The objective of the study: - to examine the relative importance of different aspects of Employer Image or Brand addressing values of different groups of individuals ranging from the talent pool of prospective employees and current employees. Briefly,the study is focused on the attraction of the potential employees towards the Employer Organization. In this study, potential employees represent both current and prospective, ranging from talent pool to campuses, and employees within the company.

1. ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL, KHARGHAR, NAVI MUMBAI
Influences of Organizational
Image on Applicant Attraction
in The Recruitment Process in
Indian Companies
A Research Methodology Project
2/25/2015
Prasad B Shirke (Roll no 01)
Mayur S Nanotkar (Roll no 03)
PGDM – Information Technology (2014-16)
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................................2
EMPLOYER BRANDING..............................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE .......................................................................................................................4
EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION (EVP).........................................................................................4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................................................................5
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION...............................................................................................................5
SAMPLE SIZE..............................................................................................................................................5
DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES...................................................................................................................6
DATA ALLOCATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION.................................................................................7
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS ............................................................................................................................7
RESEARCH FINDINGS.................................................................................................................................7
HYPOTHESIS TESTING................................................................................................................................9
CORRELATION ANALYSIS.......................................................................................................................9
REGRESSION ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................10
RECOMMENDATIONS & CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................12
LIMITATIONS...........................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................13
TABLE 1: DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF THE RESPONDENTS............................................................................................................7
TABLE 2: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS.................................................................................................................................8
TABLE 3: CORRELATIONS ANALYSIS.....................................................................................................................9
TABLE 4: MODEL SUMMARY..........................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
The modern business environment is marked with challenges of intense global
competition, rapid technological changes, growth of the knowledge economy, and a growing
need for talented employees. These significant changes have stimulated organizations to devote
considerably more resources to the activities oriented towards attracting qualified individuals. At
organizational level companies are putting more emphasis on creating strategies to differentiate
themselves from competitors. One of the most popular recruitment strategies adopted by many
companies nowadays is Employer Branding. Employer brand as a strategic HR tool helps
organizations to focus on how they can identify themselves within their markets as an employer
of current staff, as a potential employer to new recruits and as a supplier or partner to customers.
Employer branding may be a new terminology for many companies, yet it is becoming more and
more important to organizations since maintaining and building a strong internal and external
brand is an important factor in retaining loyalty, motivation and driving performance.
EMPLOYER BRANDING
The concept of “Employer Branding” has been first coined by Ambler and Barrow
(1996), the authors described employer brand as the ―package of functional, economic, and
psychological benefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing company.
Employer branding, therefore, is understood as the set of distinctive images of a prospective
employer, which is manifest in the minds of the target people – potential employees (Meffert,
Barmann, &Koers, 2002; Petkovic, 2004). It has also been recognized that as strong consumer
brands influence growth and bring profits to companies, the same way strong employer brand
has an influence on business outcomes (Sasser&Arbeit, 1976).1
In fact a strong corporate brand umbrella, hosting the employer brand as well as the
customer brand is beneficial to the organization. To create a unified as well as truthful brand
image, this brand needs to represent the current company culture. While the customer brand and
employer brand compete in two different markets - one for products and services; the other for
talent and commitment - they are closely interrelated. The employer brand, in attracting the right
employees and maintaining their commitment to high performance, plays a critical role in
building and supporting the customer brand. Likewise, the strength of the customer brand plays
an important role in attracting the right people to come and work for the company. When a firm
reaches a higher level of external recognition by developing an employer brand, it becomes
much easier for it to attract new talent (Bouchikhi and Kimberly, 2008). Thus employer branding
can be regarded as an application of branding principles to human resource management. It is an
interesting concept because it incorporates the two organizational fields: Branding and Human
Resources.
