Ideally, an organization’s employer brand is defined by its mission, values, and culture, and is proven credible by the lived experiences of real employees. That said, your employer brand conveys an important message to job seekers – regardless of whether you're actively managing and measuring it.

Affecting recruitment, retention, employee engagement, and the overall perception of your company, there’s good reason to concentrate efforts on measuring your employer brand’s impact. Plus, according to an Indeed survey, 65% of employers in Canada say that a strong employer brand contributes to success beyond human resource functions, influencing product sales and customer satisfaction, too.* 

Every interaction a potential candidate, customer, or client has with your company activates its employer brand. With a reach that wide, how can you tell if your employer brand is effective? How can you tell if it’s attracting the right candidates, retaining top talent, and making a positive impression overall? 

Understand where your employer brand excels and where it can be improved by tracking metrics in three key areas: awareness and perception, candidate experience, and employee engagement. 

Metrics for Awareness and Perception

Do people know about you as an employer? When your target candidates are searching for new jobs, does your company come to mind? And if so, what do they think working for your company is like? Tracking social media engagement and online reviews by current and former employees will help you gauge the awareness and perception of your employer brand. 

Social Media Engagement

With 59% of candidates using social media to research companies they’re interested in working for, there is a vast opportunity in this space to communicate your employer brand. In addition to advertising jobs, companies can humanize themselves and showcase their employee experience. Many organizations tap into this trend, for example, Microsoft’s “Microsoft Life” account on Instagram is dedicated solely to representing the people in their organization. Additionally, Indeed highlights employees and gives prospective candidates a peek into what it’s like to work there using its “Inside Indeed” Instagram account. 

Social media is a great forum to communicate with job seekers, but it’s most effective when managed and monitored. Social media engagement metrics to track include: 

  • Follower count to understand if current employees identify with your employer brand. This metric also informs whether passive candidates are interested in your content. 
  • Likes and comments will indicate the most engaging content, showing which messages ring true for your employees or help candidates. 
  • Shares specify what resonates most deeply with your audience. These metrics reflect that people are willing to associate themselves with your message. 

When you track how your audience engages with your social media accounts, analysis of these metrics will inform what they like. With this knowledge, you can focus on creating content that aligns with your most engaging themes and topics. 

Employee Online Review Metrics

Your employer brand is only as strong as your actual employee experience. After looking at your official branding and marketing materials, candidates wonder if the employee experience is accurately presented. According to an Indeed survey, 57% of job seekers in Canada say that online reviews of employers have influenced what companies they decide to apply to. The same job seekers also report checking reviews throughout the entire job search journey – before they search for a job, once they’ve found a desirable job (but before they apply), and before they accept an offer.* 

Third-party review sites like Glassdoor and Indeed Company Pages give employers access to reviews. Keep a pulse on your employee online reviews with these metrics: 

  • Brand impressions tell you the total number of times your brand has been displayed to job seekers in job searches. These impressions provide insight into how aware candidates are of your employer brand. 
  • Overall ratings and positive to negative review ratio: Third-party review sites like Indeed and Glassdoor allow you to view your star ratings in categories that are important to job seekers. Does your company have a five-star rating when it comes to compensation, but a three-star rating for work-life balance? Ratings give an overview of employee experience, while reviews help you dig deeper. Use these to understand what’s important to your employees and what they like most about working for you. Track ratings and reviews to measure the accuracy of your employer brand pillars, gauging what works and what you might need to improve. 
  • Monitor competition to see how you stack up against top performers. What other companies are your ideal candidates interested in working for? Know what the perception of your employer brand is in comparison.

Metrics for Candidate Experience

Once a candidate is aware of you as an employer, perceives your organization as a great place to work, and starts to look for jobs, their candidate experience begins. Your employer brand will make numerous impressions here, and ensuring those impressions are positive comes with great benefits: Companies that invest in a strong candidate experience improve the quality of their new hires by 70%.

Is your employer brand attracting the best-fitting talent for your company? Track these candidate experience metrics to be sure:

  • Source of candidates and hires. Most applicants are asked how they found the job. Understandably, hiring teams want to know which sourcing and marketing tactics have a positive return on investment. Don’t forget to also pay attention to these metrics at the end of the hiring process by comparing the sources of all candidates to sources of actual hires. If a large portion of those who you end up hiring come from the same source, you now know where your employer brand is excelling at attracting great-fitting talent.
  • Offer acceptance rates inform the effectiveness of your employer brand. A strong brand makes candidates feel personally connected to your story. If the candidate's experience upholds that brand, more offers will be accepted. On the other hand, if it feels like the brand message and the actual experience are misaligned, offers may be turned down. 
  • Cost per candidate and hire. To get offers accepted, employers with a poor reputation have to offer a 10% higher salary than those with a better reputation. This is just one of the costs of a poor employer brand. Without an awareness and perception strategy or a strong candidate experience, you’ll spend more time and money advertising, sourcing, interviewing, filling and refilling positions. 

Metrics for Employee Engagement

One report found that 83% of people trust word of mouth over any other marketing method. Your employees’ voices are perhaps your most valuable branding asset. An employer value proposition (EVP), the cornerstone of your employer brand, should clearly communicate how candidates will benefit from working at your company. When employees are engaged, you know your EVP is on track – people feel like they’re getting what they signed up for. In the alternate scenario, when it seems the experience was falsely advertised, you may experience costly high turnover rates. 

Does your employer brand accurately reflect what’s unique about your organization? Track these metrics to find out:

  • Employee satisfaction. Ask for feedback from employees on a consistent basis. In an optimal environment, people will feel comfortable being open, but this isn’t always the case. Cross-reference feedback with reviews on third-party review sites to confirm accuracy. 
  • Employee referrals are a key indicator of engagement. A happy employee who believes they’re supported by the company will be eager to share opportunities with their network. 
  • Retention rates. High retention signals a strong, authentic employer brand, while low retention may be a sign of brand misrepresentation. 

Start Tracking Employer Branding Metrics

When considering a new career opportunity, 92% of job seekers in Canada say** that insight into employer reputation is important in their decision-making process. Additionally, an inadequate online presence provokes “automatic” distrust from 42% of job seekers in Canada. 

When an employer brand reaches and resonates with candidates, it signals that company leadership understands why their employees show up at work each day. Trust is formed, with employees confident their employer is invested in their job satisfaction.

You can only improve what you measure, so your success measurement strategy is just as critical as the employer brand itself. Attract better candidates, retain your best employees, and even impact business goals by tracking employer branding metrics. 

References

*Indeed survey, n=1,000

**Indeed survey, n=500