Defining And Measuring Employer Brand Success: A Practical Guide

About Employer Branding Success

In the same way that Employer Branding holds a different meaning depending who you ask, also measuring - or even defining - its success will vary. Regardless of your definition, using data linked to your organisation’s goals and objectives is essential. It’s the first step to take when you start upon this journey.

Defining how to measure success requires an answer to the question of what really is expected from Employer Branding in your organisational context. It might take some time to get there, but skipping this step, would set you up for failure.

Without clearly defined goals, how else are you going to decide what to prioritise, let alone prove your impact or relevance to the business?

To be clear, in this article you won’t find an exhaustive list of metrics you can - or should - use in any situation. What you will find however, is a variety of ways to measure Employer Brand success. Look at it as an inspiration or a guide when you are building your own Employer Brand dashboard - or in case you’re trying to get to the bottom of what your company leaders expect from Employer Branding.

I divided the metrics into 3 main groups:

• Employer Brand Awareness
• Talent Acquisition Success
• Employee Retention And Satisfaction

1. Employer Brand Awareness

These metrics relate to building, establishing and strengthening an Employer Brand at the awareness level. Depending on your approach, they can answer a multitude of questions.

For example: Who knows you, and what you stand for? How do people perceive your (Employer) Brand? When people are job hunting, are you top of mind?

1.1 Tracking Social Media Engagement

Let’s start with this obvious one. Tracking your social media accounts will deliver valuable insights into how your organisation is perceived by its employees, and external audiences. By monitoring metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and number of followers, you can assess the effectiveness of your Employer Brand strategy and content.

Remember to always measure the impact of your changes, and to keep your messaging and content aligned with your Employer Brand. Consistency is key. Always.

Additionally, beware of the fact that one single metric will never paint a full picture. While tracking social media engagement can be a valuable tool in assessing Employer Brand success, it should be used in combination with other data. In fact, that goes for all metrics discussed here.

1.2 Conducting Surveys

If you want to know something, ask. Sometimes it’s that simple. Surveys help measure Employer Brand success by providing insights into the perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of current and potential candidates, hires and employees. They can also help identify areas where the company is falling short.

I could write an entire piece about different types of surveys, or how you can leverage existing interactions and touch points to get feedback. Overall, I’d say there are two axes to consider when defining your approach:?level of complexity and internal versus external focus.

1 - Internal versus external:

Do you want to know if your target audience understands what the company stands for, and if they are speaking positively about your organisation? Or do you want to measure how you are perceived by the outside world? The choice is yours, but you have to decide.

2 - Simple versus Complex:

Are you looking for an answer to an easy question, for example: how candidates rate the application process? Or do you want to get a deeper understanding of the level of employee engagement related to the Employer Brand? Your answer to this question will determine how you set up your questionnaire.

If done right, surveys have the potential to offer actionable feedback that help you improve your branding strategy. But make sure you consider the pitfalls as well. Surveys can be time-consuming and costly to manage. And if not properly designed and executed, they may produce biased or unreliable results. As with everything, being conscious about the end goal and the way you’ll get there, is essential in order to be successful.

1.3 Analysing Website Traffic And Search Engine Data

The amount of visitors and page views, the time people spend on your website, search engine rankings. These are all examples of metrics that indicate the level of effectiveness of your career pages. Depending on what you are trying to figure out, and what data is available to you, you can decide what to zoom in on.

I’ve found that consistently tracking these metrics allowed me to be more confident and comfortable when talking about the current Employer Brand status. After a while, you might even be able to predict what will or won’t work, based on past findings.

Do you know how many people visit your career pages every day, week, month? Do you see an increase or a decrease after making certain changes? Which weeks or months do you get more traffic on the website? It's very useful - and powerful - to be able to answer these questions without checking a dashboard.

1.4 Tracking Review Websites

It’s important to manage your organisation’s profile and page activity on review sites like Glassdoor or Kununu, period. Usually, these platforms also offer a variety of relevant insights for you to use.

By looking at the number of page views and reviews, and actually reading what they say, you can identify strengths or weaknesses in your Employer Brand - and more broadly, in your organisation.You might notice certain topics keep coming back in the feedback you receive - or you might see changes after you adjusted something in your Employer Brand strategy.?

Side note: if you don’t have a review strategy in place yet, consider building one. Most people research organisations before they apply, so make sure you don’t lose them this early on in the process. Whatever you do, please don't ignore these reviews. Below you'll find a post I recently shared about this topic.

2. Talent Acquisition Success

Employer Branding is obviously inherently linked to recruitment, more specifically, to attracting the right talent. There are different ways Employer Branding can impact Talent Acquisition. So in order to define the right metrics to measure success, you will need clear goals and expectations.

You might try to build a more diverse talent pipeline, increase the overall application rate, or decrease the cost per hire. Each of these goals require a different strategy and will have a corresponding definition of success. Never forget the purpose of what you're trying to achieve.

2.1 Tracking Candidate Quality And Quantity

An increased influx of high-quality candidates could indicate that your Employer Brand is resonating with the right audiences. Similarly, a high quantity of applications can suggest that the Employer Brand is generating significant interest in the job market.

