Essential Employer Branding Metrics You Should Be Tracking

Employer branding is a vital aspect of any successful business. It's the process by which a company markets itself to job seekers and current employees, showcasing its values, culture, and benefits.

The efficacy of your employer branding efforts can significantly impact your ability to attract and retain high-quality candidates. However, how do you know if these efforts are working? That's where metrics come into play.

Here, we will discuss key employer branding metrics to track for attracting and retaining top talent, improving recruitment strategies, and making data-driven decisions.

Importance of Tracking Metrics in Employer Branding

What is Employer Branding and Why is it Important?

Employer branding refers to how a company markets itself to job seekers. It's the image or impression that potential employees have of your organization as a place to work. A strong employer brand can make you an employer of choice, attracting top performers in competitive industries.

The importance of having a solid employer brand cannot be overstated. It plays an integral role in both talent acquisition and employee retention by attracting high-quality candidates who fit well with your company culture while also encouraging current employees to stay long-term.

Companies like Google and Apple are renowned for their robust employer brands because they don't just offer jobs but also careers filled with growth opportunities, innovative environments, and attractive benefits – making them highly desirable places to work.

How Tracking Metrics Enhance Employer Branding Strategies

Metrics play a vital role in refining your employer branding strategies by providing insights into what's working and what needs improvement. This useful information allows you to make data-driven decisions about where to focus efforts and resources for maximum impact. It also eliminates guesswork and enables more strategic planning in both the human resources (HR) and marketing aspects of employer branding strategy.

Consistently tracking metrics will help you monitor progress over time, identify trends or patterns, and adjust strategies based on real-time data. This approach ensures that every step taken contributes positively towards strengthening the employer brand.

Essential Employer Branding Metrics

1. Employer Brand Awareness

Social Media Engagement

Social media platforms can be a gold mine of employer brand awareness information because you'll find candid conversations about your company and its reputation in these online spaces.

The number of likes, shares, comments on your posts, and followers on your pages can show how well you're engaging with potential employees. Keeping an eye on these metrics is crucial for understanding the reach and impact of your online presence.

High engagement rates usually mean that people are interested in what you have to say and may consider working for you in the future.

Website Traffic

Website traffic is a key metric that tells how many people are visiting your site and what they're doing once they get there. For instance, tracking visits to specific pages like job openings or open applications can provide insights into how attractive your brand is to potential employees.

If these pages have high traffic, it suggests that many job seekers are interested in working for you. Conversely, low traffic might imply a need to improve in showcasing why your company would be an excellent place to work.

Media Mentions and Brand Perception

Media mentions refer to the frequency with which your company is mentioned in the media. This includes mentions in news articles, blog posts, or even social media updates from influencers.

But it's not just about quantity; you also need to consider the quality of these mentions. Are they positive or negative? This is where sentiment analysis comes into play. Analyzing the tone of these mentions provides a sense of how people perceive your brand.

Similarly, checking employee reviews on various employer review sites can provide insights into what current and former employees think about your company.

Employer Brand Surveys and Feedback

Surveys are a handy tool to understand how your employer brand is perceived. They can be distributed among employees, job applicants, or even the general public. The feedback from these surveys is like getting a report card on your employer branding efforts.

For example, these surveys might include questions about company culture, work-life balance, or career development opportunities. This information helps identify areas of strength and those needing improvement in your branding strategy.

2. Candidate Experience

Application Completion Rate

The application completion rate is the percentage of job seekers who start filling out an online application and actually finish it. This number can tell you a lot about your company's application process.

If you notice that many candidates are starting but not finishing their applications, it might be because the process is too long or complicated. Job seekers may lose interest if they have to fill out numerous fields or navigate through multiple pages.

Making changes based on this data can help improve your employer brand by ensuring that applying for jobs at your company is as straightforward and hassle-free as possible. You're then more likely to see more completed applications from potential employees – showing them that you value their time and effort.

Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS)

The Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS) measures job applicant satisfaction and whether they would recommend your recruitment process to others. This score is derived from surveys of prospects who have gone through your candidate selection process. These questionnaires ask about their interview experience, ease of application, quality of communication with recruiters, and so on.

The candidate engagement rate – the percentage of candidates who respond to your outreach efforts, such as emails, calls, or social media direct messages – is also a key element in calculating the candidate NPS.

Candidate NPS is beneficial because it sheds light on areas needing refinement within your recruitment process. Focusing on candidate satisfaction also helps attract top talent while fostering positive word-of-mouth about your employer brand even among those who didn't land a job at your company.

