1 
 Lukumanu Iddrisu 
Employer Branding: Model for Employer Branding Practices in a Multinational 
Technology Company 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
School of Management Studies  
Master’s thesis in Strategic Business Development  
Vaasa 2022 
2 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
 
Writing on this subject matter was travelling to the unknown. Admittedly, it takes the unknown 
to get to know. “There’s nothing like tiredness if you need to survive. Therefore, keep up with 
the strive to thrive. And in the end, it'll be worth the sacrifice” is a quote of mine that has been 
a guiding principle to accomplishing this master’s thesis as the work required sleepless nights 
and relentlessness.  
 
Glory be to Almighty God for making it possible to achieve this milestone. A great deal of 
gratitude to the Head of People Services at Multinational Technology Company 1 who initiated 
and supported this research work. Special thanks to Professor Marko Kohtamäki for his 
tremendous assistance and supervision of this work. 
 
Many thanks to representatives of the secondary case companies for their time and cooperation 
in the interviewing process. Appreciation also goes to the staff of University of Vaasa and the 
Tritonia library for their supportive services toward this work. Notwithstanding, the lecturers 
and colleagues I encountered in various courses in the Strategic Business Development 
programme. I learnt beyond academics to include the social lives of people from different parts 
of the world. 
 
Lastly, a special mention to my wife, Muhibba Saani Mohammed, for her belief in me as well 
as her extreme patience and support towards my goals. Special appreciation to my mum and 
siblings for their continuous belief and support. I also reserve a special dedication to my lovely 
children Leenah Wuninmi and Leilah Wumpini. 
 
  
3 
UNIVERSITY OF VAASA 
School of Management 
Author:    Lukumanu Iddrisu 
Title of the Thesis: Employer Branding: Model for Employer Branding 
                                           Practices in a Multinational Technology Company  
Degree:    Master of Science in Economics & Business Administration 
Programme:  Strategic Business Development 
Supervisor:   Marko Kohtamäki 
Year:    2022 Pages: 124 
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 categories 
of ’practices’ in SAP. The combined model serves as a framework to analyse the empirical 
practices. 
 
Methodology: The empirical setting is a multiple case-study consisting of three multinational 
technology companies and two consulting firms. Data was generated through participant ob-
servation 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 subjec-
tive 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 branding strategy as 
a long-term objective, a co-creation process following an incremental implementation 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. 
 
KEYWORDS: Employer branding, Strategy-as-practice, HRM-as-practice 
4 
 
Table of contents 
1 INTRODUCTION 8 
1.1 Motivation for the study 8 
1.2 Research gap 9 
1.3 Research objectives and contributions 11 
1.4 Thesis structure 12 
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 14 
2.1 Employer Branding 14 
2.1.1 Characteristics of Employer Brands 19 
2.1.2 Benefits of Employer Branding 23 
2.1.3 Challenges of Employer Branding 26 
2.1.4 Employer Branding Processes 28 
2.2 Strategy-as-practice 31 
2.2.1 Background and linkages of SAP 34 
2.2.2 Practitioners, practices & praxis 38 
2.2.3 HRM-as-practice 46 
2.3 Synthesis: A model for studying employer branding practices. 49 
3 METHODOLOGY 52 
3.1 Philosophical assumptions 52 
3.2 Research strategy & method 54 
3.3 Case selection 56 
3.4 Data collection and analysis process 56 
3.5 Validity and reliability 60 
4 FINDINGS 62 
4.1 Within-case description and analysis 62 
4.1.1 Multinational Technology Company 1 62 
4.1.2 Consulting Firm 1 69 
4.1.3 Multinational Technology Company 2 75 
4.1.4 Consulting Firm 2 81 
4.1.5 Multinational Technology Company 3 87 
4.2 Cross-case analysis 96 
5 
4.2.1 Research 96 
4.2.2 Employee Value Proposition 97 
4.2.3 Communication Strategy 100 
4.2.4 Communication Material 101 
4.2.5 Action 102 
5 CONCLUSION 106 
5.1 Theoretical implications 106 
5.2 Managerial implications 110 
5.3 Limitation and suggestions for future research 112 
REFERENCES 114 
APPENDICES 122 
  
