Employer Brand Measurement

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DOI: 10.1177/097226291001400103 2010 14: 25Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective

Pallavi Srivastava and Jyotsna BhatnagarEmployer Brand for Talent Acquisition: An Exploration towards its Measurement

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EMPLOYER BRAND FOR TALENT ACQUISITION:AN EXPLORATION TOWARDS ITS MEASUREMENT

Pallavi Srivastava and Jyotsna Bhatnagar

This paper addresses the concerns associated with talent acquisition and how employer brand can overcomesome of them. Based on the literature review and supported with the first stage sequential mixed methodexploratory research, the paper summarises and aggregates the results of a pilot study conducted on asection ofprospective employees ofIndia. The study contributes to the sparse academic and empirical workon employer branding. The empirical results are initial steps towards the development ofa scale for measuringemployer brand in a later stage. The current study willfurther facilitate development ofthe unique employeevalue proposition based on the person-need fit of talent. The research is based in an Indian setting whichmakes it all the more relevant in current economic scenario. The paper concludes with theoretical andpractical implications followed by directions for the future research.

Key Words: Employer Brand, Staffing, Talent Acquisition, India

INTRODUCTION

The current business environment is marked withchallenges of intense global competition, rapidtechnological changes, growth of the knowledgeeconomy, and the need for flexibility and expertise inthe workplace (Catteeuw et al., 2007; Wickham andO'Donohue, 2009). This has resulted in the changing skillsand competency requirements. Concomitantly, due to thepressures of a changing demographic base, the demandfor intellectual capital-a cadre of highly skilled,independent, internationally marketable and mobileindividuals-is exceeding the available supply (Ewinget al., 2002; Ployhart, 2006). The tight labour marketgives highly competent employees many choices(Srivastava and Bhatnagar, 2008) especially inprofessional, information / knowledge based, technicaland service driven organisations (Ewing et al., 2002).Prospective employees are as particular about choosingthe right organisation as about choosing the right job(Rynes and Cable; 2003). Hence, organisations areincreasingly trying to assess and enhance theirattractiveness to prospective applicants (Highhouse et al.,

1999). This has critical consequences for the recruitingorganisations (Rynes, 1991) as it leads to the mostpressing problem of talent acquisition- of attractingpeople with the right skill set and competencies who alsofit the need and the culture ofthe organisation (Bhatnagarand Srivastava, 2008). Organisations that attract a largerapplicant pool and more qualified applicants obtaingreater utility in their selection systems (Boudreau andRynes, 1985) and a potential competitive advantage (Ladoand Wilson, 1994).

India, one of the world's largest economies, hasmade giant leap in its economic and social developmentin the past two decades and has proven itself to be a majoreconomic and intellectual power (Kapur and Ramamurti,2001). It is the major source ofthe world's largest Englishspeaking low cost workforce, with a high level technicaland managerial talent fuelled by world-class institutes inIndia like Indian Institute ofTechnology (IITs) and IndianInstitute of Management (IIMs). Being industrious, hardworking and focused on merit based and educationdependent advance, Indian human skills are in greatdemand (Nath, 2008). Indian workforce is most sought


26 Srivastava and Bhatnagar

after by the multinational giants because of the globalrecognition of its people, their management capabilitiesand innovativeness. This has resulted in a large numberof Indians finding place in the payrolls of differentmultinationals. The availability ofnew jobs for the Indiantalent resulting in a higher turnover (Budhwar et al.,2006), has made the organisations to sit back and revamptheir recruitment strategy to attract and retain the toptalent.

A consequence of the anticipated permanentshortage of competent workforce referred above is theneed for a strong recruitment strategy after finding outwhat differentiates the organisations from the competitorsand then market the unique employment proposition itcan offer (Ewing et al., 2002; Keefe, 2007). Employerbranding (Ambler and Barrow, 1996) is one such relevantHR strategy in the context of employment, especially ina knowledge based and service economy wherecompetent employees are often in short supply. Wheretraditional recruitment strategies are short-term, reactiveand subject to job openings, employment branding is along-term strategy designed to maintain a steady flow ofskills in the organisation.