Time to Hire

The time to hire refers to how much time passes between when a job opening is posted and when an offer is accepted by a candidate. This helps to measure how efficient your recruitment process is. If it takes too long, you might lose star employees to competitors who move faster, while you may not be vetting candidates thoroughly enough if it's too short.

Keeping track of this can assist you in identifying bottlenecks in your hiring process and making necessary improvements for better efficiency and candidate experience. It's crucial for shaping effective recruitment strategies and increasing hiring manager satisfaction.

3. Employee Advocacy

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) can range from -100 to 100, and it's calculated based on responses to one key question: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company as an employer?" Employees who rate the company between 9-10 are promoters while those rating between 0-6 are detractors. The difference in their percentages gives us the eNPS.

This metric gauges employee loyalty and advocacy, which directly impacts your employer reputation. A high eNPS means that employees believe in what you do and are willing to vouch for you publicly – an invaluable asset in a job market where employee experience and word-of-mouth recommendations carry significant weight.

Internal Referral Rate

Employee referrals matter because when your employees refer someone for a job in your company, it shows they have faith in the organization and its future. The internal referral rate is simply the percentage of new hires that come from these employee referrals.

Happy employees make the best ambassadors. Therefore, a high referral rate can signify strong employee advocacy – people are proud to work for you and want their friends to join them. Creating channels for sharing positive employee experiences and offering incentives like referral bonuses can also encourage more employees to refer candidates.

Employee Social Sharing

Beyond amplifying your brand's online reach, the sharing of company content by employees on their personal social media accounts showcases the pride and satisfaction that your team members feel towards their workplace. This act will likely be interpreted by their online audience as an endorsement from those who know the organization best: its employees.

Monitoring this benchmark helps you understand how engaged your staff are with your brand and whether they're willing to advocate for it in their own networks. The more shares, likes, or comments these posts receive, the greater the visibility of your employer brand.

4. Talent Attraction

Offer Acceptance Rate

When you extend a job offer to a candidate, their response is more than just a yes or no. It's an indicator of how attractive your employer brand and the specific job offer are. This is where the metric known as "offer acceptance rate" comes into consideration.

Offer acceptance rate measures the percentage of candidates who accept your job offers compared to those who decline them. A high offer acceptance rate can mean that your employer brand is strong, and potential employees see value in joining your organization.

For example, if you make ten job offers and eight candidates say yes, then your offer acceptance rate would be 80%. This means that most people want to work for you when given the chance.

In contrast, if this number drops over time or remains low consistently, it might imply issues with how jobs are presented or perceived by candidates, salary packages not being competitive enough, or even concerns about company culture seeping into public knowledge.

Hiring managers can use the offer acceptance rate to judge whether they're doing well at presenting compelling reasons for elite prospects to join their team or not, making it a paramount metric for assessing employer branding success.

Source of Hire

The source of hire metric involves identifying which recruitment channels are most effective for your company. It is a helpful way to understand where your new hires are coming from.

For example, you might find that job boards, social media platforms, employee referrals, or bespoke talent solutions bring in the majority of your new talent. You can optimize these channels to attract more quality candidates and meet your recruitment goals.

Keep in mind that not all sources will work equally well for every role or industry, so it's important to continuously monitor and adjust based on the data collected from this employer branding metric.

Quality of Hire

Quality of hire estimates the value new employees bring to your company. This goes beyond merely filling positions quickly to ensuring that the candidates hired are poised to contribute positively to the organization. You can measure this by looking at performance ratings, productivity levels, and their longevity within the company.

Top-notch candidate quality means you're attracting first-rate talent who are performing well and sticking around for longer periods. This shows that your employer branding efforts are effective in attracting and retaining high-caliber professionals, which contributes significantly towards long-term success.

Diversity and Inclusion Metrics

A strong employer brand is usually backed by a solid commitment to diversity and inclusion. Above hiring people from different backgrounds, diversity and inclusion also applies to ensuring they feel valued and included in the workplace.

You can track your progress in this area by looking at the composition of your workforce, leadership roles, or new hires. Are you seeing a good mix of genders, ethnicities, ages, etc.?

Also, consider conducting regular employee surveys to gauge your company ratings in terms of diversity and inclusion promotion.