6 
 
List of Figures 
 
Figure 1. Research gap in existing employer branding literature. ........................................... 11 
Figure 2. Thesis structure. ........................................................................................................ 13 
Figure 3. Foundation for the definition of employer branding. ............................................... 15 
Figure 4. Employer branding literature on employees. Adapted from Carlini et al. (2019). ... 18 
Figure 5. The integrated strategy model (adapted from Mosley & Schmidt (2017)). ............. 21 
Figure 6. Synthesis of the key steps within employer branding processes. ............................. 29 
Figure 7. The 3-step employer branding process. .................................................................... 29 
Figure 8. Universum’s employer branding process (Adapted from Parment & Dyhre (2009)).
.................................................................................................................................................. 30 
Figure 9. The stages of employer branding process (Adopted from Bagienska (2018)). ........ 31 
Figure 10. Differences between SAP research and strategy process research. ........................ 34 
Figure 11. The origin of SAP. .................................................................................................. 36 
Figure 12. Framework: The 3 core concepts of strategy-making. ........................................... 39 
Figure 13. HRM as Practice framework. (Adapted from Björkman et al. (2014)). ................. 49 
Figure 14. Framework to study and analyse the practices of employer branding strategy. ..... 51 
Figure 15. Extremes in research assumptions (Adapted from Saunders et al. (2019)). ........... 53 
Figure 16. Data structure.......................................................................................................... 60 
Figure 17. Employer branding practices of Multinational Technology Company 1. .............. 68 
Figure 18. Employer branding practices of Consulting Firm 1. .............................................. 75 
Figure 19. Employer branding practices of Multinational Technology Company 2. .............. 81 
Figure 20. Employer branding practices of Consulting Firm 2. .............................................. 87 
Figure 21. Employer branding practices of Multinational Technology Company 3. .............. 92 
Figure 22. Formation of employer branding practices in a multinational technology company.
................................................................................................................................................ 105 
 
 
List of Tables 
Table 1. Definition of employer branding by scholars. ....................................................... 16 
Table 2.     Examples of empirical works on employer branding. ........................................... 18 
Table 3.     Key employer branding outcomes. ........................................................................ 26 
Table 4. Example of practices studies (Adapted from Vaara & Whittington (2012)). ........ 41 
7 
Table 5. Examples of praxis studies (Adapted from Vaara & Whittington (2012)). ........... 43 
Table 6. Examples of practitioner studies (Adapted from Vaara & Whittington (2012)). .. 45 
Table 7. Details of workshops. ............................................................................................ 57 
Table 8. Participants list. ..................................................................................................... 57 
Table 9. Details of interviews. ............................................................................................. 58 
Table 10.   Synthesis of the key practices of employer branding............................................. 93 
 
 
 
Abbreviations 
CEO: Chief Executive Officer 
CFO: Chief Financial Officer 
HR: Human Resource 
HRM: Human Resource Management 
SAP: Strategy as practice 
  
8 
1 INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Motivation for the study 
In a world of increasingly disrupted and competitive business environment, finding and retain-
ing talents have become one of the biggest challenges organizations especially multinational 
technology corporations face due to the continuous shortage of qualified talents (Chhabra & 
Sharma, 2014; Mölk, 2018). In a 2014 and 2015 study, 36% global employers and 73% of 
CEOs of companies raised the concern of labour shortages (Mosley, 2015). As demand of tal-
ents outwits supply, it has become extremely challenging to “motivate and retain them” (i.e., 
employees) (Black et al., 2013, p. 1). Indeed, the survival of firms in today’s everchanging 
business environment is dependent upon the quality of its employees since internal human ca-
pabilities is one of the foundations of sustainable competitive advantage (Berthon et al., 2005; 
Chhabra & Sharma, 2014; Staniec & Kalińska-Kula, 2021). Mosley (2014) argue that whether 
employers deliberately pursue employer branding (i.e., define their value proposition and as-
sociated image) or not, they still have an employer brand. The underlying concern in this phe-
nomenon is whether an employer controls its own narrative, or it is defined by others. Due to 
this fact, it is crucial for firms to enact plans and measures “to attract the best pool of available 
candidates and to nurture and retain the current employees” (Chhabra & Sharma, 2014, p. 49).  
 
Employer branding is a mechanism used by organizations to facilitate employer attractiveness. 
Chhabra et. al, (2014) referred the practice as a tool to attract and retain talents. Agreeably, one 
of purposes of employer branding is to attract and retain top talents in an organization as well 
as become the “employer of choice” (Mölk, 2018; Aggerholm et al., 2011; Berthon et al., 2005, 
p. 152). Although the creation of employer branding strategies does not matter the size of a 
company, large scale firms especially multinational corporations are known to often have the 
financial and human capabilities for it (Mölk, 2018). In this regard, employer branding is of 
strategic importance to multinational corporations as it has impact on organisational reputation, 
employee engagement, talent management and other relevant agendas (Martin et al., 2011).  
This study seeks to explore the employer branding subject matter from the strategic manage-
ment point of view. More specifically, this thesis employs the practical-theoretical perspective 
using strategy-as-practice as a theoretical lens to study the practical processes in the develop-
ment and implementation of an employer branding strategy in a multinational technology com-
pany. 
9 
 
