Tools and providers
Part of Before you buy employer branding tools and providers
When to audit employer branding tool data sources before buying
How to judge employer branding best tools by their data sources, including selection criteria, a worked example in pounds and supplier questions to ask.
What to take away
Apply one test before buying: can the supplier export the raw data behind every headline metric?
- A hiring team in Leeds or Birmingham usually starts with a spreadsheet, a jobs board contract and a hunch. That is not a data stack, and it will not survive a budget review.
- Judge employer branding best tools by the data sources they draw on, not by the dashboard they show you.
- The two public sources for any procurement paper are the ONS Average weekly earnings in Great Britain series and the government's youth opportunities announcement published 4 February 2025.
- Platform features such as LinkedIn's Hiring Assistant change what a recruiter does day to day, so they belong in the same buying conversation as brand measurement.
- Set your inclusion criteria and geography before you see a demo. Otherwise the demo sets them for you.
Criteria to apply before you compare anything
Inclusion criteria that keep the shortlist honest
Four supplier inclusion tests
- Names dataset behind each metric
- Separates advertised salary from actual earnings
- Exports raw rows, not screenshots
- Covers your recruiting geographies
- Named data sourceevery headline metric maps to a specific dataset, such as ONS Average weekly earnings in Great Britain or LinkedIn Talent Insights.
- Exportabilityyou can download the raw rows, not just a screenshot or PDF.
- Geography granularitythe data can be filtered to England, or split across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Update frequencyyou know whether each source refreshes monthly, quarterly or annually, and the latest period covered.
Supplier questions to ask before a demo
Supplier questions
- Which named dataset sits behind each headline metric?
- Can we export the raw rows ourselves?
- What geography granularity is available, and can it isolate England?
- How often does each source update, and what is the latest period?
- Who owns the candidate data after the platform processes it?
A tool that fails the first test is a presentation layer, not a source. For a fuller breakdown of how these tests map onto product categories, see the employer branding tools and supplier guide for 2027, which sets out the buying stages in order.
Geography: England first, then the wider UK
The Office for National Statistics publishes earnings and working hours data for the whole UK, and it is the sensible baseline for pay messaging. Where a rule or scheme applies only in England, say so in your brief rather than writing UK throughout.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland often sit under separate skills and careers arrangements. A supplier that treats the four nations as one market will hand you copy that reads oddly to candidates in Glasgow or Cardiff.
Sources worth putting in the procurement paper
Public data you can cite without permission
The government's investment in youth opportunities announcement was published on 4 February 2025. It is the sort of page that tells you when early-careers recruitment is likely to tighten or loosen, which helps you plan campaign windows rather than set salaries.
The ONS Average weekly earnings in Great Britain series does the salary work. Pull the series, note the period it covers, and quote that period in any candidate-facing claim. Do not average two years together to smooth a trend.
The ONS also publishes the Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK series for more timely pay signals.
Named platforms include LinkedIn Talent Insights, which draws on LinkedIn member profiles and activity. Lightcast draws on job postings and official labour market data. Glassdoor draws on employee reviews and salary reports. Check each source note before you quote a headline figure.
Platform data sources behind recruitment automation
Recruitment platforms increasingly bundle automation into the recruiter workflow. LinkedIn's Hiring Assistant is an example: it sits inside Recruiter and Jobs and changes how sourcing and screening tasks are sequenced. Treat it as a process decision, not a branding one, and check who owns the candidate data afterwards. Its data sources are the Recruiter and Jobs activity it processes.
If you are weighing several suppliers against each other, the employer branding supplier comparison in England shows how to line up scoring so that platform features do not quietly outweigh measurement quality.
A worked example with labelled figures
For example, a ten-person talent team pays £400 a month for social listening, £900 a month for a jobs board package and £1,200 a month for an analytics platform. That is £2,500 a month, or £30,000 a year.
The £1,200 a month analytics platform is the £14,400 annual line. If it cannot name its salary source, that is the line a finance director will question. Redirect half of it, £600 a month or £7,200 a year, to a named dataset and a part-time analyst.
Common questions
Do I need paid tools at all?
Not at the start. ONS earnings data and government announcements are free and citable. Paid tools earn their place when you need frequency, competitor tracking or workflow automation that public sources cannot provide.
How should I handle salary claims in adverts?
State the period for any ONS figure you use. If you also quote an internal range, label it as your own data so candidates can tell the two apart.
Where does AI fit in the buying decision?
AI features usually change recruiter workload rather than brand perception. Score them under process efficiency, and keep measurement quality as a separate line in your scoring sheet.
What should a supplier demo cover?
Pick three metrics you already trust. Ask the supplier to show how each one maps to your inclusion criteria live. If it cannot, that is your answer.
