The attraction of culturally diverse employees into Finnish MNCs: A study on Finnish and Asian individuals’ attraction towards recruitment advertisements

Abstract

In today’s increasingly borderless world, an exceptional number of individuals are annually crossing national borders. This is also the case in Finland, where the labour demographics is shifting to consist of an older generation of workers and the number of immigrants is increasing. Consequently, the attraction and recruitment of diverse individuals becomes essential.

The purpose of this research was to use recruitment advertisements by Finnish MNCs in interviews with Finnish and Asian individuals residing in Finland and to determine how recruitment advertisements can be used to attract a wide pool of candidates to the organization, without excluding the cultural majority or minorities. The main aim was to provide HR managers in Finnish MNCs the opportunity to understand the job seeking and attraction behaviour of individuals in the Finnish labour market and comprehend how to attract the widest possible talent pool into their organization.

The study indicated that the Finnish labour market is attractive and that attraction process of individuals is complex and dependent upon individual applicant characteristics, culture, environmental characteristics and a mix of the above. Thus advert needs to contain aspects valued by the targeted groups’ cultures, be present in appropriate internet channels, and be written and presented in a clear manner in a language known to the targeted groups. Finally, positive firm reputation is an essential part of diverse employee attraction.