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Keywords Employers, Corporate branding, Career development, Organizational culture, Recruitment, Internal marketing
Abstract Employer branding represents a firm's efforts to promote, both within and outside the firm, a clear view of what makes it different and desirable as an employer. In recent years employer branding has gained popularity among practicing managers. Given this managerial interest, this article presents a framework to initiate the scholarly study of employer branding. Combining a resource-based view with brand equity theory, a framework is used to develop testable propositions. The article discusses the relationship between employer branding and organizational career management. Finally, it outlines research issues that need to be addressed to develop employer branding as a useful organizing framework for strategic human resource management.
Conceptualizing and researching employer branding
Brands are among a firm's most valuable assets and as a result brand management is a key activity in many firms. Although firms commonly focus their branding efforts toward developing product and corporate brands, branding can also be used in the area of human resource management. The application of branding principles to human resource management has been termed "employer branding." Increasingly, firms are using employer branding to attract recruits and assure that current employees are engaged in the culture and the strategy of the firm. Employer branding is defined as "a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees, potential employees, and related stakeholders with regards to a particular firm" (Sullivan, 2004). The employer brand puts forth an image showing the organization as a good place to work (Sullivan, 2004). Many firms have developed formal employer branding or are interested in developing such a program (Conference Board, 2001). The interest in employer branding is evident by numerous articles on the topic in the business and practitioner press (Frook, 2001; Eisenberg et al., 2001). Internet searches using Google and Yahoo! each yield over 3,000 hits for the term "employer branding".
Firms appear to be expending considerable resources on employer branding campaigns, indicating that they are finding value in the practice. According to the Conference Board report on employer branding (Conference Board, 2001) organizations have found that effective employer branding leads to competitive advantage, helps employees internalize company values and assists in employee retention. Despite the growing popularity of...