Measuring employer reputation at the world’s largest commercial real estate firm.

Background

CBRE is the largest commercial real estate firm in the world, covering everything from running buildings to leasing, sales and workplace consulting. As a B2B business, its people deliver the services clients buy, so its people are its brand.

The biggest talent challenge is awareness outside real estate, especially for engineering, tech and corporate roles. As Debbie Celado, Global Head of Talent Marketing, puts it: “We’re either the premier destination or they have no idea who we are.”

Brief

CBRE set three goals for its employer brand:

• Increase external brand awareness.
• Improve first-year retention.
• Increase employee engagement scores across the board.

To reach them, the team needed robust data on how CBRE’s reputation was moving.

What we do

• We measure CBRE’s Employer Brand Index, analyzing public conversation from 130+ sources and scoring all 16 Employer Brand Attributes.
• We give the team a scoreboard for employer reputation, showing where its work is making an impact and where there is more to do.

What CBRE did with it

CBRE partnered with recruitment marketing and talent attraction to sharpen its talent differentiation, and got specific about the channels that reach each talent persona. To improve retention and engagement, it worked with onboarding and orientation teams so that talent programs match its EVP.

When reporting to leadership, Celado ties the data to business outcomes, including the cost of vacancies, so the return on employer branding is clear.

CBRE’s Perspective

Results

The outcomes include:

• A scoreboard for reputation. The Index shows where employee experience work is improving sentiment and where there is more to do.
• Data behind three clear goals: awareness, first-year retention and engagement.
• A business case leadership understands, grounded in data and the cost of vacancies.