5. Retention and Turnover Insights

Employee Satisfaction and Engagement

Employee satisfaction refers to how content your workforce is with their job roles, work environment, and the whole company. Conversely, employee engagement measures the emotional commitment of employees toward their organization and its goals. Both of these metrics are fundamental for the success of any employer branding efforts.

You can measure employee satisfaction through regular employee surveys asking about various aspects of their job experience. For gauging engagement levels, you might look at factors like participation in company initiatives or voluntary overtime hours.

Increased levels of satisfaction and engagement contribute to a positive employer brand image, which can attract highly skilled and proficient individuals.

Exit Interview Feedback

When an employee decides to leave, it's good practice to conduct an exit interview. This is a conversation between the departing employee and someone from HR or management. The goal of such conversations is to understand why they're leaving and how your company can improve.

Exit interviews are gold mines of information because they provide direct feedback about many features of your employer brand. Departing employees may be more open and honest about the work environment, management style, career development opportunities, CEO approval ratings, and much more.

It's necessary to take this feedback seriously, as it can reveal significant issues that might be causing high turnover rates. You can enhance your employer brand and increase retention in the long run by addressing the problems uncovered by exit interview feedback.

Employee Turnover and Retention Rates

Turnover and retention rates paint a clear picture of how many employees are leaving (turnover) versus those who choose to stay with the company (retention). High turnover can signal issues within the workplace culture or dissatisfaction among your staff. On the other hand, a high retention rate mostly reveals that employees feel valued and satisfied in their roles.

6. Cost Metrics

Cost per Hire

The cost per hire is a measure of the total expense incurred to fill an open position in your company. This includes advertising costs, recruitment agency fees, time spent by internal staff on hiring activities, and any other related expenses.

Besides the money spent, cost per hire also accounts for the time and resources invested in the process. By understanding this figure, you can better manage your budget and allocate resources more effectively for future hiring needs.

Recruitment Marketing ROI

Calculating your return on investment (ROI) for recruitment marketing helps you to see how effective your marketing efforts are in attracting quality candidates. It's calculated by comparing the cost of your recruitment marketing activities against the value they bring, such as successful hires from those campaigns.

Monitoring this metric will help you identify which strategies are worth investing more into and which need tweaking or discarding altogether. A high ROI indicates that your employer branding strategy is working well and delivering valuable results for every dollar spent.

Conclusion: Implication of Employer Branding Metrics

The various employer branding metrics we've discussed in this article are not just numbers. When properly harnessed, they can provide worthwhile insights into your company's reputation as an employer. Together, they tell a story about how effectively you're communicating your values to potential employees and how well you're maintaining employee satisfaction.

A data-driven approach is vital here. Regularly tracking these metrics allows you to make informed decisions about where to focus your improvement strategies. Remember, every change you make based on these metrics will potentially strengthen your employer brand and attract high-quality candidates who align with your company's culture and values.

Do you need any help with your employer branding? Reach out to us today and watch how our strategic improvements lead to significant growth in your employer brand over time.

FAQ

What KPIs should we track to measure success in our workplace and achieve our recruitment goals?

Some key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure workplace success and recruitment goal achievement include time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, candidate experience, quality of hire, retention rates, diversity metrics, and employee engagement.

How do external reviews influence our KPIs and what steps can we take to improve them?

External reviews impact KPIs like candidate quality and retention rates by shaping public perception and influencing potential applicants. To improve reviews, encourage current employees to share positive experiences, address negative feedback promptly, and enhance overall workplace culture and employee satisfaction.

How can we measure candidate quality to ensure alignment with our hiring manager satisfaction and overall recruitment goals?

You can measure candidate quality by conducting post-hire performance reviews, soliciting hiring manager satisfaction surveys, monitoring retention rates, and tracking the achievement of new hires against role-specific success metrics. Also, analyze feedback from onboarding and training phases to ensure alignment with recruitment goals and hiring manager expectations.

What metrics can we use to measure employee experience and how do they impact employee retention rates?

Engagement surveys, Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), turnover rates, and feedback from exit interviews are great for measuring employee experience. High engagement and positive eNPS correlate with lower turnover, as satisfied employees are more likely to stay, contributing to higher retention rates and overall organizational stability.

Why is tracking the employee referral rate important for measuring success in our employer branding strategy?

Tracking the employee referral rate is crucial because high referral rates indicate strong employer branding. Employees who refer others demonstrate satisfaction and trust in the company, which reflects positively on its reputation and attractiveness as an employer, ultimately aiding in talent acquisition and retention.

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