Undoubtedly, employer branding is crucial to the success of modern organisations due to the 
increasing contention for talents amongst employers in this knowledge-based economy 
(Berthon et al., 2005; Staniec & Kalińska-Kula, 2021). Employer branding has become a “li-
cence to operate” (Aggerholm et al., 2011, p. 106) for organisations in recouping talents and 
retaining current employees, to survive and attain a competitive edge (Staniec & Kalińska-
Kula, 2021). In employer branding, how strategies are developed and implemented is identified 
as crucial to its success (Staniec & Kalińska-Kula, 2021). Moreover, activities involved in the 
employer branding process affects current and prospective employees, company’s identity, and 
culture (Staniec & Kalińska-Kula, 2021). Hence, employer branding should be given equal 
importance when formulating organisational strategies (Chhabra & Sharma, 2014). Further-
more, Aggerholm et al. (2011) suggest that research on employer branding should focus on 
processes rather than “predefined outcomes” (p.118). Consequently, for a strategy – employer 
branding strategy, notwithstanding – to be realized, the practices and everyday actions are cru-
cial and must be taken seriously (Balogun et al., 2015).This corresponds with the core concept 
and context of strategy-as-practice (SAP) as it throws more light on the doings, those people 
involved, and the methods and tools they use (Jarzabkowski et al., 2007a). Therefore, there is 
the need to examine the activities involved in the employer branding strategy formation process 
from a strategy-as-practice (SAP) point of view. 
 
1.2 Research gap 
There is a growing interest on the topic of employer branding evidenced by the numerous arti-
cles in “business and practitioner press” (Frook, 2001; Eisenberg et al., 2001; Backhaus & 
Tikoo, 2004, p. 501). Employer branding literature stems from marketing and human resource 
management disciplines (Chhabra & Sharma, 2014). According to Mölk (2018), strands of em-
ployer branding research has explored diverse areas including employees (both current and 
prospective), employer brands management, motives and practices of employer branding, at-
tractiveness of employer brand, and many more. 
 
Despite the growing prominence of this subject matter, it is surprising to note that employer 
branding has been given less attention in strategic management literature. Perhaps the strategic 
management field has taken employer branding for granted (Mölk, 2018). Nevertheless, Mölk 
(2018) employed structuration theory to explore the development of strategy in employer 
10 
branding. More so, Martin et al. (2011) introduced “HR strategy-as-practice” to offer some 
guidance to the “logics of differences and social legitimacy” (Martin et al., 2011). 
 
The ‘practice school of strategy’ – popularly known as strategy-as-practice (SAP) – is known 
to dig deeper to reveal the (micro) activities in strategy research (Björkman et al., 2014; John-
son et al., 2003). SAP examines what humans do, how they use and are influenced by the use 
of artefacts such as technology when crafting strategy (Vaara & Whittington, 2012; Jarzabkow-
ski, Balogun, & Seidl, 2007). In spite of that, SAP research is yet to explore employer branding 
as a subject matter. In this phenomenon, SAP research and its linkage with the development 
and implementation of employer branding strategies is unknown. Therefore, this study exam-
ines the process(es) involved in creating an employer branding strategy (model) in a multina-
tional technology company using the lenses of SAP.  
 
Scholars in the field of marketing and human resource management (HRM) have constantly 
investigated employer branding owing to the turbulent nature of modern business (Berthon et 
al., 2005; Staniec & Kalińska-Kula, 2021). However, little is known about strategy develop-
ment in employer branding (Mölk, 2018). Consequently, the increasingly competitive employ-
ment environment makes it worthwhile to examine the micropractices of employer branding in 
a multinational technology company. Figure 1 illustrates the research gap. 
 
 
11 
Figure 1. Research gap in existing employer branding literature. 
 
1.3 Research objectives and contributions 
Since employer branding as a subject area is new to the field of strategic management and 
strategy-as-practice in particular, this study travels to the unknown by exploring the practices 
of employer branding strategy with the lenses of SAP theory in a multinational technology 
company. Hence, the research question is:   
 
What are the practices involved in the formation of an employer branding strategy in a mul-
tinational technology company? 
 
To be able answer this research question, there is the need to set research objectives to serve as 
a guide. The research objectives include: 
i) Describing employer branding and finding out the process(es) involved in crafting an em-
ployer branding strategy. 
ii) Describing strategy-as-practice research and to demonstrate how employer branding can be 
studied by using the SAP approach. 
iii) Finding out the practices in the process of developing an employer branding strategy for a 
multinational technology company. 
 
This thesis contributes to research in employer branding in two ways. Theoretically, this work 
broadens the scope of the employer branding research field to include strategy-as-practice. 
Thus, this study through the SAP approach adds a new perspective to already existing literature 
(dominated by the marketing and human resource disciplines) of employer branding (e.g. Back-
haus, 2016; Backhaus &Tikoo, 2004; Aggerholm et. al, 2011; Kaur & Sharma, 2015). On top 
of that, this study responds to the gap in the less attention given to employer branding in the 
strategic management discipline raised by Mölk (2018), shifts the focus of employer branding 
research from outcomes to processes called by Aggerholm et al. (2011), and contribute directly 
to the studies on ‘practices’ in SAP (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009: Balogun & Johnson 2004, 
2005; Laine and Vaara 2007; Samra-Fredericks 2003, 2005; Vaara et al. 2004: Vaara & Whit-
tington, 2012). This research also makes a minor contribution to the studies on strategic emer-
gence (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985).  
12 
 
Moreover, this study contributes to the emerging HRM-as-practice theory (Björkman, I., Ehrn-
rooth, Mäkelä, Smale, & Sumelius, 2014) – specifically, intersection of practices and praxis 
lenses suggested by Björkman et al. (2014). Furthermore, the exploratory analysis model pro-
posed – comprising of the combination employer branding process and SAP – serves as a con-
tribution to both employer branding and SAP theories as well as a gateway for further research.  
 
