How to Measure Employer Branding Success

Employer branding is an exercise that boosts your company’s image as an employer. The term has a lot of complexity and depth associated with it. In India, however, the term ‘employer branding’ is still thrown around quite carelessly and is often dismissed as a good-to-have exercise with vague results. This notion, for the most part, persists because professionals don’t know how to quantify the results of employer branding precisely.

So here’s how you can measure the success of your employer branding efforts.

Broadly, there can be five metrics that’ll enable you to quantify employer branding efforts.

1. Talent Acquisition

2. Attraction & Perception

3. Candidate Experience

4. Employee Experience

5. Brand Communication

It’s true all of this sounds dry and technical. But once you check out what each metric means, it’ll all be simple. Get ready for some explanations and also a few deep dives.

1. Talent Acquisition Metrics

Simply put:
Talent Acquisition Metrics let you measure how your employer branding efforts are affecting hiring efficiency and hiring costs.

Deep dive:
Talent Acquisition Metrics have the following aspects:

a. Cost-Per-Hire (CPH)

If your employer branding efforts are bearing fruit, you’ll see a drop in your advertising costs, consultant fees, and negotiation time.

You can measure cost-per-hire by calculating total recruitment costs divided by the number of hires.

b. Time-to-Fill (TTF)

TTF refers to the number of days between job posting and acceptance of the offer by candidates.

If you have built a strong employer brand, there is less hesitation among candidates to accept the job. That means TTF goes down.

c. Time-to-Hire (TTH)

TTH is the number of days between candidates entering the hiring process and accepting the offer.

If your TTH is less, it means your employer brand is strong and you are attracting the right talent early.

d. Offer Acceptance Rate (OAR)

OAR is calculated thus: (Accepted Offers ÷ Total Offers Made) × 100.
If OAR is soaring, that means you are making the right moves to build a great employer brand.

e. Applicant-to-Hire Ratio

This refers to the number of applications divided by one quality hire.
A low applicant-to-hire ratio means you have a great employer brand and a good number of high-quality candidates are applying to work at your company.

2. Talent Attraction and Perception Metrics

Simply put:
This is a measure of the ability of your employer brand to attract top talent in the market and maintain a positive image of your company where working there is concerned.

Deep dive:
These are a few aspects of Talent Attraction and Perception Metrics:

a. Employer Brand Awareness Score

Insights into Employer Brand Awareness can be gained by analysing the company’s digital footprint. This may include a look at Google Trends in areas specific to your company’s operations.
Traffic on your company’s careers page can also yield valuable information through analysis of types of traffic (direct, referred and so on).
You can also use social listening tools (like Brandwatch and Sprinklr, to name a few) to gauge the success of your employer branding campaigns.

b. Hiring through organic channels

Organic channels include employer branding and marketing operations through unpaid efforts and natural engagement (website content, email newsletters, etc.).
If the percentage of hiring through organic channels increases, it means your employer branding is working.

c. Referral rate

Referral rate: referral hires divided by total number of hires.
The higher the rate, the more your employees are willing to recommend your company as a great place to work. This happens when your employer brand is strong.

3. Candidate Experience Metrics

Simply put:
This metric seeks to quantify candidate experience as they go through the processes at your organisation.

Deep dive:
A look at aspects of Candidate Experience Metrics:

a. Candidate Satisfaction Score (CSS)

CSS is a formal/informal way of asking the candidate about the hiring process through a post-interview survey, typically using a scale: 1–10 or anything suitable.

b. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

This is the measure of how likely a candidate says they are to recommend applying to your company.
A high score on these counts points to a stronger employer brand.

c. Drop-off rate

This is the percentage of candidates dropping out during the hiring process.
A higher drop-off rate shows there is a gap between the Employer brand promise and reality which continues with the interview experience. 

4. Employee Experience Metrics (EEM)

Simply put:
Employee Experience Metrics refer to the actual experience of employees working at your company.

Deep dive:
Let’s check out aspects of Employee Experience Metrics.

a. Employee Net Promoter Score (ENPS)

This is the likelihood of an employee recommending the company as a workplace after having worked there.

The actual formula is (percentage of promoters) minus (percentage of detractors).
ENPS is one of the top global benchmarks to gauge the strength of an employer brand.

b. Voluntary Attrition Rate

If your employer brand is strong, there are fewer employee exits.

5. Brand Communication Metrics

Simply put:
Brand Communication Metrics track how efficiently the company’s employer branding messaging is being conveyed, received and acted upon by external audiences like candidates, job-seekers, industry peers, as well as internal audiences (employees).

Deep dive:

a. Social media engagement quality

This does not mean just vanity metrics but deeper indicators like followers, saves, shares, and comments with intent. Look for trust signals.

b. Career Page Conversion Rate

If a greater chunk of users visiting the careers page on your website actually end up applying, this may indicate that you have a strong Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and a strong employer brand.

c. Content Consumption Rate

This refers to the average time spent on employer branding pages. Indicators like a high video completion rate may indicate that you have a strong employer brand.

Let’z Talk can help you strengthen your employer brand with all these factors in mind. Contact us to learn more.

FAQs

• How do companies measure employer branding success?

  In order to measure the success of employer branding efforts, mere guesswork doesn’t do. You need to consider some concrete metrics. Most companies broadly look at this: how efficiently they hire (Talent Acquisition Metrics), how strong their market appeal is (Talent Attraction & Perception), how candidates feel during the hiring process, what the day-to-day employee experience looks like, and how well employer branding messages perform on digital platforms. Positive results on these metrics mean your employer branding efforts are bearing fruit.

• Which Talent Acquisition Metrics indicate that employer branding is working?

  Talent Acquisition Metrics reveal how hiring efficiency helps your employer brand. If cost-per-hire is dropping, candidates accept offers quickly, and there is a reduction in your Time-to-Fill and Time-to-Hire, it generally means that your employer brand is strong. Simply put, a strong employer brand makes hiring cheaper, quicker and easier.

• What does ‘talent attraction and perception’ reveal about employer branding?

  Talent Attraction and Perception Metrics indicate whether professionals in the job market see your company as a good place to work or not. To gauge this, you may want to check Google Trends, invest in using social listening platforms, and take note of the traffic patterns on your website’s careers page. The percentage of hires through organic channels also reveals a lot about the perception of your company in the market.

• How can a company measure candidate and employee experience?

  Candidate Satisfaction Scores, Net Promoter Scores and Drop-Out Rates tell you how applicants feel at each stage of the recruiting process. In the case of employees, ENPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) and voluntary attrition rates indicate how people feel once they join your company.

• Which communication metric shows if employer branding content is working?

  You might want to check the quality of engagement on social platforms (saves, shares or meaningful comments), conversion rates on your careers page, and the time people spend on your employer branding content. These can be good indicators.