ROI in employer branding.

Employer branding and its value proposition within an organization

A successful employer branding initiative yields better ROI

Every company in the world wants to attract the best talent for sustained growth and development. For this, organisations need to draw in people with a great package and benefits that include a good salary, well-defined work ethics, a cosmopolitan culture, and a proper work-life balance. A strong employer brand will differentiate your organisation from competitors, deliver measurable business benefits, provide optimistic market reputation, reduce recruitment and training costs, and decrease employee turnover. Employer branding requires considerable investment depending on the size of the organisation, but when implemented properly, is capable of yielding very good returns. 

Value of investment in employer branding

Although many organisations may think employer branding is an expensive, time-consuming affair and hard to maintain, it is essential to know that not having an employer brand strategy in place could cost you more. As per research, retention rate gives any organisation maximum returns on their investment in employer branding. Other factors that determine the ROI in employer branding include employee engagement, quality of hire, cost per hire, number of applicants, employee satisfaction, and brand awareness and attractiveness with prospective employees. Eventually, the metrics used by an organisation to measure the value of employer branding are directly related to the organisation’s business and recruiting objectives.

Brand reputation of a company

Your employer brand represents your organisation's personality and offers a platform to communicate your employer value proposition. It is very important that organisations know the reputation of their brand in the market. This can be achieved by studying online perceptions, conducting employee and candidate feedback surveys, exit interviews, and keeping track of the number of employee referrals within the organisation. With the help of such information, organisations can create a benchmark for improving their current employer branding initiatives. Another proactive method is to measure the number of referrals in the company before and after the implementation of employer branding campaigns on the company’s website and social networking sites. Companies must also leverage the internet and social media as a powerful talent attraction, engagement, and retention tool.

An employer brand aligned with business objectives

Organisations that align metrics with their business requirements are known to spend wisely and build a better employer branding campaign. The main agenda should be to identify factors that drive brand value in the market and focus all efforts in that direction. For example, if an organisation’s core business area is sales and marketing, its aim should be to create a strong employer brand that will attract top sales people in the market. This can be achieved by promoting sales incentives and commission programmes offered to top performers or by marketing the organisation as the best place to work for sales people in the industry. The brand is what will make you an exclusive and desirable employer. Creating a true connection between internal and external messages is critical to match the organisation's promise with the actual employment experience.

Timely auditing of budget based on outcome

Analysing and auditing the current budget and keeping track of results is the best way to calculate the ROI of an employer branding initiative. If an organisation needs a large number of college graduates but is investing on sourcing candidates who don’t fit the bill, it needs to spend more time and money conducting campus interviews. In other words, companies need a metric that calculates the cost incurred on employer branding to monitor the results and change its branding programme whenever required.

Employer branding and scorecard development

The prerequisite of creating a good employer branding campaign is to clearly define its objectives – the primary one being attracting the right talent. Further, having an employee progress long term within your organisation will be the greatest asset when it comes to ROI, knowledge, and retention. Once the objective is in place, organisations can make best use of their investments instead of spending abruptly on marketing and communication. Another way of tracking employer branding efforts is to generate a scorecard on a regular basis. The scorecard should allow HR to track finances that can have a direct impact on the company’s employer branding objectives.

The key to promote a perfect employer brand is to make a planned investment in time, resources, and metrics. These factors ensure that an organisation gets the best possible results for the time and effort put in. Employer branding is a subjective exercise and does not solely depend on numbers and metrics, but correct implementation can maximise ROI in the long run.