlin. All the employees in the Berlin video are presented with a name and surname, so I can look them up on LinkedIn and ask them if they were forced to say all those nice things.
But I won’t do that, because it all feels authentic. Since I am writing this article I of course need to check if they still all work there. Give me a sec…
Out of seven, one is gone and one I couldn’t find on LinkedIn.
The office looks like loads of fun in the typical Berlin way. The music on their playlist isn’t so typical Berlin.
There is also a high-quality gallery of office photos. I am happy to see that not everyone is wearing On shoes. The culture seems relaxed: one guy is even wearing flip-flops. Not sure about this, but maybe it’s your cup of tea?
They also link to a video with a selection of running routes in Berlin. They have a general blog (Journal), but it’s not so prominently featured. But it’s great to keep it in mind for your interviews: posts offer a lot of insights into the inner workings of the company.
On to job descriptions…
I checked three different job positions.
- Senior Software Engineer - GenAI/LLM
- Coordinator Account Services (German & English speaking)
- IT Security Lead (Endpoint Security and Identity)
I really like how they are presented. “In short” with a short summary, “Your mission” with your tasks and “Your story” with very clear requirements. They also invite us to read more about the team/department and they always directly link to one of the Spirits (=values).
Each role also includes a statement from an employee in a similar role or department.
The whole job description gives the impression of a landing page that wants to convert me. The scroll is very natural and explains everything - the office, the team, the interview process. They promise The Experience Day on-site or online on step 5, a nice touch.
The actual apply button is never really prominent shown, which is an interesting design choice, but can also be confusing, especially because it disappears if you scroll completely until the bottom.
When I click “Apply”, I am redirected to Greenhouse (Applicant Tracking System). I can apply with LinkedIn or by uploading my CV. They don’t ask for my cover letter or salary expectations.
Clicking “Apply” opens a new tab and the job description is not repeated. This is a smart move by the HR department because it means a single point of truth for them and easier maintenance. For me, it means a slight inconvenience: I need to print the massive landing page. But it’s fine: printing PDFs is free.
I am missing more information on onboarding, how success in my future role looks like (they sometimes allude to it in the task part) and information on work-from-home possibilities.
Value proposition - why should I join?
On mostly plays on the culture, diversity and sustainability cards. The benefits seem to be in the direction of flexible vacation (why don’t you tell me what this means?) and working hours (probably in the office?), self-care and well-being support, Inclusion Groups, learning budgets and leadership programs.
Unfortunately, it’s not clear to me how my career progression will look like, what my learning budget is and what are the salary ranges. I will also need to ask the recruiter about the remote work possibilities. But since there’s no mention of working remotely/hybrid I assume it’s more or less office time.
But it worked! Their methods convinced me. They look like a great team. I wanna try to get over the screening and ask the recruiter all my questions. I think this was also the intention.
Verdict: positives and what could be done differently
Phew, re-reading this made me realise I have been praising On like I designed the experience myself. I didn’t.
But all the pages did what they needed to do. They got me interested. Nothing poked me in the eye. The design is smart as long as it is regularly updated (for example, by regularly recording new location videos and photos, the existing ones seem like they’re from the summer of 2022).
In the current structure and design, the improvement potentials are minor (for example, adding the missing photo of Michael on the Berlin page). The biggest upgrade would be a more precise and clearer benefits description and more information on the salary ranges and WFH policies (why not say it as it is?).
Career pages need to convince the candidate the application effort is worth it, especially if the candidate isn’t desperate for a job. On’s does.
Would I work there? Why/why not? What are the risks?
If 15 years ago someone told me that it’s possible that Nike, Adidas and other big brands would struggle against complete newcomers like On and Hoka, I’d probably say: “No idea about sneakers, man.”
But On made it from CHF 0 to over CHF 2.2B (projection for ‘24) in 14 years, selling mostly sneakers. They must be doing something right.
If we believe the official website, they also grew the number of employees significantly (2,353 in 2023 to 3,463 at the time of this writing). They apparently have big plans in Berlin, hiring a lot in the tech department.
The business seems to be running well, is profitable and has a lot of room to grow. Since the company is public you can really learn a lot on their investor relations pages. They’re an innovative company that invests a lot in their culture. From the outside, it looks like a good deal.
The main risk I see is that Berlin is just an office, “a market”, and all the shots are called in their Zürich HQ. But this could also be an opportunity. Have you ever tried to go to Zürich in the summer or tried to get paid in Francs?
High-growth companies sometimes hire too fast which can mean problems down the road. On grew fast (+47% FTE in a year) so it would be interesting to know if they were picky enough and took their time looking for the right people.
Another thing you might wanna check is what is your career potential in Berlin. Will you need to eventually move if you want to stay with them long-term?
Fazit: I’d go for it. If you want to go for it as well, here is our standard CV template, 40+ ideas for questions for the interview and some more inspiration about how to find a great company to work for.
Would you like the same analysis for your company?
I profiled SumUp before. Never miss another article:
