The Role of Employer Branding Practices on Management of Employee Attraction and Retention

Abstract

Introduction. An employer brand includes everything practiced to position an organization as a preferred employer. Nowadays, business companies are having more difficulty procuring qualified employees who are vital for company success under keenly competitive business conditions. To cope with this difficulty, companies carry out different practices to attract and retain talent, and the employer brand concept has become one of the tools that business companies use to attract and retain talent. Aim and tasks. The aim of the study is to investigate, determine and describe how business companies are efficacious in their employer brand management practices to meet the expectations of current and potential employees. It is also aimed to determine which activities are carried out by the business companies for employer branding. In this context, a literature review is carried out within the scope of employer branding to brief the concepts of organizational attractiveness and to ensure organizational commitment. Results. Within the scope of the research, the semi-structured in-depth interviews with the human resources professionals of seven large-scale, domestic, and foreign companies operating in the Izmir, Istanbul, and Manisa provinces were examined. The findings of the interviews are evaluated by the qualitative analysis method according to the research methodology. The result of the research conducted and the references to the definition of the employer brand were compiled under five nodes. These are the work environment, economic benefits, work-life balance, career development opportunities, and social activities. On the other hand, the economic benefits node was compiled under two different sub-nodes, namely wages and fringe benefits. The characteristics and contributions of the employer branding were investigated, and the effects of the employer brand on retention within the scope of talent management were investigated. Conclusions. It has been observed that the organizations' awareness level of the employer brand concept is high, and it has been discovered that they have many practices for both potential candidates and current employees. These practices have revealed that they differentiate themselves from their competitors in terms of business characteristics, working environment, and global opportunities. All these efforts provide many benefits such as increases in the number of applications, increases in attractive employer rankings, increases in employee motivation, and decreases in employee turnover rates.