India, a hierarchical society, is considered to be highin power distance and collectivism (Deshpande andFarley, 1999). Earlier studies on similar studies onemployer brand have been conducted on Belgian army(Lievens, 2007), university students in the U.K. (Knoxand Freeman, 2006) and Australia (Berthon et al., 2005)etc, which differ from India on the cultural dimensions(Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005). We propose that in India,the factors that build up a strong employer brand,attractive enough for its talent pool are different fromthe other parts of the world as they differ in their culturaland managerial environments. It is precisely thesedifferences that raise the issue ofwhether earlier researchon this subject is generalisable to India. Since the Indiantalent is in great demand globally, the multinationalorganisations need to understand the perspective of anIndian talent to develop their employee value propositionaccordingly. It is necessary to understand the dimensionsof employer brand in the Indian setting in order to helpthe global organisations to model their recruitmentstrategies for India.

EMPLOYER BRAND: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Employer branding has emerged from applying marketingprinciples to the field of personnel recruitment (Maureret aI., 1992). Ambler and Barrow (1996) were among thefirst ones to bring together the domains of Human

Resources Management and Brand Marketing into asingle conceptual area by coining the term employerbrand. Employer branding is a specific form ofmanagingcorporate identities. It does so by creating both, withinand outside the firm, an image of the organisation in twoforms - first, as a distinct and desirable employer (Amblerand Barrow, 1996; Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004) andsecond, as a good place to work (Bergeron, 2001). Thevarious definitions of employer brand as given inliterature are summarised in Table 1.Table 1: Some Definitions of Employer Brand as Found

in LiteratureAmbler and Barrow "The package of functional, economic and(1996: p.187) psychological benefi ts provided by

employment, and identified with the employingcompany."

Ewing et al., (2002: "Building an image in the minds of the potentialp.12) labour market, that the company above all others,

is a great place to work."

Lloyd (2002) as cited "The sum ofa company's efforts to communicatein Berthon et al., to existing and prospective staff that it is a(2001: p.152) desirable place to work."Backaus and Tikoo

"Process of building an identifiable and unique(2004: p.502)employer identity... concept of the firm thatdifferentiates it from its competitors."

Knox and Freeman "Image associated with an organisation,(2006: p.697) uniquely in its role as an employer."Kimpakom and "An organisation's image as seen through theTocquer(2009: p.534) eyes of its actual and potential employees."

To sum it up, we can say that an employer brand isabout giving an identity, image and distinctiveness to theorganisation as an employer in order to attract itsprospective employees and to motivate, engage and retainits current employees.

Importance of Employer Brand

As in the initial stage of the decision making process theinformation about the organisation is limited. Thereforeinitial application decisions are heavily based on thegeneral impression of the attractiveness of theorganisation (Rynes, 1991). Any information that jobseekers view builds their impressions of the employerorganisation and can become cues for what it would belike to work for it (Turban et al., 1998). Thereforeorganisations have to make extra efforts to maintain theirimage before the prospective applicants as an attractiveemployer (Bergeron, 2001). When a firm reaches a higherlevel of external recognition by developing an employerbrand, it becomes much easier for it to attract new talent(Bouchikhi and Kimberly, 2008). It is an effective toolfor effective recruitment, employee engagement andretention (Barrow and Mosley, 2005).

