ROI in Employer Branding

ROI is something people in employer branding and talent engagement often struggle to talk about.

The term gets bandied around to cover almost anything we achieve. That's wrong.

Depending on who you're talking to, their seniority and their connection to the P and L, it could damage your credibility.

ROI is a business metric. Not a media metric or a colleague engagement metric.

To be ROI, it must include finance. If it doesn't, then that's okay, but you're having another conversation that isn't ROI.

Another issue, that often sets us up for failure when discussing this topic is when someone asks, “What's the ROI of employer branding?” What? All of it?

The question is too broad. There are too many activities. Too many variables.

A proper ROI question must be activity-specific, time-bound, and have a financial calculation as its output.

Take an employee advocacy programme over the next twelve months.

You invest. People share their experiences. Others react. Likes, views and engagement sit in the middle. Useful measures. But ROI doesn't live there.

ROI compares your investment with financial returns or savings at the other end.

Suppose a programme costs fifty thousand pounds and replaces a hundred and two thousand, seven hundred pounds of agency and media spending, for the same results.

Over the next twelve months, this will save us fifty-two thousand, seven hundred pounds. That's roughly a hundred and five per cent ROI on the fifty thousand invested.

Count the full costs. Agree assumptions you can defend.

One activity. One timeframe. A financial result. That's an ROI conversation.

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