The influence of Employer Brand Management on the firm’s strategy. Suggestions to approach different generational perspectives.

Abstract

Employer branding’s concept was born in the last years of the 20th century. Even if it is almost 20 years old, the field remained uncovered for many years and only a few research were dedicated to this theme. The notion is the result of the contribution of many fields as marketing, branding, and human resource. Nowadays, its importance is becoming relevant because of the contemporary companies’ need to attract and retain potential candidates and current employees in a situation of applicant and talent scarcity and an increasingly competitive labor market. For these reasons, management needs guidelines to ameliorate and customize their approach to the market. Considering it, the research aims to highlight employer branding strategy necessity and the correlation between generational perspectives and employer attraction. A detailed literature review was accomplished on the most recent studies to stress the importance of implementing an EBM strategy to boost the company’s performance increasing employees’ commitment, organizational identification, and retention. Furthermore, it was analyzed how the attractiveness of potential talents could help companies to have sustainable growth. It was also highlighted its appropriateness in respect of CSR, reputation, labor market trends, and social environment. Part of the review was also dedicated to the planning and implementation phase reporting the most used frameworks, techniques, and pieces of advice that could contribute to management’s success in this field. Quantitative empirical research was conducted using the EmpAt scale of Berthon et al. (2005) to test employer attractiveness among Italian people entering the workforce. Generational differences were investigated. Then, qualitative research was done to explore the reasons of respondents. A contribution from employers and employees’ opinions were collected. Results were compared with those of other scholars to validate them and stress the major differences. The study contributes to the field by giving useful results to better customize employer branding strategy to the respect of generational perspectives.