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Employer Brandfor Talent Acquisition: An Exploration towards its Measurement 27

The power of the employer brand has been rightlysummed up by Fernon (2008: p.50) as "its ability todeliver organisational success by attracting and retainingthe right people, providing an environment in whichemployees live the brand, improving organisationalperformance in key business areas of recruitment,retention, engagement and the bottom line anddifferentiating employers from each other, creatingcompetitive advantage. "2

It is considered to benefit both individuals as wellas organisation (Bergeron, 2001). It provides a coherentframework for management to simplify and focuspriorities, increase productivity and improve recruitment,retention and commitment (Keefe, 2007; Ambler andBarrow, 1996; Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004). From theemployees' point of view, being a member of anorganisation having a strong employer brand enhancestheir self-esteem and strengthens their organisationalidentification (Lievens et al., 2007). Constant deliveryof the brand promise leads to trust and loyalty ensuring asteady supply of applicants (Holliday, 1997) andmaintains high commitment and high performance amongemployees and ultimately organisational effectiveness bypromoting the organisation's credibility with employees(Burack et al., 1994). It attracts the right kind ofcandidates with the culture fit and at the same time givesthe prospective employees an assurance of the workexperience as expected by them (Bhatnagar andSrivastava, 2008).

Employer branding communicates the uniqueemployment proposition of the organisation toprospective hires, current employees and society at largeby creating, both within and outside the organisation, animage of the organisation as a distinct and desirableemployer (Ambler and Barrow, 1996; Backhaus andTikoo, 2004; Balmer and Greyser, 2002) and as a goodplace to work (Bergeron, 2001). It requires an employerto identify what is unique and distinct about theorganisation relative to the competitors, marketing it tothe target population and ensuring that the applicants havea clear idea of the employment value proposition(Bergeron, 200 Ia). This helps differentiate organisationsfrom their competitors by creating a distinct image ofthe total employment relationship and employee life cyclemanagement which the organisation offers to itsprospective and current employees, even when theycannot compete in terms of location or wages (Ployhart,2006).

There are two views on the development of anEmployment Value Proposition (EVP). While Rynes andBarber (1990) suggested that organisations canproactively mould selected organisational characteristicsas strategy to attract those considered most desirable,other researchers saythat the purpose of the employerbrand is not to generate an entirely new set of values tosuit the expectations of the prospective employees but tohelp ensure that the existing values are translated intosomething consistent with the values the organisationwishes to project externally (Ambler and Barrow, 1996;Bergeron, 2001). It is about understanding what theorganisation has to offer and then conveying it to its targetapplicants in such a way that it looks appealing anddifferentiating from its competitors.

Process of Employer branding

Backhau and Tikoo (2004) identify three aspects ofemployer branding process. First, an organisationdevelops a clear, consistent and honest "valueproposition" based on research for their existing andprospective staff (Heger, 2007) embodying theorganisation culture, the management style, qualities ofcurrent employees, current employment image, andimpressions of products or service quality manager(Sullivan, 2002), that clearly establishes who they are,what they expect from employees and what they offer(Lawler, 2005: p.I3). For this, the organisation shouldunderstand the expectations of the prospective applicantsthat the organisation needs and the specific attributes ithas which are found appealing by the applicants. It isalso important to find out what the competitors areoffering to the same pool of applicants. The EVP shouldbe built around this common theme which is yet differentfrom that of the competitors.

Then, the organisation uses it to attract theprospective employees and thirdly lives up to the brandpromise made to the recruits (Lawler, 2005) for theirengagement and retention. The EVP must be inaccordance with the business strategy ofthe organisation,so that the employer brand acts as a filter for only thosepeople who have the motivation, skills, knowledge,competencies and personality to perform the required job(ibid).Constituents of Employer Brand

The employer brand is said to consist of many attributeswith each one strengthening the brand (Bergeron, 200 I).Researchers have examined the factors that determine




an organisation's employment image (Highhouse et al.,1999; Cable and Turban, 2001). Using the instrumental-symbolic framework, Lievens et al., (2007) examined thefactors which attract and connect employees (companyinsiders) as well as applicants (company outsiders) to agiven organisation as an employer. Slaughter et al., (2008)confirmed that symbolic attributes were related toorganisational attractiveness. While Lievens et al., (2005)found the incremental variance of symbolic imagedimensions over and above instrumental imagecomponents in explaining students' attraction to the Army,Collins and Stevens (2002) established that company-based attributes had greater impact on job seekers thanrole-specific attributes.

