About us
The benchmark,
not the agency
Link Humans measures how employers are really seen by the people they want to hire. We read what employees, alumni and candidates say in public, and now what AI tells them, and we turn it into a score the whole company can act on. We don’t run campaigns, write content or build EVPs. We measure, so the number means something.
Our story
How we got here
Link Humans started in 2009 doing what most employer brand firms do: strategy, content, social, campaigns. The question clients kept asking was the one we couldn’t answer properly. “Is any of this working?” Surveys told us what employees said when asked. Applicant numbers told us about one campaign. Nobody could say how an employer was actually seen, across every market, compared with the competition, over time.
So we built the Employer Brand Index. It launched in 2018 with 16 attributes and one scoring method, and we have not changed the method since, because a benchmark only works if it stays still. As the Index grew, we made a decision that defines us: we stopped doing the agency work and became the measurement. You can’t be the referee and play for one of the teams.
- 2009
Founded in London
Link Humans starts working in employer brand, across strategy, content and social.
- 2018
The Index launches
The Employer Brand Index begins with 16 attributes and one method, tracked quarterly ever since.
- Every quarter
The benchmark grows
Over 10% of the Fortune 500 now measured, in 30+ languages, the same way.
- Today
Measurement only
How talent sees you and what AI tells candidates, scored on the same 16 attributes so the two can be compared. We still don’t do campaigns.
Why independence matters
If we did the campaigns, you couldn’t trust the score
Most employer brand measurement is sold by companies that also sell the fix. The score goes up after the work they did. We think that’s a conflict of interest, so we removed it.
We don’t do the work we measure
No EVP projects, no content, no recruitment marketing. We have nothing to gain from your score moving in either direction.
Same method since 2018
Change the method and you lose the trend. Our 16 attributes and scoring have stayed put for eight years, so a change in your score is a change in your reputation, not in our model.
We report what we find
We have been asked to soften a score. We won’t, for any client. If we did, the Index would be worth nothing to the clients who rely on it.
Global and multilingual, including China
Talent talks about you in the languages and on the platforms of each market. We read them in 30+ languages, with a dedicated team for China.
In numbers
The dataset behind the Index
- 5,000,000+Comments from employees, alumni and candidates read a year
- 130+Public platforms monitored
- 30+Languages read, wherever talent talks
- 16Attributes, unchanged since 2018
- 8 yrsOf quarterly benchmark data
- 10%+Of the Fortune 500 measured
The humans
A small team that reads a lot
We’re based in Soho, London, and the team is as international as the dataset: many nationalities, ages and languages, which keeps the bias out of the work.
Jörgen Sundberg
Founder & CEOFounded Link Humans in 2009 and hosts The Employer Branding Podcast.
Matthew Sefton
Head of StrategyLeads strategy and the thinking behind the Employer Brand Index.
Rumesha Wisidagama
Head of AnalysisLeads the analyst team and the reports clients receive.
Shekhar Paul
Head of Data EngineeringLeads data engineering and the quality of the dataset behind the Index.
Breta Micha
Head of AI EngineeringLeads the AI engineering behind the Index.
Plus a team of analysts and researchers, most of whom work on every client. You’ll meet yours by name in your report and on the call that goes with it.
Want to join us? We’re always keen to hear from analysts and engineers who like finding out what’s true. Get in touch.