Empirically, this research sheds light on the characteristics (Moroko and Uncles 2008), benefits 
(Sullivan, 2004: Branham, 2001: Boxall, 2008: Heilmann et al., 2013: Berthon et al., 2005) and 
practical challenges (Backhaus, 2016: Moroko & Uncles, 2008: Maxwell & Knox, 2009) for 
management when pursuing employer branding. Moreover, the thesis provides some implica-
tions for management with regards to the practices of employer branding process such as con-
ducting appropriate research, developing a relevant and resonant employee value proposition, 
creating communication strategy and coherent contents, and effective activation of employer 
branding work (Aggerholm et. al, 2011: Mosley, 2014: Backhaus, 2016: Mosley & Schmidt, 
2017: Mölk, 2018) by analysing the employer branding strategy development and implemen-
tation processes in three multinational technology companies and two consulting firms.   
 
1.4 Thesis structure 
The structure of this thesis is divided into five chapters. After the first chapter which is intro-
duction, two relevant literature – employer branding and strategy-as-practice – are reviewed. 
First, the background and definitions of employer branding are explored. Subsequently, the 
benefits, characteristics and challenges are discussed. Next, some employer branding strategy 
processes or frameworks are treated, and one is selected to be used in the empirical study.  
The second theoretical section reviews the SAP literature extensively to include the background 
and linkages, and the central frameworks. Furthermore, HRM-as-practice under SAP literature 
and its conceptual frameworks is also treated since it stems from both human resource man-
agement literature and SAP literature, and relevant to this study. The two research fields – 
employer branding and SAP – are synthesized at the end of the literature review. Here, both 
fields are summarised and a framework for the empirical part is developed, providing a lens 
through which empirical data will be analysed relative to theory. 
 
13 
The methodological choices employed in this study in relation to the research objective is tack-
led in the third chapter. This includes the philosophical assumption, research strategy, and 
methods. Moreover, the case companies are introduced; data collection and analysis explained; 
and validity and reliability are discussed at the end. 
 
The fourth chapter presents the results of the empirical setting. The data are analysed within 
each case and illustrated. Thereafter, a cross-case analysis is conducted to spot the gaps in the 
practices of the primary case company and that of the comparative cases. The last chapter dis-
cusses the theoretical and managerial implications and suggestions for further research. Figure 
2 presents the structure of the thesis. 
  
 
Figure 2. Thesis structure. 
 
14 
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 
This section reviews relevant scholarly writings about employer branding and strategy-as-prac-
tice. First, the employer branding literature is discussed to include definition, features, benefits, 
challenges and models. Subsequently, the strategy-as-practice (including HRM-as-practice) lit-
erature is treated. Finally, both literatures are synthesized in how the development process of 
employer branding strategy can be studied using the strategy-as-practice theory perspective. 
Ultimately, this section intends to enhance our understanding of employer branding from the 
perspective of the strategic management discipline. 
 
2.1 Employer Branding 
Arguably, employer branding has become an important tool for organisations (Edwards, 2009) 
in the last decade. Employer branding is believed to be invented by marketing academics about 
two decades ago (Edwards, 2009; Martin et. al, 2005). This is obvious because the term brand-
ing is associated with the marketing discipline. However, recent literature reviewed by Edwards 
(2009) asserts that the employer branding concept consists of the fusion of marketing and hu-
man resource (HR) fields. Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) and Heilmann et al. (2013) maintain that 
practitioners have given more attention to employer branding than academia, hence, the subject 
matter is still theoretically underdeveloped. 
  
The definition of employer branding can be traced from the traditional branding term in mar-
keting. Reflecting upon the definition of branding, the term was traditionally used to differen-
tiate products from competitors (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). Regarding employer branding, the 
concept of branding is applied to firms to distinguish its features as an employer from others 
(Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). Hence, Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) coined the term as applying the 
principles of branding to human resource management (see figure 3). Similarly, Edwards (2009) 
explained that “employer branding is an activity where principles of marketing, in particular 
the science of branding, are applied to HR activities in relation to current and potential em-
ployees” (p. 6).  Bagienska (2018) also share a similar notion highlighting that employer brand-
ing is a process involving the combination of related human resource management activities 
with the development of a general strategy.  
15 
  
 
Figure 3. Foundation for the definition of employer branding. 
 
In this phenomenon, it is not surprising that Ambler and Barrow (1996) – proponents of the 
employer branding research discipline – were “inspired by Aaker’s (1991) notion of a strong 
brand” in defining employer branding (Aggerholm et al., 2011, p. 108). They defined employer 
branding as the provision of benefits (economic, functional, and psychological) identified with 
an employer (Ambler & Barrow, 1996). This definition has become key in employer branding 
research (Aggerholm et al., 2011). 
 