The combination provides a holistic view on attracting and retaining organizational
appropriate employees. In fact branding in the field of Human Resource Management (HRM)
has recently received a lot of attention and is generally explained as improving the image of an
employer (Backhaus &Tikoo, 2004). The employer brand philosophy is generally concerned
with building a distinctive image in the minds of recruits and existing employees that a company,
above all others, is a "great place to work" (Ewing, Pitt, Debussy, &Berthorn, 2002). Employer
brand represents a unique value proposition about what individuals might receive as a result of
1
(Sharma, 2014)
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working for a particular employer. This proposition, if delivered as promised, also contributes to
a firm's positive reputation as a workplace and could become an effective tool for recruitment,
employee engagement and retention (Barrow and Mosley, 2005). In fact Employer brand is best
viewed as consisting of two elements: the "value proposition" about what people might receive
as a result of working for a particular employer, and the "employee experience" which represents
the reality of the delivery of the deal (Rosethorn, 2009). Rosethorn view on employer branding
has reflected that how the employee value proposition affects the formation of the psychological
contract between employee and employer with the potential of affecting retention and
engagement of employees in the long-term perspective after actual employment. Therefore in the
present research study an attempt has been made to understand how the employee value
proposition is constructed since it offers an opportunity to capture the impact or benefits of the
“written and unwritten” aspects of the psychological contract.2
LITERATURE REVIEW
The notion of employer branding rose quite recently in the sphere of human capital
management. It emerged from applying marketing principles to the field of people management
(Lievens et al., 2007). Ambler and Barrow (1996) first coined the term ‘employer branding’.
This definition appears to be analogous with the three brand concepts highlighted in the brand
literature: functional, symbolic and experiential (Ramaseshan and Tsao, 2007). Lloyd (2002)
defines the employer brand as the image of the firm as “a desirable place to work” in the mind of
existing and prospective staff. As Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) note, employer branding is
employment specific and represents organizations’ efforts to communicate to internal and
external audiences what makes it both desirable and different as an employer.
To study the various perspective of the Employer Brand Image the following papers were
referred with a view to get the major factors that affect the applicants’ perspective towards the
Employer Image:
1. Influences of Employer Brand Image on Applicant Attraction in Recruitment Process by
Ridhi Sharma. (Sharma, 2014)
2. Employer Branding and its Influence on Potential Job Applicants by Lin Dar Ong. (Ong,
2011)
3. Measuring and Managing Employer Brand Image in the Service Industry by Simon Knox
and Cheryl Freeman. (Freeman, 2006)
4. Managing Your Brand Throughout The Recruitment Process by Robert Walters.
(Walters)
5. The Features Of HRD In Companies With The Employer Brand by Dmitry Kucherov and
Elena Zavyalova. (Zavyalova)
6. Which Employees’ Values Matter Most in the Creation of Employer Branding? By
Mukesh Biswas and Damodar Suar. (Suar)
7. The role of Employer branding and Talent Management for Organizational Attractiveness
by Babar Yaqub and Dr. Muhammad Aslam Khan. (Khan)3
2
(Sharma, 2014)
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Subsequently, three major categories were finalized to research upon viz, Social, Economic and
Functional.
a. Social defining the Work Culture at the Organization;
b. Economic factor defines the salaries and on-site opportunities and
c. Functional factor defines the Work ethics followed by the Employer.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
Although a lot of research is being carried out in Employer Branding lately, few studies
have paid little attention to the specific components that determine employees’ values and their
effect on Employer Branding as a whole. Therefore, this is study focused on the attraction of the
potential employees towards the Employer Organization. In this study, potential employees
represent both current and prospective, ranging from talent pool to campuses, and employees
within the company. Given the key role of the value audit step, it should incorporate important
stakeholder beliefs about the characteristics of a branded employer. Hence, the objective of this
study is to examine the relative importance of different aspects of Employer Image or Brand
addressing values of different groups of individuals ranging from the talent pool of prospective
employees and current employees. Briefly, the objective is to examine the effect of employers’
values on the Applicant Attraction.
EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION (EVP)
Creating an employee value proposition (EVP) is crucial in developing a company’s
employer brand. The EVP is unique and is informed by five main elements, namely: work
environment and affiliation (this includes values, culture, and quality of colleagues, managers
and leaders), work content includes challenging work and work–life balance, benefits including
development and career growth (indirect financial reward), and remuneration. A differentiated
Employer Value Proposition (EVP) adds impetus to the employer brand and is a valuable tool for
attracting candidates. Therefore a closely related concept to ‘employer branding’ is ‘employer
attractiveness’. Berthon, Ewing and Hah (2005) define employer attractiveness as “The
envisioned benefits that a potential employee sees in working for a specific organization”.
Employer attractiveness and EVP are strongly interrelated. To become an attractive employer in
the eyes of a specific group, an organization needs to create an EVP that is appealing and
captivating according to that group’s expectations. If the EVP has been created effectively, it will
act as a tool for attracting the right candidates within that specific group.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Within this framework the study explored the underlying structure of employer brand by
identifying its dimensions from the perspective of potential applicants. Participants of the study
were 50 in numbers ranging from potential graduates, Final year students, Fresher’s and the
Current employees of any Organization. The main objective of the study is to identify various
factors associated with employer branding. The study investigated various factors that are related
to prospective applicant’s impressions of an organization’s image as an employer and how these
perceptions about employer’s image attract prospective applicants to apply for the job.
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
Perceptions of organizational image were measured by using 14 item scales consisting of
5 items assessing perception of functional or Work Ethics at the organization, 5 items assessing
perception of Social factors or the Work Culture at the organization, while 4 items assessed
perception of Compensation or Economic Factors. The respondents were supplied with the 2
page Google form (http://goo.gl/forms/1okg7T6wwg) as a questionnaire.
SAMPLE SIZE
There were 50 respondents out of which the gender and age wise breakup is represented
in the figure1 and 2 respectively. The age group was divided as:
18-22 (24%), 23-26(44%), 26-30(22%) and >30(10%). Out of total respondents 17(34%) were
females against 33(66%) males.
The respondents were also asked whether they are an existing employee or a fresher just joined
an Organization, not a final year student of graduation or in final year of graduation. The breakup
of the respondents is shown in figure 3. Out of the total respondents, 15(30%) were not in their
FIGURE 2: AGE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF THE
RESPONDENTSFIGURE 1: GENDER WISE DISTRIBUTION
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final year, 8(16%) were in Final Year of their graduation, 10(20%) were Fresher’s and 17(34%)
were experienced professionals.
DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
The data has been statistically analyzed by using analyzed statistically by using
percentages, mean, standard deviation, inter-correlation and regression. These statistical
techniques form the basis of any Research Work. These techniques are easy to interpret and all
other complex techniques are based on them. The IBM SPSS Statistics 20 tool was used for all
the analysis.
FIGURE 3: DISTRIBUTION OF THE RESPONDENTS - QUALIFICATION
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DATA ALLOCATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
The following hypothesis were formed and later tested:
1. Positive perceptions of organization’s image will be positively related to applicant’s
attraction to apply for the Job.
2. Positive perceptions about the work ethics followed by the employer will be positively
related to applicant’s attraction to apply for the job.
3. There exists a positive relationship between the compensation/Add-ons offered by the
organization and applicant’s attraction to apply for the job.
4. Positive perceptions of organization’s work culture will be positively related to
applicant’s attraction.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Table 1 shows the demographic profiles of the respondents. It has been observed that
TABLE 1: DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF THE RESPONDENTS
Qualification Percentage
A Student (Not in Final Year of Studies)
A FInal Year Student
A Fresher working for an Organization
Experienced Professional
30%
16%
20%
34%
Gender
Male
Female
66%
34%
Work Experience
Less than 1 year (0-1)
1-3 years
More than 3 years
26%
37%
37%
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TABLE 2: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Overall Applicant Attraction
on a scale of 30
50 8 24 18.48 3.581
Importance to WorkEthics
on a scale of 11
50 3 11 7.30 1.982
Importance to
AddOns/Perks on a scale of
10
50 2 8 5.44 1.580
Importance to Culture on a
scale of 09
50 3 8 5.74 1.440
Valid N (listwise) 50
Also the descriptive Statistics for all variables including mean and standard deviation are
shown in Table2. Participant attraction to apply for job is at higher side (mean = 18.48). With
respect to Organizational image, the perception of the participants about the Work Ethics (mean
= 7.30) and organizations’ Work Culture (mean = 5.74) is at positive side and also the participant
scored high (mean = 5.44) on Economic/Add-ons/compensation provided by the Organizations
offering jobs to prospective candidates.
