Employer Branding teams have a really hard job. They're charged with improving the candidate experience across the board, but given few tools to do it properly.
Marketing and customer success departments rely on NPS (Net-Promoter-Score) to gauge how happy customers are, how likely they are to buy again, and how likely they are to refer their friends.
With candidate behaviour mirroring that of consumers and the best recruitment teams drawing more from the marketing playbook, it's time to start measuring how likely candidates are to recommend your company to their friends.
It's time to start measuring your Talent Promoter Score.
What is your Talent Promoter Score?
TPS™ (or Talent Promoter Score) is a measure of how likely a candidates is to refer friends or colleagues to your organisation (i.e. a measure of employer brand advocacy).
Turning candidates into brand advocates is possibly the best indicator of branding success. It shows that their interactions with your company have been so positive that they’re actively spreading the word and promoting your brand.
To measure your TPS™ , send candidates a simple survey asking them how likely they are to recommend your company to their friends. Candidates can select a score between 0 and 10 that shows their willingness to promote your brand to their friends.
Definitions:
Detractors: Candidates that select scores between 0-4 are seen as brand detractors (i.e. they would actively criticise and detract from your employer brand).
Passives: Candidates that select scores between 5-8 are seen as passives (i.e. they do not feel strongly enough about your brand to impact it positively or negatively).
Promoters: Candidates that select scores between 9-10 are seen as promoters (i.e. they would actively promote your employer brand to friends and family).
Below is an example of a TPS™ scorecard sent from Beamery. These can be triggered automatically to candidates at different stages of your recruiting process. Typically they're sent to people who reach the interview stage and candidates that are rejected.
If used correctly, TPS™ has the power to have a transformative effect on the way that branding teams measure the ROI of their initiatives. Not only can they use applications as a measure of branding success, bu they can look for an increase in brand promoters over time to keep track of the more intangible elements of brand.
Here are a few ways you can leverage TPS™ immediately:
1. Turning recruiting into a revenue generating machine
Recruiting is traditionally seen as a loss making function by the business. Unlike sales and marketing, it doesn't bring money to the table.
This can make it hard for recruiting leaders to get their voices heard, and can move investments in talent acquisition down the pecking order. This is a short sighted move, recruiters are the frontline of a company brand and are charged with making the hires that help the business hit their targets.
Smart talent departments though, are finding ways to lose the loss-making label. Consumer brands are beginning to offer unsuccessful applicants and potential brand detractors discounts and vouchers.
Not only does this improve the overall candidate experience, (who doesn't like a good deal), but the new revenue from applicants can be tracked by the business the measure success.
It's a big part of Virgin Media's goal to generate $7 million annually from recruiting, and it's a great way to highlight one of the many ways that recruiting can add value.
2. Increasing referrals
Your employees aren't the only source of referrals. Get your candidate experience right, and you might be able to generate referrals from applicants.
This is a worthwhile and achievable goal for talent teams. Brand promoters, by definition, go out of their way to spread the gospel about your company - why wouldn't they refer friends and connections?
Before you start firing off referral requests to everyone that applies though, remember that not everyone comes out of your process chuffed to bits with your company.
You're going to reject a LOT of candidates, and rejection is never a nice business. No matter how good your candidate experience is, it's hard to leave everyone with a good brand impression.
Requesting referrals from dissatisfied applicants might come across as rude or spammy, so make sure you find out which people are brand promoters before you get started.
Once you have this information, it's relatively simple to add this into your hiring machine. Here's how you can do this in a simple and automated 3-step process:
Send all applicants that reach the interview stage a TPS™ scorecard
Find out who the brand promoters are
Send them an email asking if they know anyone else that would be interested in a role at your company
3. Retargeting silver medalists
Silver medalists are unsuccessful applicants that you'd like to retarget for other roles. Typically, these people are added to talent pools and nurtured by your team after they're rejected.
Just because you think they're still a good fit and want to stay in touch, doesn't mean they feel the same way - remember, you've just rejected them!
If they're not interested, your attempts to nurture these candidates might be taken negatively, (not everyone is interested in being nurtured), and if this is the case, you might be damaging your brand.
If you can establish which of these silver medalists are brand detractors, then you know who to avoid or at least go easy on when it comes to the volume of emails and opportunities that you want to send their way. Conversely, you can send brand promoters more regular job alerts as you know they'll be happier to see them.
All of this translates into more applications from people you already know are a good fit for your company.