Even so, there is a wide range of definitions to describe employer branding. As Ambler and 
Barrow’s (1996) initial definition focused on benefits, Edwards (2009) asserts that it is the 
“unique employment experience” offered to employees by an organisation (p.13). Moroko and 
Uncles (2008) regard employer branding as a “psychological contract between an employer 
and employee” (Foster et al., 2010, p. 403). Similarly, Biswas and Suar (2016) refer it as the 
management of a relationship between an employer and employee. Furthermore, Martin & 
Beaumont (2003), the Conference Board (2001), as well as Dell and Ainspan (2001) explained 
it as managing a company’s identity or building an image as the best employer (Ewing et al., 
2002) whereas Lloyd (2002) views it as a form of communicating a firm’s effort to current and 
potential staff (Edwards, 2009).  Sullivan (2004) and Bagienska (2018) on the other hand elu-
cidate employer branding as a strategy used to manage the perception and awareness of 
16 
employees (existing and potential) in a long-term whilst Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) refer it as 
a “process of building an identifiable and unique employer identity [..] to differentiate it from 
competitors” (p. 502).  Mosley (2014) categorised the definitions of employer branding into 
“promise”, “image and reputation”, and “perception” (p. 4) citing the definitions of the Char-
tered Institution of Personnel and Development (CIPD, UK), Minchington (2011), and Ambler 
et. al (1996) respectively to corroborate his claims (see Table 1). In spite of that, Mosley (2014) 
emphasised that a definition of employer branding which inculcates perceptions and associa-
tion provides an effective way of measuring of its status, value and transparency.  Theorists 
have recently presented employer branding as a two-phase process to include internal branding 
(Bergstrom et al. 2002; Berthon et al., 2005), and external branding (Sullivan, 1999). Mosley 
(2017) explained that internal branding builds the working culture whereas the external brand-
ing promotes the organisational culture to prospects. Table 1 displays the various definitions of 
employer branding by scholars featured in this study.  
Table 1. Definition of employer branding by scholars. 
Author Definition 
Ambler & Barrow 
(1996) 
“[t]he package of functional, economic and psychological benefit 
provided by employment, and identified with the employing com-
pany.” (p. 187) 
Backhaus & 
Tikoo (2004) 
“[…]  the process of building an identifiable and unique employer 
identity, and the employer brand as a concept of the firm that differ-
entiates it from its competitors”  
(p. 502) 
Bagienska (2018) “Employer branding is a strategy of creating desired associations 
evoked by a given company as a workplace in prospective employ-
ees’ minds” (p.371) 
Dell & Ainspan 
(2001) 
“The employer brand establishes the identity of the firm as an em-
ployer. It encompasses the firm’s values, systems, policies, and be-
haviours toward the objectives of attracting, motivating, and retain-
ing the firm’s current and potential employees” 
Edwards (2009) “[…] identifying the unique employment experience by considering 
the totality of tangible and intangible reward features that a particu-
lar organisation offers to its employees” (p.7) 
Lloyd (2002) “[…] sum of a company’s efforts to communicate to existing and 
prospective staff that it is a desirable place to work”   
Martin & Beau-
mont (2003) 
“[…managing a] company’s image as 
seen through the eyes of its associates and potential hires” (p.15) 
Sullivan (2004) “a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and percep-
tions of employees, potential employees, and related stakeholders 
with regards to a particular firm” (para.1) 
 
Drawing upon the above definitions and considering the strategic management background, 
employer branding is defined in this study as a (sub) strategy extracted from an organisation's 
strategy that communicates the employment offering (Edwards, 2009) and unique characteris-
tics of the firm (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004: Love & Singh, 2011) in order to motivate and retain 
17 
current employees (Conference Board, 2001: Dell & Ainspan, 2001), attract prospective em-
ployees, and establish a positive image in the employment market (Lloyed, 2002). Worded 
differently, employer branding is the formation (planning and execution) and communication 
of a firm’s unique employment offering consistent with core organisational strategy to attract 
and retain employees. It is argued in this definition that employer branding is a (sub) strategy 
since it emerges from an organisation’s core strategy. This is justified by the views of Backhaus 
and Tikoo (2004), Sullivan (2004), Barrow and Mosley (2005), Edwards (2009), Van 
Mossevelde (2010) and Bagienska (2018) who reckon that employer branding is a strategy 
utilised by firms to attract current and potential talents (Heilmann et al., 2013).  
 
Furthermore, we argue in our definition that employer branding is or must be consistent with 
organisational strategy as it rests on some elements of organisational strategy such as policies, 
purpose, values and systems (Dell & Ainspan, 2001: Edwards, 2009). This is validated by Max-
well and Knox (2009) who cited that scholars are of same opinion that a successful employer 
brand meets three criteria to include consistency with organisational reality. Similarly, Mosley 
and Schmidt (2017) propound that an employer brand must align with the broader organisa-
tional strategy (see figure 5).  Foster et al., (2010) also posits that “employer branding should 
clearly understand what promise of benefits its corporate brand can offer prospective and cur-
rent employees to avoid the perceived violation of a psychological contract.” (p. 404). Back-
haus and Tikoo (2004) also maintain that “employer brands developed to be consistent with 
[…] corporate brand” (p. 503). Additionally, the sole purpose of an employer branding strat-
egy is to communicate these elements to current employees to motivate and retain them as well 
as marketed externally to attract potential employees (Conference Board, 2001: Dell & Ainspan, 
2001).   
 