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HYPOTHESIS TESTING
CORRELATION ANALYSIS
Correlation and regression analysis were conducted to test the hypothesis. The results are
indicated in Table 3.
TABLE 3: CORRELATIONS ANALYSIS
Overall Applicant
Attraction on a scale
of 30
Importance to
WorkEthics on a
scale of 11
Importance to
AddOns/Perks on a
scale of 10
Importance
to Culture
on a scale
of 09
Overall Applicant Attraction
on a scale of 30
Pearson
Correlatio
n
1 .836
**
.611
**
.666
**
Sig. (2-
tailed)
.000 .000 .000
N 50 50 50 50
Importance to WorkEthics on
a scale of 11
Pearson
Correlatio
n
.836
**
1 .257 .421
**
Sig. (2-
tailed)
.000 .072 .002
N 50 50 50 50
Importance to AddOns/Perks
on a scale of 10
Pearson
Correlatio
n
.611
**
.257 1 .069
Sig. (2-
tailed)
.000 .072 .633
N 50 50 50 50
Importance to Culture on a
scale of 09
Pearson
Correlatio
n
.666
**
.421
**
.069 1
Sig. (2-
tailed)
.000 .002 .633
N 50 50 50 50
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The results of the correlation analysis suggested that the positive perception towards the
Work Ethics observed by the organization is significantly correlated with the applicant’s
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attraction towards the organization (r = .836**, p <0.05). These results indicated that the
organizations that offer challenging work, opportunities to use abilities, opportunity to learn and
rapid advancement and freedom to employees have a good potential to attract the prospective
candidates. Therefore hypothesis H1a is accepted.
It has also been observed that the positive perception towards the Work Culture also
significantly attracts the prospective candidates (r = .666**, p <0.05). It has been observed that
work culture of the organization perceived as possessing favorable attributes were more likely to
attract individual to consider that organization for potential employment. Hence hypothesis H1c
is accepted.
Further a good compensation package or an on-site opportunity offered by the employing
organization significantly attracts the prospective candidates (r = .611**, p <0.05). All these
results are consistent with the findings of Gaddam (2008) who opined that a strong employer
brand aims to influence every touch point of the employment experience by promoting a
beneficial employment package in form of pay and benefits, working environment, career
management, balanced work life, mental and social satisfaction etc. Therefore hypothesis H1b is
also accepted.
The results of correlation analysis indicated that the positive perceptions of
organization’s image have been significantly correlated to applicant’s attraction to apply for the
job. Hence Hypothesis H1 is accepted.
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
To further validate the statistical result from correlation, regression analysis is conducted. The
variables applicants’ attraction (Importance to Culture), positive perception about Work Ethics (,
Importance to Work Ethics) and positive perception towards the Add-ons/compensation offered
(Importance to Add-Ons) were regressed with applicants’ attraction (Overall) to determine their
significance. The Model summary is given in Table 4 and the regression coefficients are given in
Table 4 (a).