The meaning of "high-quality candidates" can - and will - vary, depending on the organisation and job requirements. That is why it is crucial to deeply understand what exactly you are measuring.

If you don't, you risk biases towards certain demographics or educational backgrounds, leading to a narrow and homogenous talent pool. Especially if it’s your job to report on these numbers, beware not to overlook the insights and findings that might not be evident or easily detectable for everyone involved.

2.2 Mapping Candidate Demographics

Mapping gender, age, nationality, education, ethnicity and other diversity factors, can provide insights into how well an Employer Brand is resonating with a diverse pool of candidates. A lack of diversity could indicate that the Employer Brand is not effectively reaching or appealing to diverse groups of talent. This could hinder efforts to attract top talent from underrepresented groups.

It's important to recognise that diversity is not just a numbers game, and organisations should take a broader approach to building an inclusive workplace culture that values and supports all employees, regardless of their demographic background.

Even though having data on the level of diversity will certainly give you actionable data, this isn’t a topic you can or should approach lightly. Additionally, candidates may choose not to disclose certain personal information, which can limit the accuracy of your data set.

If you are starting on your DEI journey, I strongly recommend you taking the time to do your homework first. For me, reading "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: How to Succeed at an Impossible Job" by?Sarah Cordivano, offered a great introduction to the topic. All this to say: do your research and be mindful when making decisions based on your findings.

2.3 Assessing Job Description Conversion Rates

This is a great way to get insights into how well your Employer Brand is resonating with potential candidates. By tracking the number of candidates who visit a job description page and go on to apply, you can measure how effective your messaging is, and determine whether you are attracting the right talent.

You might think your job descriptions are on point, but when was the last time you changed them and measured the impact?

Copy is one of those things almost everyone has an opinion on. Bringing numbers into the game allows you to better defend your messaging. Data will always speak louder than gut-feeling.

By optimising job descriptions to better align with candidate expectations and highlighting the unique aspects of the Employer Brand, you can improve conversion rates and convince more high-quality candidates to apply.

2.4 Measuring Time-To-Hire And Cost-Per-Hire

To some, it might seem irrelevant for Employer Brand professionals to measure what happens after the application. After all, you did the work of attracting talent, the rest HR should take care of, right? Wrong, I would say. If you approach Employer Branding in a holistic way, which according to me is the only way you can approach it, this is very much part of your potential success.

These metrics will provide you with valuable insights into the efficiency and effectiveness of your Talent Acquisition processes, and by extension, the success of your Employer Brand.

Longer time-to-hire or higher cost-per-hire can indicate that you are not effectively attracting and retaining the right candidates, resulting in increased recruitment costs and lost productivity.

Additionally, a positive candidate experience throughout the recruitment process can improve Employer Brand reputation, leading to increased employee engagement and retention over time.

2.5 Open applications

Often overlooked, but in my opinion a very interesting metric when it comes to measuring Employer Brand success. The number and quality of open applications can provide insights into the success of your strategies.

An increasing volume of open applications could indicate that the Employer Brand is effectively reaching and engaging potential candidates, and that the organisation has a strong reputation in the job market. This can also provide a pool of potential candidates for future job openings, making the talent acquisition process more efficient and cost-effective.

Of course, as with almost all metrics mentioned here, external factors can also have their impact. So when analysing, consider the socio-economical context, as well as other events that can affect the number of open applications you receive.

3. Employee Retention And Satisfaction

3.1 Tracking Turnover Rates And Reasons For Leaving

People leave companies, that is normal. However, tracking the turnover rate over a longer period, and mapping the reasons for leaving, can provide insights into the effectiveness of an organisation's Employer Brand in retaining top talent.

High turnover rates or a common pattern of employees leaving for similar reasons, can indicate that the Employer Brand is not delivering on its promises or that there are underlying issues with the organisation's culture or work environment.

You might not be the right person to solve these issues (on your own), but you should definitely flag them. If you don’t, this will harm your Employer Brand, and in the end, undermine the work you are doing.

3.2 Employee referral rate

A high number, or an increase of employee referrals could indicate that current employees are satisfied with their work environment, and feel comfortable recommending their workplace to others. Referral rates can also provide a measure of the effectiveness of your employee referral program, which can help to streamline the recruitment process and reduce recruitment costs.

Additionally, the fact that referrals usually deliver more top talent offers a great argument for the importance of Employer Branding. Because what you are doing is basically scaling that impact to attract more of the right - meaning better informed - candidates.

In conclusion

Employer Branding can mean a lot of things to a lot of people - and consequently, so does Employer Brand success. So in order to set the right expectations and to know if your efforts are actually working, you need to define, track and measure your success using concrete data.

There are a bunch of different ways to do this, depending on your long and short term Employer Brand goals. Whatever combination of metrics you decide to track, make sure that they are linked to what you are trying to achieve, and be conscious about your options and your choices.

So start unleashing the full potential of your Employer Brand today - and fearlessly prove your value through concrete data! ??

I hope this article inspired or helped you in some way. Don't hesitate to share, like or leave a comment - I would love to know your thoughts and or if there's something you'd add to this list!?To get in touch, follow this link.