Empirical illustrations of student’s perception of a preferred employer brand

Abstract

Purpose – To examine the employer brand attributes that attract students to various organisations. This paper studies the perceived importance levels of students in the context of employer brand dimensions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a well-administered and structured questionnaire with survey results to test the effectiveness of the employer brand model. The researcher received a convenience sample of 416 filled questionnaires out of the 550 distributed questionnaires. Independent sample and paired sample t-tests were run to test the hypotheses. Findings – Development value emerged as the most potent factor, whereas interest value emerged as the least favoured characteristic of an employer brand. Further analyses revealed no significant differences regarding the perceived levels of importance for dimensions of employer brand in relation to gender. Distinct significance levels are associated with various dimensions of employer brand, so companies should carefully emphasise and facilitate those dimensions. The managers could design their job advertisements to attract skilled employees based on the essential values depicted in this study. Originality/value – The study contributes valuable suggestions for organisations to formulate an effective employer brand for successful recruitment strategies.

Keywords

• Employer brand
• Employer attractiveness
• EmpAt scale
• University students
• Value propositions