Want to Upgrade Your Employer Branding? Measure These 8 Metrics

Employer branding refers to the way an organization markets itself to potential employees. And maintaining a positive employer brand plays a vital role in attracting and retaining quality employees - so it’s important to get it right.

73% of job seekers agree that the process of looking for a job is one of the most stressful events in life. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that employer branding has a huge influence on anyone viewing your company from the outside.

As 60% of the general public choose a place to work based on the company’s beliefs and values, it’s imperative to ensure your employer branding represents the essence of your company - what you stand for, how you treat your personnel and what employees can gain from working with you.

But how can you better understand whether your employer branding is successful or not? Metrics, of course.

8 metrics to measure the success of your employer branding

Below are some important employer branding KPIs that can be tracked and analyzed to better understand how the company appears to outsiders and how you can develop strategies to upgrade it.

1. Candidate quality

According to a study by LinkedIn, strong employer branding leads to 50% more qualified applicants. Understanding whether or not you’re attracting quality candidates will tell you something about how the company is viewed from the outside.

Recruiters can calculate how many applicants make it through to the interview stage. If this ratio surpasses 12%, it indicates you’re attracting qualified candidates. If it’s less than that, it might be time to consider restructuring your hiring strategy.

2. Cost per hire

Various things contribute to a company’s cost-per-hire: recruiting fees, assessments, advertising and more. Strong employer branding can help keep your cost per hire to a minimum.

When a company has a positive reputation, candidates are more likely to apply with them directly rather than through recruiters or advertising agencies. Moreover, these candidates tend to be well-suited to the organization as they know what it stands for.

As the quality of candidates increases, recruiters can spend less time and money on seeking out ideal candidates for open positions.

3. Employee experience

Determine whether the employee experience matches your employer branding. Do this by looking at insights from employee surveys, online reviews and exit interviews. This can help you get an all-round idea of how former and current employees perceive the company, which can be used to inform your employer branding strategy.

4. Employee referral rate

Although referrals only account for a small percentage of applicants, they’re four times more likely to be hired. Attaining lots of employee referral applicants can help to drastically reduce cost per hire and time to hire. They’re also much more likely to stick around.

By understanding how many employee referrals you’re getting, you can better evaluate whether you’re effectively communicating your brand and understanding the employee experience. There’s no better compliment than an employee recommending your company to their friends and family.

5. Source of hire

Take a look at where your hires are coming from. Understanding which sources of hire are most effective can help you better allocate resources and understand which areas to focus your branding efforts on.

For example, if you’re hiring a lot of employee referrals, consider offering a referral bonus to current employees to encourage them to refer you as an employer.

6. Offer acceptance rate

This is one of the more powerful indicators of whether or not your employer branding is succeeding. Great employer branding should lead to an increase in job offer acceptance rate.

If not, this might suggest bottlenecks in the hiring process or a negative interview process. Whether or not the employee accepts your offer, be sure to ask for their feedback so you can make improvements for the future.

7. Hiring manager satisfaction

Don’t forget to ask for feedback from your HR manager. After all, they’re the most involved in the hiring process and can provide the best insight into candidate quality and the integrity of your hiring process.

By consulting hiring managers, you can understand whether or not you’re attracting the candidates you’re hoping for and if anything specific about your employer reputation is coming up in the process.

8. Employee retention rate

In today’s dynamic job market, employee retention rates aren’t as high as they used to be.

But if your retention rates are extremely poor, it’s indicative that something’s wrong; perhaps your company isn’t reputable or employee engagement is low.

Today, employees are highly concerned with the values that companies hold, as well as the culture that they’re entering into. So ensuring these match up to your employer branding is key.

Learn more: 5 Employee Retention Metrics You Need to Measure

Find and hire the best candidates by optimizing your employer brand

When it comes to hiring new employees, it’s crucial to make sure you’re attracting the right candidates, but it’s also important that you’re giving potential employees the right impression of your brand.

Whether you’re a large business with a dedicated Employer Branding Director, or a small team with a few HR personnel, tracking these key metrics can help you optimize your hiring strategy.

Note that employer branding is a process, and it’ll take a lot of tweaking to figure out what works for the company specifically - so don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results immediately.