An exploration of the literature revealed littleresearch on theory development, scale development inEmployer Branding (Joo and Mclean, 2006; Moroko andUncles, 2008). There is also a scope for empirical researchon employer brand (Ewing et al., 2002; Berthon et al.,2001) and its dimensions and establishing the impact ofan Employer brand on the attractiveness of anorganisation as an employer (Berthon et al., 2001). Thiscalls for another rigorous study on the subject adding tothe existing knowledge.

EMPLOYER BRAND IN AN INDIAN SETTING: ANEXPLORATORY STUDY

An exploratory study was conducted among theprospective employees of India meant for managerialpositions in different organisations, to find out the factorsof employer brand. The sample was taken from final yearpostgraduate management students in the flagshipprogramme and working managers enrolled in theexecutive management programme students of twopremiere Business schools located in the National CapitalRegion of India. These business schools were among thetop ten management institutes of India according tovarious B-school survey rankings.

Purpose of the Study

Most of the emphasis from the recruiting literature hasfocused solely on organisations attracting prospectiveemployees (Rynes, 1993). However, it is also importantto understand how applicants view the hiring organisationfrom the first impressions during the recruitment process.The objective of this exploratory research was tounderstand the underlying structure of employer brandby identifying factors that represent an employer brandby capturing the perspectives of prospective employeesof India.

Research Methodology

This study was conducted in two phases. A sequentialmixed-method approach was taken where qualitative dataanalysis was followed by a quantitative approach. Phaseone consisted of item generation based on literaturereview and an exploratory qualitative study. Thequalitative study comprised of several methods namelyopen-ended questionnaire, semi-structured interviews,focus groups discussions and content analysis of the mainpage and career section of official websites of differentorganisations, to identify the key variables that representthe construct of employer brand. The second phasecomprised of scale development in the form of survey.This paper focuses on the second phase of the researchwork, and is only exploratory in nature which would helpin developing scale on employer brand to be tested later.It attempts to establish the constituents of the employerbranding scale, which may be used for talent managementby the organisations. This research does not have anyexplanatory features as it does not aim to test any causalrelationships.

Item Generation

The initial set of scale items was generated based oninsights from existing literature and from informationgained through qualitative study. Since employer brandis a multidimensional construct (Bergeron, 2001 a) itwas not possible to study each and every aspect of it.Hence we depended on the findings of our qualitativeresearch to narrow down on variables to be includedin our study. The content analysis of the qualitativedata resulted in thirty-nine variables out of whicheleven variables were chosen based on theirprominence in the study. It was found that some ofthe job attributes given by Posner (1981), namelyopportunity to learn, "freedom to do the job my ownway," opportunity for rapid advancement, fringebenefits, salary, reputation of company, trainingprogrammes are common to our variables.

Based on the variables identified in the qualitativestudy, items were generated for each of them. Somewere adopted / modified from established scales (asgiven in Table 2). Two academic experts and tworesearch scholars assessed the content and face validityof the survey measures and the items. Thus, aquestionnaire was constructed and pre-tested before agroup of 30 respondents. Thereafter, samplingprocedure, methods of data collection and analysiswere determined.

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Employer Brandfor Talent Acquisition: An Exploration towards its Measurement 29Table 2: Scales Identified from Literature for the Purpose of Our Study

VARIABLE

Financial Performance

Product / Service Brand

Good Corporate Citizen

Word of Mouth

Industry / Sector Image

Autonomy

People-orientedness

Fun at Work

Learning and Development

Career Growth

Reward Strategy

SOURCE OF ITEMS

Chun (2001)

Chun (2001), Fombrun (1998), Cableand Graham (2000)

Chun (2001), Cable and Graham(2000)

Cable and Graham (2000), Highhouseet al., (1999), Lievens et al., (2005)

No relevant scale could be found

Lievens et al., (2005)

Highhouse et al., (1999)

Karl et al., (2007), Lievens et al.,(2005)

