What are the right metrics for Employer Branding?
As an employer branding, it’s quite common for people who don’t know about what you are doing. Perhaps if you are working as employer branding, questions often arise on how to measure the success of your Employer Brand. Personally, I often receive such queries:
“What is Employer Branding doing?” and “How do you measure your work?”
So, I narrowed it down into several metrics for employer branding based on my practical experience, articles, and learning courses.
There’s a common misconception that employer branding solely pertains to recruitment marketing. However, it serves a dual role, acting not only as a recruitment marketing but also as a guardian of the employer brand , aimed at securing and maintaining its brand image position as the top choice for employees.
So, the matrix is divided into two: recruitment marketing and brand guardian/public relations.
A. Recruitment Marketing. This aspect focuses on promoting the organization as an attractive employer to potential candidates. It involves crafting messaging and strategies to attract top talent to apply for positions within the company. Recruitment marketing efforts aim to showcase the organization’s unique selling points, culture, values, benefits, and opportunities for growth and development. The goal is to position the company as the preferred choice for job seekers in the industry, thereby ensuring a steady influx of qualified applicants for open positions, also known as generating a talent pool.
How do we measure recruitment marketing? There are several metrics to measure recruitment marketing, which are
a. Number of applicants for the job position that is opened. To assess the scope of marketing activities. Hence, the employer branding team will know whether the marketing activities are effective or not.
b. Percentage conversation rate from candidates who applied to receive the offer. To assess the quality of the applicant. Hence, the employer branding team will know whether they attract the right applicant or not.
So these are the general metrics for recruitment marketing. And the second one is brand guardian/public relations.
B. Brand Guardian/Public Relations. This aspect focuses on managing the company’s reputation and perception among current employees, prospective candidates, industry professionals, and the general public. Through effective PR strategies, organizations can enhance their brand image, showcase their employer value proposition, and highlight their commitment to employee satisfaction, diversity, inclusion, corporate social responsibility, and other relevant factors. By maintaining a positive public image and fostering trust and credibility, companies can attract and retain top talent and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders.
On the public relations side, it is quite tricky to measure because the impact is not the impact is not as tangible as the recruitment marketing side. Hence, I learned several metrics to measure Brand guardian/Public relations activities.
a. Employer Brand Index: Utilizing surveys or indices to measure the employer brand’s awareness, attractiveness, and reputation among target audiences compared to competitors
b. Awards and Recognitions: Monitoring the receipt of awards, rankings, or certifications related to employer branding, workplace culture, diversity, and employee satisfaction.
c. Stakeholder Engagement: Measuring interactions and feedback from key stakeholders such as employees, candidates, alumni, and industry partners, university, and community to assess perceptions and satisfaction levels with the employer brand.
d. Sentiment Analysis: Assessing the tone and sentiment of media coverage and online mentions to gauge public perception of the employer brand.
e. Employee Advocacy: Monitoring employee engagement in sharing company-related content on social media platforms and measuring the reach and impact of these activities.
So this is generally what I learned and used to measure what is done in employer branding. In fact, there are numerous additional metrics available, though we’ll keep them broad. These metrics can be tailored to suit the activities and requirements of each employer branding team.
