Tom Peters (one of my professional heroes) once said to a room full of executives, "Benchmarking is stupid. You pick the current industry leader and then launch a five-year program, the goal of which is to be as good as whomever was best five years ago five years from now." (He once told a room full of American automotive executives that, having spent millions in design and research to launch the Dodge Neon, "Congrats, you invented a 1986 Honda Civic.") So you have a sense of my bias against benchmarks: They care pictures of the past and too many people seek only to recreate someone else's past. That said, SmashFly just launched its own benchmarks for recruitment marketing. (Fair warning: you get to the top of their benchmarks by doing all the things they think you should do, not because you necessarily do it well). Takeaways? Engage with candidates honestly, transparently and deeply and you'll always be ahead of the curve.

If you are looking for ideas on how to improve your employer brand marketing, here is a laundry list of great projects to consider. Allow me to point out that they list "improving your search rankings" and that isn't a project I hear EB'ers talk about much. Do you spend any thought/time at all to making your job postings pop up higher on job boards and Google? Maybe you should.