Fulmer et aI., (2003), Highhouse etal., (1999)' Lievens et al., (2005)

Cable and Graham (2000), Highhouseet al., (1999), Lievens et al., (2005)

Lievens et al., (2005)

A SAMPLE OF ITEM

(It) looks like a company with strong prospects forfuture growth

It invests heavily in R &D (Fombrun, 1998)

It talks about integrity which is high on my list. Idon't want to work for a company that doesn't valueintegrity and morals, (Cable and Graham, 2000)

I have heard good things about working here(Highhouse et al., 1999)

(Items developed were based on the qualitative study)

It is a good organisation to work if you like gettingorders (Lievens et al., 2005)

I would imagine they have flexible hours (Highhouseet al., 1999)

This is fun place to work (Karl et al., 2007)

Employees are offered training and development tofurther themselves professionally (Fulmer et al.,2003)

A job at this company may be a dead-end job (Cableand Graham, 2000)

Working in ... (this organisation) provides you with agood salary (Lievens et al., 2005)

Data Collection

Data for the survey was collected from a mix of 105 finalyear postgraduate management students and workingmanagers enrolled in the executive managementprogramme students of two premiere Business schoolslocated in the National Capital Region of India. Theserespondents were a sample representative of thepopulation of interest (Hinkin, 1995). A self administeredquestionnaire consisting of 72 items was distributed inthe classes of both fulltime as well as executivemanagement students with permission from the instructor.The questionnaire was based on a Likert 5-point scaleand the demographic variables were tapped through single

items in the questionnaire. Since familiarity with theorganisation was a relevant condition to assess theperception about the employer brand in the questionnaire,the respondents were asked to think of a familiarorganisation where they would like to pursue a career inimmediate future. Then they were asked to rate the variousattributes of the organisation based on their perception.

Among a total of 150 distributed questionnaires,105 completed, usable questionnaires were collected andresulted in the effective response rate of 70%. This is ahigh response rate as questionnaires were to be filled inthe class itself. The demographic profile of therespondents is given in Table 3.



Extraction Method: Principal Component AnalysisRotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser NormalisationRotation converged in 7 iterationsReliability Statistics

any other factor. Out of a 72 item initial scale, 52 itemswere eliminated from the initial measurement which left20 items for subsequent analysis. To check whethercommon method variance was present, we used Harmon'sone factor test (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986).

The result showed a clear eight factor solution.These factors with eigenvalues greater than one wereextracted from all the measures in this study and in totalaccounted for 71.3% of the variance. The first factoraccounted for 18.6 % of the variance which falls below50% level and indicates the lack ofcommon method bias(Podsakoff et al., 2003). Since a single factor did' notemerge and one factor did not account for most of thevariance, this suggests that the results were not due tocommon method variance. The Cronbach alpha in thiscase was 0.73 which satisfied the above 0.70 criterion(Nunnally, 1978). The factor analysis results and itsreliability are reported in Table 4 given hereafter.

Table 4: Factor Loadings and Reliability AnalysisRotated Component Matrix

Component

Caring Enabling Career Credible F1e~ible Product and Positive GlobalGrowth and Fair aud Service Employer Exposure