The body of research on employer branding has grown markedly focusing on a wide range of 
issues (see table 2 for examples). One stream of research focusses on employees – both current 
employees (e.g. Edwards & Edwards, 2013) and potential employees (e.g. Auer, Edlinger, & 
Mölk, 2014; Wilden, Gudergan, & Lings 2010). Figure 4 presents some key synthesis in this 
stream. 
18 
 
 
Figure 4. Employer branding literature on employees. Adapted from Carlini et al. (2019). 
 
On the other hand, the works of Chhabra and Sharma (2012), Elving, Westhoff, Meeusen, and 
Schoonderbeek (2013), Aggerholm, Andersen, and Thomsen (2011),  Foster, Punjaisri, and 
Cheng (2010), Hielmann et. al, (2013) and Moroko and Uncles (2008) are streams of employer 
branding research that focus on employer brands management (Mölk, 2018). A number of stud-
ies have also investigated the attractiveness of employer brands (e.g., Berthon et al., 2005; 
Lievens & Highhouse, 2003; Holtbrugge & Kreppel, 2015; Roy, 2008) (Backhaus, 2006; Max-
well & Knox, 2009). Much of these strands of research fall within the external or internal aspect 
of employer branding (Backhaus, 2016). 
 
Table 2. Examples of empirical works on employer branding. 
Author Empirical focus Method Key findings 
Edwards & Ed-
wards (2013) 
Employees (current) Quantitative (Lon-
gitudinal study) 
Perceptions of the employment brand after ac-
quisition affects employee attitudes with re-
gards to identification and decision-making. 
Auer, Edlinger, & 
Mölk (2014) 
Employees (prospec-
tive) 
Qualitative  Illuminate how highly qualified potential ap-
plicants make sense of employer brand mate-
rial. 
19 
Chhabra & 
Sharma (2012) 
 
Employer brands 
management 
Qualitative and 
quantitative 
(Mixed methods) 
Most preferred organisational attributes by 
students include brand name, organisational 
culture and compensation. 
Elving, Westhoff, 
Meeusen, & 
Schoonderbeek 
(2013) 
Employer brands 
management 
Content analysis  
 
Employer branding in recruitment communi-
cation in Netherlands is less utilised. Further, 
adverts which contain elements of employer 
branding is most preferred. 
Aggerholm, An-
dersen, & Thom-
sen (2011) 
Employer brands 
management 
Literature review Strategies for sustainable development affects 
the approach in employer branding processes.  
Foster, Punjaisri, 
& Cheng (2010) 
Employer brands 
management 
Literature review Highlights the importance of employer brand-
ing and internal branding, and its potential to 
support the corporate brand-building initia-
tives. 
Moroko & Uncles 
(2008) 
Employer brands 
management 
Qualitative Highlights the characteristics of employer 
brands and success drivers. 
Holtbrugge & 
Kreppel (2015) 
Attractiveness of em-
ployer brand 
Quantitative Demonstrates compensation and job security 
as important factors of employer attractive-
ness. 
Roy (2008) Attractiveness of em-
ployer brand 
Quantitative Reveals most favoured employer brand attrib-
utes to include the freedom to apply 
knowledge on the job, interesting tasks, ethi-
cal work setting, fair and transparent salary. 
Wilden, Guder-
gan, & Lings 
(2010) 
Employees (prospec-
tive) 
Qualitative Reveals consistency of brand messaging and 
current employees’ referrals as preferable for 
jobseekers. Too, higher employer branding in-
vestment increases credibility of brand sig-
nals. 
Hielmann et. al, 
(2013) 
Employer brands 
management 
Qualitative Illustrates positive employer image, a better 
job satisfaction and an efficient recruitment as 
the core motives for employer branding. 
Lievens & High-
house (2003) 
Attractiveness of em-
ployer brand 
Quantitative Initial stages of recruitment process affect the 
attractiveness of organisations. 
 
 
2.1.1 Characteristics of Employer Brands 
In the preceding section the background and definitions of employer branding were discussed. 
However, the various definitions are insufficient to give a clear view of the features of employer 
brands. Therefore, key characteristics associated with employer brands are discussed in this 
section to enhance our understanding of the term. 
 
In their work ‘Characteristics of successful employer brands’, Moroko and Uncles (2008) iden-
tified some characteristics connected to successful employer brands.  They highlighted five key 
feature of successful employer brands. These include:  
Familiar and visible: The authors argue that awareness of an employer brand propels the de-
cision-making of the targeted group. Hence, a successful employer brand must be “known and 
20 
noticeable” by employees (existing and prospective) and other relevant stakeholders (Moroko 
& Uncles, 2008, p. 164).  
Relevant value proposition: A successful employer brand has a relevant value proposition 
also known as employee value proposition or EVP (See more in section 2.1.1.1) for its pro-
spective and current employees. Here, the authors explained that when the EVP is relevant to 
the target group, it easily becomes resonant with them thereby creating a relationship.  In the 
same way, Bagienska (2018) postulates that an EVP must align with the firm’s strategy as well 
as meet expectations of the targeted group.  
Distinct or unique from other firms: Another common feature of a successful employer brand 
is that it is distinct or unique from other firms. The employer brand must be able to tell the 
identity and character of the company, what is special about working there, and why it is dif-
ferent. 
Delivery of promise: A key characteristic of a successful employer brand is the accuracy in 
fulfilling the promise(s) it has communicated and marketed to existing and prospective em-
ployees. In other words, the company delivers the promise sold to its target audience. For in-
stance, if an employer claims to offer a certain benefit (e.g. work-life balance), employees must 
be able to experience it in the entire “employment lifecycle” (Moroko & Uncles, 2008, p. 165). 
In essence, the promise(s) existing and prospective employees perceive due to what has been 
sold to them should meet the reality in the organisation. 
Alignment with brand values: Since prospective employees are unable to properly assess the 
employee experience of a firm, it becomes very difficult for their decision-making. Due to this 
gap, Moroko and Uncles (2008) maintain that “understanding of a company’s corporate and 
product brands may be used as a proxy for an understanding of the employer brand” (p. 167). 
Hence, a key characteristic of a successful employer brand is its alignment with the vision of 
the company and its consumer-promise.  
 
In a similar vein, a practitioner article by HR Talent IQ (n.d.) highlighted five common char-
acteristics of an effective employer branding. Firstly, an effective employer brand possesses a 
well-developed value proposition. In this phenomenon, a company is able to determine what 
existing and potential employees value about working with them. Second is authenticity. A 
company’s honesty about its offering and working culture is key. What is marketed to the target 
audience must be the same as the experience lest misrepresentation – which leads to breach of 
psychological contract (Backhaus, 2016) and higher turnover. Thirdly, an effective employer 
branding is characterised by employee involvement in the employer branding process. This 
21 
facilitates a successful articulation of the entire employer brand lifecycle. Fourthly, in effective 
employer branding, employees are trained to become advocates of the firm’s employer brand. 
In essence, employees are encouraged to become ambassadors of the employer brand. It is 
imperative to note that the message of employees about a company is more trusted by potential 
employees. This is corroborated by research conducted by LinkedIn Talent Solution which 
found that prospective employees believe the information of an employer about employee ex-
perience and working atmosphere from their current employees in three fold than from the 
company’s official page and/or from senior management (LinkedIn Talent Solution, 2016). The 
last characteristic is consistency in messaging. The message about a company’s employer brand 
must be consistent in both internal and external communication. Furthermore, it must be com-
pelling and engaging. 
 
The characteristics outlined by Moroko and Uncles (2008) and the practitioner article (HR 
Talent IQ, n.d.)  corresponds to the opinion of scholars (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004: Ambler & 
Barrow, 1996) who argue that employer brands must meet three criteria to include: consistency 
with organisational realities, unique from other competing firms, and attractive to stakeholders 
(Maxwell & Knox, 2009, p. 895). In addition, Aggerholm et al. (2011) emphasize that success-
ful employer branding goes beyond the offering of benefits to include co-creation and negoti-
ation between a firm and its current and prospective employees. In spite of that Mosley and 
Schmidt (2017) propound that an employer brand must align with the broader organisational 
strategy. More specifically, it should alternate or intersect between HR and talent management 
strategy and marketing strategy. Figure 5 illustrates employer branding within a broader scope 
of an organisational strategy. 
 
 
Figure 5. The integrated strategy model (adapted from Mosley & Schmidt (2017)). 
 
22 
2.1.1.1 Employee Value Proposition (EVP) 
As firms aim to portray themselves as the best place to work to enable the attraction and reten-
tion of committed and dedicated employees to survive in this disruptive employment era, em-
ployee value proposition (EVP) is the vehicle used in attaining this feat in the employer brand-
ing process. This is because EVP consists of the attractive benefits or values an employee ob-
tains (Arasanmi & Krishna, 2019).  
 
Herger (2007) defines EVP as the benefit employees attain or expect to receive by working in 
a particular organisation whilst Edwards (2009) refer it as a “package of […] employment ad-
vantages offered to employees” (p. 7). Minchinting (2010) also defines EVP as “[…] a set of 
associations and offerings provided by your organization in return for the skills, capabilities 
and experiences an employee brings to your organization” (Heilmann et al., 2013, p. 289). 
EVP is a give and take agreement between an organisation and an employee (Pawar, 2016; 
Arasanmi & Krishna, 2019; Staniec & Kalińska-Kula, 2021). Specifically, a firm offers a set 
of benefits in exchange (Staniec & Kalińska-Kula, 2021) for the performance of an employee 
(Noe et al., 2008; Peterson, 2007 cited in Arasanmi & Krishna, 2019). This is supported by 
Minchington’s (2010) definition of EVP as the set of values offered by a firm in exchange of 
an employees’ skills and experience to the firm.  EVP is an essential component of an em-
ployer’s brand and serves as the main differentiator of a company’s employer brand and that of 
its competitors (Arasanmi & Krishna, 2019; Bagienska, 2018). Bagienska (2018) argue that 
EVP is a determining factor for highly skilled employees in influencing their employer of 
choice. On top of that an effective EVP “is a tool of building employer branding not only 
among prospective employees, but also in the whole external environment of an enterprise” 
(Bagienska, 2018, p. 377). 
 
