Employer Reputation Survey: Questions and How to Run One

An employer reputation survey measures how a target audience, such as employees, candidates, alumni or the wider talent market, perceives an organisation as a place to work. It asks people directly what they know and believe about you as an employer, how you compare with other employers and what drives their view.

It is one of the oldest ways to measure employer reputation, and still one of the most useful when designed well.

This guide covers the types of employer reputation survey, the questions to ask, how to run one, and where surveys need to be combined with other measures, including what AI assistants tell candidates.

Looking for the QS employer reputation survey?

The phrase "employer reputation survey" is also used in higher education.

The QS World University Rankings include an employer reputation indicator, based on the QS Global Employer Survey, in which employers worldwide nominate the universities whose graduates they prefer to recruit.

Responses are collected over several years and weighted for stability, and the indicator feeds into the overall rankings and QS subject rankings as a measure of graduate employability.

Employers rate institutions in the faculty areas and subjects they recruit from, so business schools, for example, are judged by employers who hire graduates of business masters and MBA programmes.

QS aggregates the employer nominations, domestic and international, into a weighted score, alongside academic reputation, and uses the result as a key metric of graduate employment outcomes and market recognition.

That survey measures how employers rate universities from the employer perspective.

This guide is about the other meaning: how people rate a company as a place to work. If you work in employer branding, HR or talent acquisition, this is the survey you need.

Types of employer reputation survey

• Employee survey: how current employees see you as an employer and whether they would recommend you. Often part of an engagement survey, with an employee net promoter score (eNPS) question.
• Candidate survey: how applicants, including rejected ones, perceive you after the hiring process. Useful for spotting candidate experience problems.
• Alumni survey: how former employees see you, and whether they would return or refer others.
• Pulse survey: short, frequent check-ins with employees on specific topics such as change, leadership communication or workload. Useful for spotting shifts in employee perception between annual surveys.
• Talent market survey: how people who have never worked for you see you, usually through a panel of your target audience, such as engineers in a specific country. This is the closest survey measure to external reputation.

Employer reputation survey questions

Use a consistent scale (for example 1 to 5 or 0 to 10) and keep each survey short. Adapt these by audience.

Awareness and consideration

• Which of these companies have you heard of as employers?
• Which would you consider working for?
• Where have you heard about [company] as an employer? (review sites, social media, friends, news, AI assistants, the careers site)

Overall perception

• How would you rate [company] as a place to work?
• How likely are you to recommend [company] as an employer to a friend? (0 to 10)
• Which three words describe [company] as an employer?

Attribute ratings

• How would you rate [company] on pay and benefits, career growth, culture, leadership, flexibility, job security, inclusion and purpose?
• Which of these matter most to you when choosing an employer?

Experience (employees, candidates, alumni)

• How well did the experience match what you expected before joining or applying?
• What is the one thing [company] should change to be a better employer?

Comparison

• Compared with [competitor employers], is [company] better, the same or worse on each attribute?

Survey design tips

• Word questions neutrally. Clear wording and question structure directly affect the quality of survey results. Avoid leading questions such as "How great is our culture?"
• Guarantee anonymity. Anonymity and confidentiality are essential for honest feedback, especially from current employees.
• Use the same scale every time. Consistent scales let you compare results over time and across markets.
• Mix ratings with open questions. Ratings show where you stand; open answers explain why.
• Translate properly. Run the survey in each market's language and check the translation with local colleagues.

How to run an employer reputation survey

1. Define the audience and markets. Survey the talent you want to hire, in the countries where you hire them, in their own language.
2. Choose competitors. Benchmark against the companies you actually compete with for talent.
3. Keep it short. Ten minutes or less. Long surveys get poor answers.
4. Protect data integrity. Check survey responses for duplicates and incomplete answers, and avoid small number effects by reporting only segments with enough responses.
5. Get a representative sample. For market surveys, use a panel matched to your target audience. For candidate surveys, include rejected candidates.
6. Analyse by segment. Read results by market, function and seniority, not just as a total.
7. Act and repeat. Share findings with the teams who can act, and repeat on a regular cycle so you can see change.

What to do with the results

A survey is only as good as what happens next. Share the headline results with employees, explain what you will change and when, and report back on progress.

Communication of survey results is essential for transparency and engagement, and leadership must visibly follow through on the findings to keep trust.

If people see nothing change, response rates and honesty both fall the next time. Turn the findings into a short action plan with owners, and use our guide on how to improve employer reputation to prioritise.

The limits of employer reputation surveys

Surveys tell you what people say when asked. They are slower and more expensive to run across many markets, usually happen once or twice a year, and measure stated perception rather than what candidates actually read when they research you.

They also miss a growing part of the picture: the AI answer.

In PerceptionX research across seven countries, 96% of AI-using job seekers had used AI to research an employer, learn about a role or prepare for an interview in the past year, and 72% used AI before deciding whether to apply.

Those answers draw heavily on review sites and forums: in October 2026 PerceptionX data, Glassdoor appeared in 63% of AI answers about what it is like to work somewhere.

A survey will not tell you what those answers say, or why.

Combine surveys with continuous measurement

The strongest approach uses both: surveys for depth and the "why", and continuous measurement of reviews and AI answers for the "what candidates see", by market and role, every month.

Our comparison of survey panels and always-on AI measurement covers when to use each, and our employer reputation measurement framework shows how they fit together.

How PerceptionX helps

PerceptionX is the only employer reputation platform built for how candidates now research employers.

It shows what ChatGPT, Google and other AI assistants tell job seekers about working for a company: whether they recommend it, what they say about it and which websites those answers come from, in every market and for every type of role, continuously rather than once a year.

Our scores are independent: they come from what AI actually says, not from what employers tell us.

Key takeaways

• Employer reputation surveys measure how employees, candidates, alumni or the talent market perceive you as an employer.
• Ask about awareness, overall perception, attributes, experience and comparison with competitors.
• Survey in each market and language, keep it short, and analyse by segment.
• Combine surveys with continuous measurement of reviews and AI answers to see what candidates actually read.