Why you Should Change Your Measurements to Stay Relevant

If you’re using the same Employer Brand metrics year after year, I guarantee you’re not getting the most out of your efforts. For the metrics to be truly optimised, they must be aligned with the current priorities of the organisation.

An Employer Brand exists to serve the business. And it serves it by holding up a mirror to business reality and demonstrating where the reality people want and the reality the organisation needs intersect, which creates a culture that people like and a culture that is good for business.

That’s the stark reality of an Employer Brand. Therefore, if your Employer Brand and your approach to Employer Brand strategy year on year isn't closely aligned and following the priorities of the business in that moment, that year, or in that quarter, then you're missing a trick and not serving the company in the right way.

If you start with the premise that Employer Brand is there to serve the organisation and to serve people, then look for that intersection.

And that can change based on any number of different factors, the economic climate, whether there's a recession, whether you're hiring 2000 people or firing 2000 people, opening a new territory, losing all your tech talent to Google and so on. Depending on what's going on, the priorities, the challenges, the needs and preferences of the organisation and your people are perhaps not constantly changing, but they are slowly evolving, transitioning and trailing the priorities of the organisation.

Adapting your Employer Brand

A big part of what keeps an organisation relevant is to react to what's happening in the world. Therefore, the Employer Brand needs to react to the organisation and how it is adapting to what's happening in the world.

That might mean that 80% of the metrics stay the same, but 20% of the metrics change year on year, or every quarter.

An intelligent approach is to refine and tweak to remain relevant. And when it comes down to budgeting, getting resource and funding to keep the Employer Brand alive, the number one job is to demonstrate the return on investment. Which means showing how it is relevant and adding value to the current business priorities.

Analysis of your Employer Brand needs to follow an annual cycle of business planning. But then my advice would be that on a quarterly basis, if there is something of significance to the organisation, that might just show you where to do a little bit more of a deep dive and see if there's any trend analysis that might better inform you.

That way, you’re not just supporting the organisation, you might be proactively contributing, with provable recommendations.

It is all about getting in the conversation and demonstrating current added value and future added value. You should incorporate planning in line with the business, at least once in an annual cycle for sure, and then on a quarterly basis. Demonstrate intelligence by knowing where to place emphasis. It’s the same report card, the same metrics, but there might be a different emphasis on where to deep dive.

Depending on just how volatile the economic conditions are and how much of a transition an organisation is in, if there's a massive crisis or a change or something suddenly happening, then you've got to be as reactive as the rest of the organisation.

Typically, however, when something is changing, it's either dialling up or dialling down and it can be predicted or it can be on trend.

And that just might change the frequency and altitude of how you report on the same metrics. In which case, what you're looking for there is more visibility, trends, and predictions to inform what you do next.

Demonstrate awareness

In a changing world people want you to tell them what's the same and what's probably going to change, so they get an idea of the future state of things.

If all your employer brand reporting is set in the past, you're losing an opportunity to get in the conversation that people really care about, which is the present and the future.

When things change quickly if you can demonstrate awareness of what's happened, and what else you anticipate will happen, or might, plus the intelligence and awareness to show exactly how that calibrates to your competitors and other markets for context, it might present an opportunity.

There might be a ‘watch out’ or learning from other organisations. It might result in a smart reallocation of budget, an update to a process or procedure, or a comms plan. It can be any number of things.

It’s the intelligence and ability to react and adapt that really demonstrates the value of Employer Branding and the difference it can make in volatile times.

It can be a voice of reason, consistency, and a reminder to people of what -  in an ever-changing world – isn’t actually changing, which is your principles, your proposition, and what you stand for.

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