1. Investigating the Potential of
Leveraging Community-Based
CSR in Employer Branding
Christopher SHANE
M2 - IHRM
CIFFOP Panthéon-Assas Paris 2
16 September 2015
5. In the Workplace
Work-life balance & flexible schedules
Expectations of more support and more
appreciation of achievements
Seeking ethical, fair, and transparent workplaces
Prefer cohesive and team-oriented cultures,
emphasizing teamwork and community
Relation to CSR
Influences employer attractivity and job-choice
Preferences for jobs where they can make social
impacts
Trade-offs on other job factors for CSR
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
6. Behling, Labovitz, and Gainer
Objective factors theory
Subjective factors theory
Critical contact perspective theory
Rottenberg
Job-choice tradeoffs
Rynes & Lawler
Variance & weighting of attributes in job attribute
trade-offs
Tajfel & Turner
Categorization, Identificaiton, Comparison
Ashforth & Mael
Categories are used to define oneself and others
One socially creates who they are through
identification, and favors the in-group
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
8. Categorization of organizations by
individuals is critical to employer attractivity.
Determines identification with an organization.
Identification with organizations reinforces
subjective factors for job-choice.
Construction and definition of one’s self through
identification with a firm’s identity.
Prioritization of characteristics of firm one has
identified with relative to other characteristics.
Can compound: favored in trade-offs.
After shared grouping with a firm, effects of
negative characteristics are mitigated in job
choice.
In job choice, highly-variable characteristics
between firms weighted significantly more
than other variables.
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
10. Social Responsibility is a core aspect of
millennial identities.
Low levels of awareness of social CSR
activities reported.
Different aspects of CSR have very different
effects on employer attractiveness.
Weak: sustainable products, environment
Strong: employee relations, diversity
Opportunity to signal specific aspects of CSR
to job-seekers in job-choice process.
Support grouping and identification based on
identities reinforced by CSR.
Differentiates from other job-choices.
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
11. Research Topic
How can employers leverage their CSR
approach to increase attractivity to millennials ?
Focus: The interface between company
contributions to a job-seeker’s community, and
impacts on employer attractivity and job-choice
decisions.
12. Population
Millennials, Highly Educated
Sample (100 94% response rate)
Students/alumni of French grandes écoles
52% women
26 years old on average
47% employed FT; 50% students; 3% unemployed
Convenience-sampling
Satisfies Feber’s 3 criteria
“Rate” Measurements
Scaled Likert ratings, 7-points
Benefits: reliable; within optimal range for
measurement of attitudes and behaviors; mitigate
nonresponse and fatigue
(1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
13. Values Community Well-Being (CWB): x̄=5,54;
sd=1,4
Expect Companies to Contribute to CWB:
x̄=5,55; sd=1,4
Perceive that Companies actually Contribute
to CWB: x̄=3,63; sd=1,5
Small/Med Companies > Large Companies for
CWB: x̄=3,59; sd=1,4
Local/Regional Companies > MNCs for CWB:
x̄=4,0; sd=1,4
Informed about Company Contributions to
one’s own CWB: x̄=3,14; sd=1,4
Factoring of Company’s Contributions to One’s
CWB on Job Search: x̄=3,87; sd=1,5
Company’s Contributions to One’s CWB
Increases Co. Attractivity: x̄=5,05; sd=1,6
Company’s Contributions to One’s CWB
Impacts Job Choice: x̄=5,24; sd=1,5
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
14. Values Community Well-Being (CWB): ,01
Factoring of Company’s Contributions to One’s CWB
on Job Search: r=,535
Company’s Contributions to One’s CWB Increases Co.
Attractivity: r=,627
Company’s Contributions to One’s CWB Impacts Job
Preference: r=,640
Level of Job Choice: ,01
Factoring of Company’s Contributions to One’s CWB
on Job Search: r=,309
Company’s Contributions to One’s CWB Increases Co.
Attractivity: r=,304
Company’s Contributions to One’s CWB Impacts Job
Preference: r=,358
No correlations with gender or education at
the ,05 level.
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
15. The CWB dimension of CSR presents an
employer branding opportunity to appeal to
millennials.
Companies that contribute to one’s CWB are
more attractive.
