The Effects of Organizational Brand Equity on Employment Brand Equity and Recruitment Outcomes

[Excerpt] Despite the importance of the first stage of recruitment, there has been limited research regarding the factors that influence job seekers’ decisions during this stage or how firms can systematically impact those factors (Barber, 1998). There is some evidence that employment brand equity (Cable & Turban, 2001; Collins & Stevens, 2002) affect job seekers’ attraction to and intentions to apply to organizations. While employment brand equity seems to be an important concept, the real effects of brands on recruitment outcomes have not been fully investigated yet. First, researchers need to clearly identify the dimensions of employment brand equity (Barber, 1998). Second, researchers need to explore how employment brand equity is created. While there is some evidence that recruitment activities affect job seekers’ perceptions of employment brands (e.g. Collins & Stevens, 2002; Han & Collins, 2002), very little attention has been given to the potential effects of organizational brand building activities (e.g. corporate marketing and advertising). Barber (1998) proposed that there might be spillover effects of organizational marketing on job seekers’ perceptions of the organization as an employer. The purpose of this paper is to identify potential dimensions of employment brand equity, and to empirically investigate the effects of organizational brand-building activities on employment brand equity and recruitment outcomes.