Ethical Brand ImageImage

Ebl2 0.841

EblO 0.728

Eb39 0.722

Eb53 0.704

Eb47 0.671

F.b58 0.536

F.b66 0.795

Eb70 0.791

Ebl8 0.603

Eb67 0.906

Eb61 0.K51

Eb30 0.813

Ebl1 0.734

F.h4R O.RI:~

Eb42 0.717

Eb24 0.837

Eb49 0.767

Eb37 0.898

Eb34 0.725

Eb56 0.940


Table 3: Demographic Profile of RespondentsDEMOGRAPIllCS PERCENTAGE

1. TYPE

Management Students 56.9

Working Managers 43.1

2. AGE

20-25 years 27.6

26-30 years 28.6

31-35 years 25.5

36-40 years 11.2

Above 40 years 7.1

3. GENDER

Male 79.6

Female 80.4

4. QUALIFICATIONS Ordinary Graduate 5.5

Technical Graduate 72.5

Ordinary Postgraduate 3.3

Professional Postgraduate 16.5

Others 2.2

5. WORK EXPERIENCE

Nil 15.2

Less than 1 year 12.4

Between 1 and 5 years 13.3

Between 5 and 10 years 37.1

Above 10 years 21.9

6. FAMILY INCOME

Less than Rs 5 lakhs p.a 42.1

Between Rs 5-10 lakhs p.a. 33.7

Between 10-15 lakhs p.a. 16.8

Between 15-20 lakhs p.a. 4.2

More than 20 lakhs p.a. 3.2

Data Analysis

Before applying factor analysis for data reduction, thedata corresponding to different constructs was subj ectedto a number of evaluative procedures. According to theguidelines provided by De Vellis (1991), the data waschecked for internal consistency, item-total correlation,variance, item means before proceeding for factoranalysis. A principle components analysis with varimaxrotation and a factor extraction according to the MINI-EIGEN criterion (all eigen values above 1) with all itemsin the survey was conducted. Factor loadings ofminimum0.50 were considered to meet the minimal level forinterpretation of factor structure. In order to construct anemployer brand scale with meaningful managerialimplications, only single-component items were includedin the scale (Kohli et al., 1993). Thus, an item was allowedto load on only one factor and could not cross-load on

Cronbach's Alpha

0.73

No. of items

20



Employer Brand/or Talent Acquisition: An Exploration towards its Measurement 31

Findings and Discussions

Factor number one labelled as "caring organisation"highlights the concern of the organisation as an employerand the various ways in which it cares about the welfareof its employees. It had items like "the organisation isknown to provide food and drop facility at no extra costto its employees working till late hours {eb10)." Factorcalled "enabling organisation" refers to the extent theorganisation helps an employee to work towards the bestof its abilities. Its highest loading item was "Itsmanagement is open to ideas given by its employees{eb66)." Factor called "career growth" assesses the extentto which joining of that organisation helps an individualin his career growth. It was best represented by the item"Joining this organisation would be a beneficial movefor my career {eb67)." "Credible and fair" is about thecredibility of the organisation and the way it is fair inappraisals and rewarding its employees as was expressedby the items like "this organisation is known for itscredibility {eb30)." The fifth factor "flexible and ethical"reflects that the organisation provides flexibility to itsemployees in performing their jobs but not at the cost ofethics. The item "I have never heard a case of unethicalpractice by this organisation (eb48)" was one ofthe itemsrepresenting this factor. Similarly "products and servicesbrand image" is, as the name suggests, about the brandvalue of its products and services as suggested by theitem "the products and services of this organisation areregularly advertised on television / newspapers {eb24)."The seventh factor "positive employer image"encapsulates the extent to which the organisation ispreferred by its employees and is known as a goodcompany to work for. It had items like "I have heard thatit is a good company to work for {eb37)." Lastly, thefactor "global exposure" refers to the amount of foreignassignments that an organisation offers. It was representedby a single item "this organisation offers positions inforeign assignments {eb58)." We found that not a singleitem of financial performance, industry / sector image,word of mouth, career growth was loaded. This showsthat these factors do not make much impact on theemployer brand in our study.

We find that these eight factors can be broadlyclassified into two ways- "what it (the organisation) is asan employer" and "what it (the organisation) has for itsemployees." About 43.4 percent of variance is reflectedby those factors concerning "what it has for itsemployees" namely "caring organisation," "enablingorganisation," "career growth" and "global exposure."Factors which exhibit "what it is as an employer" include

"Credible and fair," "flexible and ethical," "product andservice brand image" and "positive employer image" andaccount for 27.8 percent of the variance. This can befound to be in congruence with the importance ofsymbolic attributes over instrumental attributes of anorganisation as studied by Lievens and Highouse (2003).They defined instrumental attributes as objective,concrete, and factual attributes that the job or organisationeither has or does not have ("what it is as an employer").While symbolic attributes were described as subjective,abstract, and intangible attributes that convey symboliccompany information in the form of imagery and traitinferences that applicants assign to organisations ("whatit has for its employees').CONCLUSION

