Employer Branding: Model for Employer Branding Practices in a Multinational Technology Company

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to explore the practices involved in the development and implementation of an employer branding strategy in a multinational technology company.

Framework: This research combines employer branding literature and strategy-as-practice (SAP) as theoretical lens by incorporating a five-step employer process model with catego-ries of ’practices’ in SAP. The combined model serves as a framework to analyse the empir-ical practices.

Methodology: The empirical setting is a multiple case-study consisting of three multina-tional technology companies and two consulting firms. Data was generated through partici-pant observation in the primary case and semi-structured interviews in the secondary cases. With an inherently abductive approach based on this exploratory study, the thesis employs the subjective and interpretative approach.

Findings: Employer branding strategy formation practices amongst the cases revealed a great deal of similarities although some differences were highlighted as key findings in the micro-level details such as the depth of research, EVP testing, creation of a communication handbook and a framework of implementation. Overall, all the cases deem employer brand-ing strategy as a long-term objective, a co-creation process following an incremental im-plementation pattern aligned with corporate strategy. Intensive engagements and the role of social media are found to play a crucial role in executing employer branding work.