There are two fundamentally different types of metrics used to measure Employer Brand. Both are useful, both have their place, but most companies systematically use only one of them. And that is precisely the problem.

We call them retrospective and prospective indicators. In English-language literature, you’ll come across the terms “lagging” and “leading” indicators. The difference between them isn’t just technical—it’s strategic.

For a clearer overview, we’ll organize them along the entire candidate and employee journey using our favorite RACE model. This model divides the journey into four phases: Reach (reaching the target audience), Act (interaction and building trust), Convert (recruitment process and onboarding), and Engage (engagement and advocacy). Each phase has its own typical metrics, and in each one, you can measure both backward and forward.

What Happened: Retrospective Metrics

Retrospective metrics measure results. They tell you what has already happened and provide a clear, verifiable picture of the past. They are indispensable for reporting, evaluating campaigns, and demonstrating ROI.

Reach, reaching the target audience

• Brand search impressions—how many people are actively searching for the company name as an employer
• Social media content reach
• Ratings on platforms like Glassdoor or LinkedIn
• Brand Sentiment, how the company is perceived online

Act, interaction and trust-building

• Career website traffic
• Time on page
• AI assistent interaction rate - a signal that the candidate actively researched the company

Convert, recruitment process and onboarding

• Number of candidates applied
• Apply rate
• Offer acceptance rate
• Time-to-hire, Cost-per-hire
• Source of hire
• Onboarding succes rate

Engage: engagement and ambassadorship

• Turnover rate
• Quality of hire: performance of new employees after 6 to 12 months
• Employee satisfaction score

These numbers are precise and easy to understand. Management understands them, and they’re easy to present. Their fundamental limitation, however, is that you only see the problem once it has already occurred. A 22% turnover rate is a fact, but it only made it into your spreadsheet after people had already left.

What’s Next: Prospecting Metrics

Prospecting metrics are predictive in nature. They don’t track results, but rather the driving forces, inputs, and processes that will eventually lead to those results. They allow you to take timely action, adjust course, and prevent problems before they show up in the final numbers.

Reach, attracting your target audience

• Employer brand awareness score—what percentage of the target group knows your company as an employer, measured by a survey, not reach statistics
• Talent pool size—how many people have your company at the top of their list for their next career move

Act, interacting and building trust

• Candidate experience score – how candidates rate their first contact with the company even before the interview; predicts whether the company builds trust in the early stages or, conversely, destroys it
• Employee advocacy index – the percentage of employees who actively share company content or recommend the company to their network
• Job saves—the candidate has saved the position but has not yet applied; in total, this indicates the attractiveness of both the position and the brand

Convert, recruitment process and onboarding

• Pre-onboarding engagement rate—how active accepted candidates are before starting; low activity predicts a higher risk of leaving during the probationary period
• Onboarding NPS—how new employees rate their first weeks at the company; one of the strongest predictors of retention in the first year

Engage, engagement and ambassadorship

• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) – willingness to recommend the company as an employer; a declining eNPS predicts an increase in turnover several months in advance
• Internal mobility rate – the proportion of positions filled internally; a strong indicator of a healthy culture and genuine development opportunities
• Employee referral rate – a specific form of advocacy: an employee actively recommends a candidate from their network

A New Area: How Artificial Intelligence Sees You

Prospective Employer Brand measurement is expanding into a whole new dimension. More and more candidates are using tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity when searching for an employer and asking directly: “What’s it like to work at [company name]?” or “Which companies in the industry are the best employers?”

The answers provided by these tools are based on what is available online about your company: reviews, articles, corporate content, and media mentions. Monitoring how your company is portrayed in these responses and with what sentiment is a new area of measurement that has come to be known as GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization. In the our country and surrounding countries, almost no one is systematically measuring it yet. For companies that start today, this represents a real competitive advantage in recruitment.

How to Combine Both Types Effectively

Retrospective and prospective metrics aren’t competitors; they are two different tools for two different purposes.

Prospective metrics guide. They give you control over how processes are unfolding and allow for timely course corrections.

Retrospective metrics provide proof. They demonstrate what you’ve achieved and are essential for justifying investments in your Employer Brand to leadership.

A practical recommendation to get started: don’t add twenty new metrics all at once. Look at what you’re already measuring, and try to add at least one prospective metric to each retrospective one. Add eNPS to turnover. Add Candidate Experience Score to the number of applicants. Add Talent Pool Size to content reach.

Companies that can read both types of signals don’t just describe what happened. They drive what’s coming next.