How to measure the effectiveness of your employer brand

Your employer brand is crucial to attracting and retaining the best Cloud & IT Infrastructure talent on the UK IT Solutions & Services Provider market.

If you’re looking to recruit top candidates, you need to ensure all parts of your recruitment process are performing optimally.

Without measuring performance, you will never truly understand the return on investment on your efforts in the hiring process.

Will Martin talks us through how IT Solutions & Services Providers can measure the effectiveness of their employer brand:

“Employer brand is quite simply how effective your company is at attracting prospective candidates and retaining good talent once you have them on board.

It is a hugely important part of any recruitment process in any business.

For IT Solutions & Services Providers, your employer brand is a key weapon in your arsenal in the battle for top Cloud & IT Infrastructure talent.

But how can you measure your employer brand’s effectiveness?

There are a number of metrics by which IT Solutions & Services Providers can measure their brand.

1. Job Acceptance Rate

Firstly, you can use data around the acceptance rate of candidates at offer stage in your recruitment process.

A high job acceptance rate is obviously good.

If your job acceptance rate isn’t particularly strong, this could be due to:

Poor candidate experience throughout the hiring process
Slow interview and feedback experience for candidates
Your employer brand is misleading

The best way you can judge these aspects is through candidate feedback throughout the process.

Are we doing things well? What aren’t we doing well?

Once a candidate has joined your organisation, ask them about their experience in the hiring process. This will give you a clearer picture of the candidate experience right through from initial engagement to onboarding.

2. Time-to-hire

Secondly, you can use your time-to-hire data to see how slick your process actually is in the eyes of candidates.

How quickly do you get things done?

A slow hiring process can be damaging to your employer brand.

Lack of or late feedback to unsuccessful candidates will also cause a disconnect between the prospective employee and your brand.

3. Quality of hire

Thirdly, look at your personnel.

How good are the candidates you’re attracting?

Strong brand, stronger candidates.

Weak brand, weaker candidates.

It may seem simple, but the quality of candidates coming through the door is a key indicator of your employer brand’s performance.

4. Hiring manager satisfaction

Fourthly, what do your hiring managers think?

Does your hiring manager feel that the process is enjoyable for both themselves and for the candidate?

Has it given them the best candidate/s for the opportunity?

If your hiring manager is not satisfied then a brand tweak may be necessary in order to elevate the quality level of candidates entering your hiring process.

5. Employee referrals

Fifthly, your employees are an excellent source of data on your brand.

Referrals from your employees are a key indicator of how well you are doing as a business to attract and retain top Cloud & IT Infrastructure talent.

Are your current staff championing the business as a great place to work?

If they’re trying to bring their friends and connections into the business, it’s a great sign that they’re very happy.

If the opposite is the case, perhaps they think that the business isn’t worth championing to their connections and therefore can understand their thoughts on your employer brand.

6. Employee engagement

Sixthly, what feedback are you getting from your current staff?

What do they believe the business is doing well?

What do they think you should improve?

Introduce one-on-ones with your staff and give them a chance to be honest about their thoughts on what it’s like to work for your organisation.

Understanding this will help you to make strategic changes to your employer brand and help to retain more staff going forwards.

7. New hire retention

How many people are leaving your organisation as soon as they walk through the door?

No business wants a high number of early leavers, especially if you have invested heavily in your recruitment strategy and employer brand.

If your new leavers figure is low, this is a great indicator for the strength of your employer brand.

If people don’t want to leave your business, that’s always a good sign!

8. The win/lose ratio

When you’re in competition for a candidate’s signature, either with direct competitors or other competition within the industry, keeping top talent can be difficult.

How many of those battles for candidates is your organisation winning?

Is your business the first choice for people who are actively looking within the Cloud & IT Infrastructure market?

If you are, you’re in a good place with your employer brand.

9. Awards won

Finally, are you an award-winning organisation?

There is nothing better for a business in terms of employer brand than industry-recognition of your quality as a great place to work.

Of course, you must enter in order to win.

So if you are confident in your employer brand, showcase it to an industry-wide audience that you are a great place to work and have the full backing of your employees.

By looking at these metrics, it’s far easier to establish where your employer brand is adding value and where you can make improvements.

This will help you to attract better quality candidates and retain more employees.”