Employer branding as a concept has come a far way interms of the interest shown by various academicians aswell as by practitioners. Although the terms was coinedby Ambler and Barrow (1996) by bringing together thedomains ofmarketing and HR, the recent rise in academicpapers on employer brand in the HR literature establishesit as more of an HR need. Although an emerging body ofresearch is exploring the importance of employer brandon attraction, far less attention has been devoted todiscovering how employer brand perceptions are formed.

This exploratory study is our first step towardsdevelopment of a scale to measure employer brandstrength of an organisation. Since these 20 items werefound insufficient to capture the various dimensions ofemployer brand, again more items were generated. Aftera content validity check by experts, they were againadministered to the population of interest. This wascarried out in subsequent part of our research aimed atscale development to measure employer brand, which isout of the scope of this paper.

Contributions

Contributions of the study are twofold. Firstly there is a"theoretical implication" on the literature in the staffingdomain of HRM, where employer branding is emergingas an important construct. The current study exemplifiesthe variables under employer branding which lead to thebuilding of a robust instrument which will enableresearchers in this field to measure the strength of theemployer brand. Though our effort is still in the primarystage but the development of this scale will implytheoretical contributions which may result in theorybuilding within the staffing domain. Earlier studies havemainly been carried out on students only {e.g. Collinsand Stevens, 2002; Highhouse et al., 1999; Knox and




Freeman, 2006). As this study also includes workingmanagers as prospective employees, it adds to thegeneralisability of the results. This work also hasimplications on emerging fields of "great places to work"and "fun at work."

As "practical implications," practitioners in theworld of HR, marketing and communications will findthis research of immense importance as it will help definethe prospective employee expectations and would helpthe industry in the global arena to build their humancapital strategies of staffing to suit the changing needsof the employable talent pool. By building a strongemployer brand an organisation can easily come into theconsideration set ofprospective employees especially thefirst time job seekers. Resourcing the best candidates froma bigger talent pool rather than the available applicantswould result in a more efficient talent acquisition. Thisstudy will also provide important cues for designing HRpolicies and HR / OD interventions on embedding fun atwork in day to day environment of the work. This wouldalso present implications making an organisation as"Great Place to Work" with.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

The scope of our study is limited only to prospectiveemployees in the managerial positions. Hence the datawas collected from the management students and workingmanagers only and excluded technocrats, academiciansetc. Employer brand is relevant in the context ofemployeeengagement and retention also but our study focuses onthe recruitment aspect only. The results have been derivedon the basis of a sample size of 105 respondents which isadequate to base our findings but needs a bigger sampleto further generalisation and validation. Further studiesmay refine the scale by increasing the sample frame andusing advanced methods of statistical analysis. This wascarried out in the next phase of our study and is beyondthe scope of this paper. It would also be interesting tofind out why working with an employer brand matters toan individual.

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Pallavi Srivastava ([email protected]) is a Fellow of Management Development Institute, Gurgaon with specialisation inHRM. She has work experience of over three years in industry and teaching and has more than ten research publications including twocases in national and international journals and conferences of repute. Her current research interest is in the areas of Employer Brand,Anticipatory Psychological Contract, Person-organisation Fit and various modes of recruitment.

Jyotsna Bhatnagar [email protected]), a PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in Strategic HRM, is Professor ofHuman Resource Management at Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. She has published over 60 international and nationallevel cutting edge research papers and practitioner oriented case studies on innovative HRM in India and has co-edited two books. Shehas also presented her research at International conferences. Her area ofexpertise as a consultant, trainer and researcher is in InnovativeTalent Management and Employee Engagement; Strategic HRM; Innovation Capability at the grass root level; Psychological Contract,Empowerment and PO Fit.



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Employer Brand Measurement