Buy employer branding benchmark research or build your own baseline?

What to take away

A Manchester employer filling 200 support roles a year cannot read much into a national median that mixes London weighting with a different job mix.
Bought reports such as Randstad Employer Brand Research and Universum Talent Survey are quick to cite, but rarely split by sector, region and role level at once.
A baseline built from data you already hold, in Workable, Greenhouse or Teamtailor, is defensible and repeatable.
Use external research to set direction, not to replace your own figures.

Buy employer branding benchmark research or build your own baseline? The choice depends on whether a named report samples your sector, region and role level. Most benchmark research arrives as a PDF with a national median and a chart. The median hides the question that matters: whether your vacancy mix resembles the sample.

A care provider in Leeds hiring 300 support workers a year faces different application volumes from a software firm hiring 20 engineers. One national figure tells you little about either.

Start with measures you already hold. Time to hire, offer acceptance and first-year attrition usually sit in an applicant tracking system. Workable, Greenhouse, Lever and Teamtailor can export them. If you cannot produce them, no external report closes the gap.

The employer branding measurement and reporting guide 2027 sets out how those measures fit together before you add any external comparison.

When a bought report helps

A commercial benchmark earns its place when it segments by sector, region and role family and states its sample size and collection period. Ask the provider for the questionnaire and the base numbers. A figure quoted without a sample is commentary, not evidence.

Named reports worth vetting include:

Randstad Employer Brand Researchannual, covers more than 30 markets and surveys tens of thousands of workers. It ranks employer attractiveness. The public summary is free; detailed cuts usually cost extra.
Universum Talent Survey: annual, surveys students and professionals, and segments by field of study and region. It feeds the World's Most Attractive Employers ranking. Headline findings are free; custom cuts are paid.
LinkedIn Future of Recruitingannual, free, and based on a global survey of recruiters and hiring managers. It gives direction of travel, not your role-level funnel.
CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning reportUK-focused, annual, and benchmarks time to hire, cost per hire, turnover and vacancy rates. CIPD members usually get it with membership; non-members can buy it.
Institute of Student Employers (ISE) Student Recruitment Survey: UK-focused, annual, and benchmarks graduate and school leaver hiring, salaries, application volumes and conversion rates. Members receive it; non-members pay.
Gartner TalentNeuronsubscription labour market analytics with custom cuts by role, location and competitor. Pricing is quoted on scope, with no public list price.

Vetting a bought benchmark

Segments by sector, region, role family
States sample size and collection period
Provider supplies questionnaire and base numbers
Figure without a sample is commentary
Use for direction of travel only

External reports are strongest for direction of travel. A published fall in application volumes across a sector supports a review of your sourcing mix. It does not prove your own decline or belong as your headline result.

Timing matters too. The employment and employee types data from the Office for National Statistics gives you a dated, official view of how the labour market splits between employees, self-employed and other groups.

Building your own baseline in England

Your baseline is a set of figures with a stated definition, period and scope. Choose one hiring area. Record applications, interviews, offers and starts across twelve months, then divide to get rates. An ATS such as Workable, Greenhouse, Lever or Teamtailor holds those counts. A HRIS such as HiBob, Personio or BambooHR can supply starts and attrition.

Bristol worked example

1,200applications in a year
60roles in a year
20applications per role
20%application-to-interview rate

A worked example: a Bristol employer receives 1,200 applications for 60 roles in a year, which is 20 applications per role. If 240 candidates reach interview, the application-to-interview rate is 20 per cent. These are illustrative figures.

What belongs in the written definition

A definition states the population, the start and end point of the clock, and who is counted. For time to hire, say whether the clock starts at requisition approval or at advert live.

How often to refresh the baseline

Refresh quarterly for live hiring areas and annually for planning. Recheck the definition each time, so a process change does not look like a performance change.

Once the arithmetic is stable, compare quarters. A fall from 20 to 14 applications per role is worth investigating. The cause might sit in the advert, the salary band or the channel mix.

