Can you measure something as intangible as the employer branding? Is it possible to calculate how much returns to investment in its development? And finally, if it really can influence the behavior of candidates and employees? Is it possible? Of course! With the increasing availability of data about the behavior of candidates and employees, increasingly, moreover, in real time (i.e. Big data) is more effective.
How is data collected? If you think about the fact that virtually every movement candidate (e. g. the quality of the application, the source application or adjustment to the company), and then a happy employee (e.g. commitment, an internship in a company or efficiency) can be measured, and then the data merge, easy to imagine how much strategic information we can get.
We can identify key brand indicators, collect information about their level and on that basis determine the strategy. It is based on the data we are able to answer the question of what stage of development is the employer brand and what development strategy is suitable for it. We select the key indicators to monitor its growth.
Why do we collect employer branding data?
One of the dimensions is assessed the severity of the analysis of the collected data. In our model, we have 4 levels of play. From what data we collect and how we combine them together, we depend on what questions we can answer.
The higher the level of play, the better we get answers. What kind of questions we can find the answer to each of the levels? By the way, check at what stage is your organization!
Level I.
How it is? We collect basic data about the strength of the employer brand of separate processes, e.g. the number of applications and the level of commitment. We answer the questions: What is the level of applications on the selected position in the company? What was in the previous comparable period? Has anything changed?
Level II.
Why is it like that? We combine the data from the selected processes, looking for connections between them. We answer the questions: Which source application we generate the smallest employee turnover? How brand engagement affects to the effectiveness of employees?
Level III.
What to change to make it better? We analyze the collected data together and looking for factors that affect our employer brand the most. As a result of this analysis may be, e.g. that the actions we take (e.g. the action in social media) are not critical, and should instead take a completely different area (e.g. sealing the selection process).
Level IV.
What will happen if…? At this stage, we can predict (based on the model of our brand) what happens if we change our actions. For example, we will lower the salary, but we will offer better benefits or change the profile of our target audience. Each of the mentioned changes described has its weaknesses, the best course to be at the level of IV.
But do not worry, most of the organizations working on the I and II level and manages the brand and an image of an employer. It is important to get started! In which on the level of strategic employer branding are you?