Measuring Your Employer Brand Successes


By: Elizabeth Strzalka

It’s not enough to simply claim a company culture or the beginnings of an employment brand for your team. The measurement of employer brand successes is also critically important. Leaders need to understand what works and what resonates with their team and prospects, and make appropriate adjustments for the future. Without measuring the impact, an employer brand is not truly effective. 

Like companies themselves, measuring employer brand successes can vary based on the team and tactics deployed. The most effective measurements will align with brand objectives. Consider your activities and approach when determining what key performance indicators (KPIs) are best for your employer brand. 

Traditional public relations KPIs are often driven by communications and marketing activity alone. Employer brand successes should also be measured by HR and talent management teams. Together, these functions create a complete picture of what works and what makes an impact on your team.  

KPIs: PR, Communications, and Marketing

These metrics are similar to what you might find in an externally focused PR program:

  • Share of voice: The number of conversations happening about your brand as compared to competitors or the industry at large  
  • Social media engagement: The reactions, comments or shares for brand-owned social media content
  • Website visitor trends: Unique visitors to your website, time spent on your site, bounce rate or pages viewed
  • Attendance at recruitment events: The number of candidates who attend career fairs, onsite hiring events or other recruitment activities
  • Media coverage: The number of earned media mentions of your company and employees; products and offerings may apply, but employer brand successes focus on content focused on the company and its broader culture
  • Awards: The number of industry awards received by your company, such as “Best Places to Work” or “10 Best Company” lists
KPIs: HR and Talent

These metrics focus on employee satisfaction, hiring and retention: 

  • Employee satisfaction & engagement scores: Metrics gathered through employee satisfaction surveys, either by internal teams or external consulting firms
  • Offer acceptance rate: How often candidates are accepting employment offers
  • Applicants: The number of qualified resumes or applications received for an individual role
  • Time to hire: The number of days it takes to hire a new employee, from the initial contact through the candidate accepting an offer
  • Cost to hire: The financial implications of hiring a new employee, from marketing the position to the initial contact through the candidate accepting an offer
  • Employee reviews on sites such as Glassdoor, Comparably and Indeed: The average scores your company receives on external company ranking sites, and the feedback accompanying each review
  • Employee referral rate: How often your employees refer members of their networks for positions at your company
  • Retention rate: The average time employees stay at your company
  • Source of hire: The ways new hires learn about open positions 
Listen to the Data

The approach to measuring employer brand successes should be part of your overall plan. The data you capture as part of this process can provide valuable perspectives for employer brand implementation and future adjustments. 

Your data is a reflection of how people feel and engage with your employer brand—be sure to listen. Measurement without analysis and action means nothing. 

As you build your data set, establish the baseline metrics and the growth benchmarks that will be meaningful parts of your program. Baseline metrics should consider what you know about your performance already, with past data informing your starting point for measuring success. A 30-60 day window of metrics can help set performance targets to start. 

Your growth benchmarks can be a combination of what success you project from your employer brand plan and what you know about competitors or industry peers. These aspirational targets should support the activity you have planned and your target outcomes. Both numerical targets and percentage improvements are valid ways to measure success.

 Remember: As your employer brand evolves, so too will metrics and measurements. Plan for ongoing and comprehensive reviews of performance to understand employer brand successes and areas of improvement. Implement a transparent reporting structure to monitor and track metrics month to month and year over year. 

Your employer brand is the key to sharing your story—and your metrics are an essential part of the puzzle.

Read more about developing your employer brand: