Employer attractiveness from a generational perspective: Implications for employer branding

ABSTRACT This study aimed to identify the employer attractiveness factors prioritized by different generations: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. The survey was conducted with a sample of 937 professionals, working in various areas and companies, most of them were managers and had a high education level. The Employer Attractiveness Scale proposed by Berthon et al. (2005) was adopted and the results indicate that, when choosing a company, the generations under study have specific features regarding the attractiveness attributes they prioritize. It was also observed that Generation Y discriminates and ranks such attributes more clearly than the others. Possible implications for employer branding and research limitations are discussed at the end of the article.

Formation of the Employer Brand Image

The purpose of this study was to explore the employer brand image and its formation of a Finnish (yet international) service company in B2B sector. In the research qualitative case study method was used to explore the most preferred attributes in employer attraction, the employer brand perceptions towards the case company, and the effectors behind these brand perceptions among the prospective group of employees. The research was conducted through in-depth semistructured interviews among 23-30 undergraduate or graduate business students in Finnish universities close to their graduation. After deriving the attributes of an attractive employer, and exploring their relation to the case company, the employer brand image of the case company was determined and its attractiveness level evaluated. Moreover, the formation of the employer brand image was investigated and its sources detected. The most important factors for the target group in employer attractiveness were found to be company reputation and company culture/work atmosphere. Also career opportunities and international opportunities were seen important. The case company was found to hold a positive, attractive image on company culture and international opportunities, but failing to hold a good reputation as a fair employer. The main and most impactful source of employer brand image was former and current employees - directly or indirectly. Company’s own actions played only small part in employer brand formation as credibility is a critical factor in brand image formation and corporate communication found not to be perceived genuine. Based on the findings, suggestions for further employer branding were made.

Internal Employer Brand: The factors affecting the formation of internal employer image

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting the formation of employer image and attractiveness in the minds of an organization’s employees. Six employees from different backgrounds and business units within a larger organization are interviewed, and the results are compared in order to better understand the effect divergent variables have on the resulting factors. The theoretical background of the research is based on the study of the concept of employer branding, an organization’s effort in affecting the employer image it projects and attractiveness perceived by the employees and applicants. The results of the study reveal how immaterial factors, primarily related to self-actualization and social relationships, often took precedence over material ones, so long as the material factors, such as salary and work equipment, were at least on a minimum level acceptable to the employee. As such, focusing on these immaterial factors when forming an employer brand strategy is expected to yield larger benefits in form of employer attractiveness.

Employer branding : elementos relevantes na intenção de permanecer: estudo exploratório com estagiários

Atrair e reter talentos por meio de salários inflacionados pode ser oneroso e não necessariamente efetivo. A atividade de Employer Branding (EB), que consiste nos esforços das empresas em promover características e atributos que as tornem diferentes e desejáveis como empregadoras, começa a despertar o interesse tanto das empresas quanto dos pesquisadores de Recursos Humanos e Práticas de Gestão. À luz da recente e escassa literatura internacional, este estudo exploratório buscou identificar quais aspectos do Employer Branding são mais importantes para os indivíduos na intenção de permanecer em uma empresa após o período de estágio. As análises consideraram 443 questionários respondidos por estagiários de uma empresa multinacional de grande porte do setor financeiro, utilizando-se a escala de atratividade do empregador (Berthon et al., 2005), que considera cinco dimensões do Employer Branding: desenvolvimento, social, interesse, aplicação e econômica. Testes estatísticos permitiram afirmar que variáveis demográficas como gênero, tipo de custeio da faculdade (público ou privado) e nível de responsabilidade financeira influenciam na maneira como os indivíduos valorizam cada uma das dimensões. Além disso, ainda que de forma geral todas as dimensões tenham sido consideradas importantes, os resultados da Regressão Logística para a intenção de permanecer permitiram observar que, para a amostra, as questões financeiras destacam-se das demais variáveis. Por fim, a análise dos dados revela aspectos que podem servir de insumo para propostas de readequação de discurso e/ou readequação de práticas por empresas pretendam atrair e reter, com eficiência, estagiários para seu quadro de colaboradores. Além disso, os resultados desta pesquisa contribuem para a teoria ao discutir as categorizações existentes para dimensões do Employer Branding e ao sugerir que há espaço para que novas classificações sejam propostas.

"Bolagsverket är mer modernt än jag tänkte mig" : Hur kan statliga myndigheter arbeta med Employer Branding för att attrahera Generation Y?

Bakgrund: Employer Branding är ett relativt nytt begrepp som har börjat användas som en strategi inom Human Resource Management. Genom att utveckla ett Employer Brand kan or-ganisationer attrahera och behålla talangfull arbetskraft och på så vis säkra sin överlevnad. Det saknas emellertid forskning på hur Employer Branding kan användas i offentlig verksamhet för att attrahera den senaste generationen på arbetsmarknaden; Generation Y. Syfte: Öka förståelse för hur statliga myndigheter kan arbeta med Employer Branding för att attrahera Generation Y. Metod: Studien baseras på kvalitativ metod och har en fenomenologisk samt deduktiv forsk-ningsansats. Undersökningsdesignen var i form av en fallstudie. Nio semistrukturerade inter-vjuer har genomförts med respondenter på Bolagsverket, varav fyra intervjuer med personer som har inflytande över Employer Branding och fem med personer ur Generation Y. Teorier: "Employer Branding Predictive Model" Slutsatser: I studien visar att den statliga arbetsgivaren är attraktiv för Generation Y. Proble-matiken ligger i att det finns brister beträffande hur kommunikationen av arbetsgivarvarumärket ser ut externt. Utan en uttalad målgrupp och ett uttalat Employee Value Proposition blir den externa kommunikationen otydlig vilket minskar arbetsgivarens attraktionskraft hos potentiella arbetstagare. Attraktiviteten uppstår först när individen från Generation Y redan rekryterats in i organisationen.

Employer Branding idag : Attraktivitet genom sociala medier

The use of social media has during the last couple of years increased and is now a major part of most of the organizations marketing strategies. But how does this fit with the Employer Branding strategies? And how does this affect the organizational attractiveness as an employer? These were two of the questions we wanted to examine and analyze. In order to answer these questions, we conducted interviews with six different companies divided into 3 subgroups. The intention of this was to get a wider perspective of how the implementation of social media in the Employer Branding could work. And could this change the recruitment process? What we could see afterwards is that more time is spent on taking references online through social media sites. Some say it is more honest than the traditional references that the candidate got to choose. Other conclusions that we could find was that it is important to use social media in todays market but it is crucial to use it in a proper way. Companies must form a strategy based on their Employee Value Proposition in order to reach the wanted receivers using social media. It is also important that the Employee Value Proposition is based on the companies’ corporate values.

Preference of Biomphalaria tenagophila among macrophytes and their periphytons determined through the degree of attractiveness

In presence of extracts of six flowering plants the Biomphalaria tenagophila was more attracted to four them in the following sequence: Nasturtium pumilum > Polygonum acre > Commelina sp. = Echinochloa crusgalli. The periphyton of these flowering plants attracted in the same way the B. tenagophila but without no preference for either of them. Reporting the results that behavior may be evaluated as a co-evolution between snail and plants.

The differential effects of switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives on customer loyalty

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de Informação.

Non–profit and investment attractiveness – best practices under a national perspective

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Attractiveness of European masters under Bologna constraints: The South American case

This paper studies strategies to attract students from outside Europe to European preexperience masters. We characterize the value added by such masters through interviews with key players at the universities and multinational recruiting corporations. We considered a strategy for segmenting international students in the US and extended it to the European market. We have analyzed data from international applications to Nova SBE as a proxy for applications in European institutions. Based on that analysis we conclude with recommendations to attract suitable candidates from outside Europe. In particular we also provided three different solutions to attract students from the southern hemisphere: we conclude that European institutions should (a) increase the spring semester intake, (b) provide bridging courses for some students, or (c) could place some accepted candidates in internships before starting classes.

An agent-based model to assess the attractiveness of industrial estates

This article describes the main approaches adopted in a study focused on planning industrial estates on a sub-regional scale. The study was supported by an agent-based model, using firms as agents to assess the attractiveness of industrial estates. The simulation was made by the NetLogo toolkit and the environment represents a geographical space. Three scenarios and four hypotheses were used in the simulation to test the impact of different policies on the attractiveness of industrial estates. Policies were distinguished by the level of municipal coordination at which they were implemented and by the type of intervention. In the model, the attractiveness of industrial estates was based on the level of facilities, amenities, accessibility and on the price of land in each industrial estate. Firms are able to move and relocate whenever they find an attractive estate. The relocating firms were selected by their size, location and distance to an industrial estate. Results show that a coordinated policy among municipalities is the most efficient policy to promote advanced-qualified estates. In these scenarios, it was observed that more industrial estates became attractive, more firms were relocated and more vacant lots were occupied. Furthermore, the results also indicate that the promotion of widespread industrial estates with poor-quality infrastructures and amenities is an inefficient policy to attract firms.