Demand-side context helps you plan volumes. The Connect to Work expansion announcement is government evidence that supported employment places are expanding. That affects how some roles are filled. Note the date, and treat it as context rather than as your own performance measure.

Choosing between the two

Use a bought report when you need a market view for a board paper and your own history is short. Use your own baseline to manage a live hiring area. Most teams need both, with the baseline carrying the decision and the external figure carrying the framing.

The table compares named bought reports with a baseline you build from your own systems.

What it gives you

Randstad Employer Brand Research: Employer attractiveness rankings
Universum Talent Survey: Early careers and professional attractiveness
LinkedIn Future of Recruiting: Recruiter sentiment and market direction
CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning: UK time to hire, cost per hire, turnover
ISE Student Recruitment Survey: Graduate and school leaver benchmarks
Gartner TalentNeuron: Custom labour market analytics
Internal baseline in Workable, Greenhouse, Lever or Teamtailor plus HiBob, Personio or BambooHR: Your applications, interviews, offers, starts, attrition

Segmentation

Randstad Employer Brand Research: Market, sector, some role level
Universum Talent Survey: Field of study, region, employer
LinkedIn Future of Recruiting: Global, some sector
CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning: Sector, organisation size
ISE Student Recruitment Survey: Sector, region, role family
Gartner TalentNeuron: Role, location, competitor
Internal baseline in Workable, Greenhouse, Lever or Teamtailor plus HiBob, Personio or BambooHR: Your role family, location, channel

Cost

Randstad Employer Brand Research: Free summary; paid cuts
Universum Talent Survey: Free headline; paid custom
LinkedIn Future of Recruiting: Free
CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning: Member access; paid for non-members
ISE Student Recruitment Survey: Member access; paid for non-members
Gartner TalentNeuron: Subscription, quoted on scope
Internal baseline in Workable, Greenhouse, Lever or Teamtailor plus HiBob, Personio or BambooHR: Staff time; tools you already hold

Refresh

Randstad Employer Brand Research: Annual
Universum Talent Survey: Annual
LinkedIn Future of Recruiting: Annual
CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning: Annual
ISE Student Recruitment Survey: Annual
Gartner TalentNeuron: Continuous
Internal baseline in Workable, Greenhouse, Lever or Teamtailor plus HiBob, Personio or BambooHR: Quarterly or annual

Watch out

Randstad Employer Brand Research: Perception, not your hiring funnel
Universum Talent Survey: Strong early careers bias
LinkedIn Future of Recruiting: Broad trends, not your vacancy mix
CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning: Broad cuts, not role-level
ISE Student Recruitment Survey: Early careers only
Gartner TalentNeuron: Cost and setup time
Internal baseline in Workable, Greenhouse, Lever or Teamtailor plus HiBob, Personio or BambooHR: Needs clean definitions

If you are buying, ask for the sample and the segmentation before you sign. Vendor material such as these recruitment solution customer stories from LinkedIn shows how platforms present outcomes. Read it as vendor material, not as independent evidence.

Glossary

Baseline: your own measured figure for a defined period and scope.
Benchmark: an external figure used for comparison.
Sample: the group of employers or roles behind a published figure.
Segmentation: splitting a figure by sector, region or role level.
Application-to-interview rate: interviews divided by applications.

Common questions

Can a bought report replace an internal baseline?

No. It describes a sample you did not control. Your baseline describes your own hiring, and only that figure can be acted on.

How many months of data do I need before comparing?

Twelve months covers seasonal patterns in most hiring areas. If your hiring is highly seasonal, wait for two full cycles.

What should I check first in a benchmark report?

Sample size, fieldwork dates, sector split and role level. A figure missing any of these is hard to defend in a board paper.

Where does the reporting dashboard fit?

Once your definitions are stable, the employer branding reporting dashboard in England shows how to present the same measures monthly without redefining them.