In many developed economies, changing demographics and economic conditions have given rise to increasingly competitive labour markets, where competition for good employees is strong. Consequently, strategic investments
in attracting suitably qualified and skilled employees are recommended. One such strategy is employer branding. Employer branding in the context of recruitment is the package of psychological, economic, and functional benefits
that potential employees associate with employment with a particular company. Knowledge of these perceptions can help organisations to create an attractive and competitive employer brand. Utilising information economics and signalling theory, we examine the nature and consequences of employer branding. Depth interviews reveal that job seekers evaluate: the attractiveness of employers based on any previous direct work experiences with the employer or in the sector; the clarity, credibility, and consistency of the potential employers’ brand signals; perceptions of the employers’ brand investments; and perceptions of the employers’ product or service brand portfolio.

Employer branding : strategic implications for staffrecruitment

Martin Kornberger Brand society – How brands transform management and lifestyle Cambridge University Press, 2010. 308 sidor, haftad. ISBN: 9780521726900.

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Brand society – How brands transform management and lifestyle

Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts on social media can help firms to attract new talent

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are transforming the business models and entrepreneurial ecosystems of different economic activities. As a result, the survival of some of these activities, especially physical markets, is under threat. This article aims to shed light on the distinct e-commerce mechanisms of wholesale markets that enable transforming and upgrading their ecosystem. The study combines insights from the scholarly debate on ecosystems, wholesale markets, and e-commerce with the empirical findings of a case study (a wholesale fruit market in Chongqing, China). By exploring the mechanisms and outcomes of e-commerce, this article shows that ICT adoption can be a threat as well as an opportunity for wholesale markets. On the one hand, transaction costs and marketing channel power might make physical wholesale markets less attractive for wholesalers and customers. On the other hand, network effects and business model innovation can enhance the traditional wholesale advantages of physical markets, in turn transforming and upgrading this traditional ecosystem into an entrepreneurial one.

The digital transformation of a traditional market into an entrepreneurial ecosystem

Attracting and retaining talented employees and gaining competitive advantage are important for organizations around the world. This study identifies and operationalizes the components of employer attractiveness from the perspective of potential employees. The study tests the employer attractiveness scale (EmpAt) by identifying the attractiveness dimensions of an employer brand among business students in the Czech Republic through exploratory factor analysis. We also search for similarities and differences among employer attractiveness dimensions through a cross-cultural comparison based on the results of previous studies. Businesses in today’s globalised world need to attract potential employees globally and determine whether it would be better to use one corporate strategy or to customize their employer brand according to the cultural differences between countries. National, cultural, and gender differences are also investigated. The findings show factors that business students give the highest importance to when searching for an employer and that the factor’s importance is influenced by gender. The findings of this study can be used to track the perceptions of current job applicants about the company and to appeal to “suitable target audiences” – potential employees. The results can be used by HR experts and practitioners in formulating and executing their communication and recruitment strategies.
First published online 10 April 2019

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Employer branding: exploring attractiveness dimensions in a multicultural context

Designing brands and managing organizational politics: A qualitative case study of employer brand creation

Im vorliegenden Beitrag untersuchen wir die organisationsexternen Deutungen einer Arbeitgebermarke vor dem Hintergrund eines interpretativen, relationalen Verstandnisses von Branding. In einer explorativen Studie auf der Basis von 16 semistrukturierten Interviews mit potentiellen BewerberInnen und Employer Branding-ExpertInnen zu den Arbeitgebermaterialien von Daimler leiten wir folgende zentrale Rekonstruktionen ab: Arbeitgebermarke als wirksames HRM-Steuerungsinstrument, als bewerberseitiger Vorselektionsprozess, als Residualkategorie und als legitimierendes HRM- und Marketinginstrument. Diese Rekonstruktionen sind das Produkt eines komplexen Zusammenspiels von Employer Branding-Materialien, individuellen Merkmalen, gesellschaftlichen und organisationalen Diskursen sowie unterschiedlichen Informationskanale. Insgesamt zeigt sich, dass Employer Branding nicht als ein funktionaler Darstellungs- und Bestimmungsvorgang, sondern als ein interaktiver, mehrdeutiger und ambivalenter Konstruktions- und Kommunika...

Interpretationen und Rekonstruktionen einer Arbeitgebermarke durch unternehmensexterne Stakeholder: Eine explorative Studie

The aim of this paper is to investigate processes of subjective employer brand interpretations. We draw on the first-person perspectives of sought-after applicants who articulated their thoughts while being exposed to employer brand material and on subsequent in-depth interviews with the study participants about their assessments of the various employers’ attractiveness. Sensemaking as a theoretical framework to understand meaning-making in processes of actors’ engagement with artifacts is employed to analyze this qualitative data. Based on our empirical findings, we present a process model that illustrates how potential applicants make sense of employer brands. This dominant sensemaking journey includes three different stages: exploring the employer brand material, constructing a plausible employer image and assessing employer attractiveness. However, this trajectory is neither the only possible way nor completely linear and predictable since deviations, particularly the complete breakdown of making sense of employer brand material, are possible.

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Andreas Mölk

Papers

Designing brands and managing organizational politics: A qualitative case study of employer brand creation

Interpretationen und Rekonstruktionen einer Arbeitgebermarke durch unternehmensexterne Stakeholder: Eine explorative Studie

How do Potential Applicants Make Sense of Employer Brands