Stems from social responsibility values & social-
psychological processes
Millennials prefer to work in companies which
contribute to one’s CWB.
Subjective & Objective factors
Differentiating – not core - preference
Millennials with more job-choices are more
impacted by a company’s contribution to one’s
CWB concerning employer attractivity, job
search, and job preference.
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
16. Community-Based CSR positively impacts
employer attraction and can influence job-choice
decision for highly educated millennials.
Stronger effects when: candidate values CWB more, and
candidate has more job choices
For all companies, effective communication of
contributions to candidate’s CWB.
For small and medium companies, seek
advantage in attracting candidates relative to
large companies by increasing efforts on
communicating community-based CSR activities.
Established shared community interests with
target talent pools, demonstrate contribution to
CWB, and communicate these actions to the
talent pools to leverage community-based CSR in
employer branding and talent acquisition.
Context
Millennials
Job-Choice
Social Identity
Theory
Synthesis
CSR &
Employer
Attractivity
Topic
Methodology
Descriptives
Correlations
Findings
Impacts
Recommen-
dations
17. Investigating the Potential of
Leveraging Community-Based
CSR in Employer Branding
Christopher SHANE
M2 - IHRM
CIFFOP Panthéon-Assas Paris 2
16 September 2015
Editor's Notes
38% - the number of employers having difficulties filling jobs (stems from lack of applicants)
Born between 1980 and 1995
First generation of digital natives to enter the workforce
By 2020, 50% of the workforce will be millennials in NA and W Europe (up to 80% in some tertiary companies like PWC)
The millennial generation is unconvinced, in the context of professional service organizations, that excessive work demands are worth sacrifices in their personal lives, highlighting the importance of balance and flexibility in work (Finn & Donovan, 2013).
The millennial generation is unconvinced, in the context of professional service organizations, that excessive work demands are worth sacrifices in their personal lives, highlighting the importance of balance and flexibility in work (Finn & Donovan, 2013).
Born between 1980 and 1995
First generation of digital natives to enter the workforce
By 2020, 50% of the workforce will be millennials in NA and W Europe (up to 80% in some tertiary companies like PWC)
Born between 1980 and 1995
First generation of digital natives to enter the workforce
By 2020, 50% of the workforce will be millennials in NA and W Europe (up to 80% in some tertiary companies like PWC)
To address the issue of increasing competitiveness for acquiring talent, spurred by demographic and economic transformations, this research seeks to contribute to the existing literature on the relation between CSR and employer attractivity. It explores how employers can leverage their CSR approach to increase their attractivity to millennials in the quest to reinforce their core-resources of talent, as social responsibility composes an important part of millennial’s identities, which has been demonstrated to have influence on their job-choice. Specifically, this research focuses on the relatively untouched interface between company contributions to communities (a dimension of the social factor of CSR) and impacts on employer attractivity and job-choice preference, seeking to provide actionable insights into how employers can leverage this aspect of CSR to attract millennials to their workplace.
Values Community Well-Being (CWB): strong
Level of Job Choice: moderate
The community well-being dimension of CSR presents an employer branding opportunity to appeal to millennials, as it: comprises a shared generational value; and is expected from employers by millennials. This is the case because millennials seek to construct their identities through their workplace, and seek to live their values with regards to social responsibility in the workplace.
The community well-being dimension of CSR presents an employer branding opportunity to appeal to millennials, as it: comprises a shared generational value; and is expected from employers by millennials. This is the case because millennials seek to construct their identities through their workplace, and seek to live their values with regards to social responsibility in the workplace.
To address the issue of increasing competitiveness for acquiring talent, spurred by demographic and economic transformations, this research seeks to contribute to the existing literature on the relation between CSR and employer attractivity. It explores how employers can leverage their CSR approach to increase their attractivity to millennials in the quest to reinforce their core-resources of talent, as social responsibility composes an important part of millennial’s identities, which has been demonstrated to have influence on their job-choice. Specifically, this research focuses on the relatively untouched interface between company contributions to communities (a dimension of the social factor of CSR) and impacts on employer attractivity and job-choice preference, seeking to provide actionable insights into how employers can leverage this aspect of CSR to attract millennials to their workplace.
38% - the number of employers having difficulties filling jobs (stems from lack of applicants)
