Measuring ROI on Your EVP

We’ve talked a lot in recent posts about employment branding, and how it showcases your organisation as a great place to work, in the perception of potential candidates and existing employees. We’ve suggested that developing a clear and relevant EVP that reflects a positive employee experience delivers a strong return on investment.

In garnering senior level buy-in for any EVP project it’s important to show the links to benefits in terms of tangible factors around recruitment and retention and intangibles such as culture, values and engagement.

Once you define and start using your proposition statement you need to monitor impact and activity with a view to ensuring that you fine tune on a periodic basis. Use the information gained as a baseline for employer branding improvement efforts, alongside results for areas such as the number of employee referrals.

Review the data

Regular staff surveys enable assessment of how the message plays internally and metrics used by HR around recruitment costs, candidate pool and talent pipeline will aid the determination of ROI. Remember that a regular review of exit interview data gives insight into employer brand and staff perceptions. You might expect to see data around:

• Reduced hiring costs
• Enhanced talent pipeline which also aids succession planning
• Improved employee engagement
• Better brand reputation

Easiest to measure is the ROI on organisational HR programmes for attracting talent and ensuring employee retention. Hiring costs, agency fees, job advertising costs, temp and interim staff fees, onboarding costs and so on are all monitored by HR as a matter of course. Ensure recruitment teams collaborate closely with internal communications staff to ensure that EVP messaging is integral throughout all corporate communications.

A robust EVP motivates employees to be brand ambassadors, they can be the strongest and most effective advocates for the business and if you can hire via referrals from current staff or alumni you are at a distinct advantage. Start with a measure of current employee referrals and watch to see if the number of referrals increases as a result of the EVP project.

Integrated messaging

Bear in mind that employment branding isn’t a single process, it’s part of everything the organisation does –attracting, recruiting, developing and motivating staff. Ensure that you monitor the employee brand and alignment with the organisation’s broader business objectives and analyse the indicators that are meaningful for the brand. It’s easy to see the value of engaging employees to take ownership of the employer brand, encourage all employees to live and breathe the brand throughout the organisation.

Don’t forget to check your ratings on employer review sites such as Glassdoor and the Best Places to Work list to evaluate how you rank against competitors and others in your industry. If you can set a benchmark before promoting your EVP statement and then review regularly to look for any changes in your ratings.

The organisation’s EVP is designed to attract the right talent and then promulgated via your HR programmes and culture to retain your current employees and enhance employee engagement. When determining how to measure employer brand it’s important to think both from a brand marketing POV and from HR communications perspective.