TABLE 4: MODEL SUMMARY
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the
Estimate
1 .487a
.237 .213 .27981
a. Predictors: (Constant), Importance to Culture on a scale of 09, Importance to AddOns/Perks
on a scale of 10, Importance to WorkEthics on a scale of 11
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Table 4(a): COEFFICIENTS
Coefficients
a
Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized
Coefficients
t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
1
(Constant) 1.701 .409 4.156 .000
Importance to WorkEthics
on a scale of 11
.186 .077 .217 2.423 .017
Importance to
AddOns/Perks on a scale of
10
.137 .061 .209 2.256 .026
Importance to Culture on a
scale of 09
.245 .074 .306 3.298 .001
a. Dependent Variable: Overall Applicant Attraction on a scale of 30
From the results of regression analyses It has observed that the multiple R between the
predicted variable (Importance to WorkEthics, Importance to AddOns/Perks and Importance to
Culture) and dependent variable (Overall Applicant Attraction) is .48, the square of multiple R
(R2) is .23, and this indicates that all three predictors collectively account for 23% of the total
variance in applicants’ attraction. The regression equation can be stated as:
Overall Applicant Attraction = 1.70 + .18(Importance to WorkEthics) + .13(Importance to
AddOns) + .24(Importance to Culture)
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RECOMMENDATIONS & CONCLUSION
The findings of the present study indicated that positive impressions about the employer
organization significantly influence the decision of employees to join the organization. A strong
employer brand helps the organization to compete effectively in the market and drive employee
loyalty through effective recruitment, engagement and retention practices. When a firm reaches a
higher level of external recognition by developing an employer brand, it becomes much easier
for it to attract new talent.
The aim of employer branding is to become an ‘employer of choice’, a place where
people prefer to work. This means developing ‘a value proposition’, which communicates what
the Organization can offer its employees as a ‘great place of work’. (Sharma, 2014). The factors
that contribute to being an employer of choice are the provision of a reasonable degree of
security; enhanced future employability because of the reputation of the organization as one that
employs and develops high quality people, as well as the learning opportunities it provides;
employment conditions that satisfy work- life balance needs; a reward system that recognizes
and values contributions; provides competitive pay and benefits; interesting and rewarding work;
and opportunities for learning, development and career progression. Therefore organizations
have to make extra efforts to maintain their image before the prospective applicants as an
attractive employer.
In fact to obtain positive results, employer branding must be in line with the corporate
brand of the company. A misalignment between the employer and the corporate brand can cause
confusion with employees, shareholders and customers. Also since the present study has been
conducted in India where employer branding is still an emerging concept, the considerable
challenge for the HR managers in India is to build the brand of an Indian MNC overseas, and as
the HR would now have to create a value proposition that the firm can offer overseas that is in
synchronization with its values and communication within its home country, while keeping the
culture and tradition of the foreign country in mind as well.
LIMITATIONS
The study has several limitations. First, email survey method was used to conduct the
study which is not the most reliable and accurate one always. It was used since it is the most
feasible method available. Future research should use personal interviews because they are more
likely to produce more accurate and reliable responses; and a nation-wide sample would ensure a
more representative sample, which includes all types of organizations.
Second, employees of not many organizations were examined here, and one should be
cautious about generalizing the results to other sectors.
Third, the study was performed in one region with unique culture, and its findings might
be pertinent only to this particular culture. Therefore, this study must be replicated numerous
times in different regions or cultures before firm conclusions can be made.
Despite these limitations, the findings of this study demonstrate the importance of
employees’ values on employer branding.
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REFERENCES
Freeman, S. K. (2006). Measuring and Managing Employer Brand Image in the service Industry . Journal
of Marketing Management, 2006, 22, 695-716.
Khan, B. Y. (n.d.). The role of Employer branding and Talent Management for Organizational
Attractiveness. Far East Research Centre.
Ong, L. D. (2011). Employer Branding and its Influence on Potential Job Applicants. Australian Journal of
Basic and Applied Sciences, 5(9): 1088-1092, 2011.
Sharma, R. (2014). Influences of Employer Brand Image on Applicant Attraction in Recruitment Process.
International Conference on Management and Information Systems.
Suar, M. B. (n.d.). Which Employees’ Values Matter Most in the Creation of Employer Branding? Journal
of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 7(1) 2013.
Walters, R. (n.d.). MANAGING YOUR BRAND THROUGHOUT. White Paper.
Zavyalova, D. K. (n.d.). The features of HRD in companies with the employer brand.
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