It could be deduced from the above scholarly discussion that EVP is the heart of an employer 
branding strategy – a tool that carries the values (e.g. benefits, rewards, policies) of an employer 
brand. It presents the central message that is marketed by the employer brand (Eisenberg et al., 
2001; Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). In essence, EVP is the bedrock of an employer branding strat-
egy. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to have an employer branding view without an EVP. 
 
EVP components can be classified into five categories – organisation, rewards, opportunity, 
work and people (Ryan, 2010; referenced by Bagienska, 2018). The organisation category 
23 
comprises of the information about the company, social corporate responsibility, declaration of 
reliability and credibility, quality of product and service, and many more; rewards concern the 
remuneration package for employees; opportunity refers to employee development mecha-
nisms such training for employees, career advancement and the like; work consists of employ-
ment contracts, work-life balance, work safety, and diversity; the people area involves, quality 
of team spirit, code of conducts, manager quality, and many more (Bagienska, 2018). 
   
2.1.2 Benefits of Employer Branding 
Employer branding, when pursued effectively offers a significant amount benefit. Below are 
some positive impacts of employer branding on practicing firms. Table 3 highlights some of 
the outcomes of employer branding. 
 
First, employer branding establishes a positive image about an organisation as the best place to 
work (Sullivan, 2004: Branham, 2001), a “first-class employer” (Heilmann et al., 2013, p. 284) 
or an “employer of choice” (Berthon et al., 2005, p. 152) to succeed in this era of ‘war for 
talent’. Likewise, companies use employer branding to control a narrative or correct a percep-
tion. A typical case is McDonald. The company leveraged on its employer branding activities 
to counter the misguided ‘McJob’ perception tagged on them. McJob is a slang term used to 
describe a low paid job or a job without prestige nor future. McDonald succeeded in using its 
employer branding activities to highlight the positives in the benefits it offers (employee value 
proposition) to employees. McDonald’s campaign received a humungous press coverage and 
owing to that the company was able to change the wrong narrative. Furthermore, job applica-
tions improved markedly – from 4:1 to 14:1 (Mosley, 2014).        
 
Through dialogue and co-creation within the employer branding process, current staff are well 
engaged with regards to the strategy and culture of the organisation (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). 
This creates alignment of corporate values and behaviour and a sense of ‘corporate citizenship’ 
amongst internals (Aggerholm et al., 2011; Maxwell & Knox, 2009; Conference Board, 2001). 
Furthermore, this leads to employee commitment and loyalty (Minchington, 2007). The work 
of Staniec and Kalińska-Kula (2021) supports this assertion as their study reveals that employer 
branding internally increases the sense of belonging among current employees significantly as 
well as enhance their commitment. Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) added that internal employer 
24 
branding creates inimitable workforce. They exemplified that Southwest Airlines is a firm that 
possesses an enviable workplace culture. 
 
As firms leverage on employer branding to market their employee value proposition – includ-
ing benefits, career advancement, trainings, and the like – they attain employer brand equity 
and employer attractiveness as outcomes (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004; Berthon et al., 2005). 
These outcomes motivate the retention of current employees as well as attract potential em-
ployees (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004: Minchington, 2007). For instance, McDonald’s (UK) em-
ployer branding activities significantly decreased their employee turnover by -52.5% between 
2004-2010 (Mosley, 2014). With regards to talent attraction, Linkedin Talent Solutions’ (2016) 
research suggests that 72% of respondents (recruitment leaders) agree that employer branding 
has positively impacted their hiring. Similarly, research from the Conference Executive Board 
(CEB) found that a positive employer brand can attract 20% higher of the prospective employ-
ees in the labour market (Mosley, 2014).  
 
Correspondingly, since employer branding enables employee retention and talent attraction, 
practicing firms stand to save cost in talent acquisition and employee attrition (Biswas & Suar, 
2016: Ritson, 2002). For instance, LinkedIn’s survey in 2011 amongst 2250 recruiters in the 
USA found that the “average cost per hire” and employee turnover rate was significantly lower 
in firms with strong employer brands. (Mosley, 2014: p.12). In essence, firms with strong em-
ployer brands in this case saved cost for every hire and lowered cost of attrition.  Aside that, 
firms with strong employer brand save cost in terms of employee salaries. This is consistent 
with the studies of Berthon et. al (2005) and Ritson (2005) which claim that companies who 
have strong employer brand offer lower salaries for employees in similar positions to the com-
panies with weak employer brands. Likewise, Jain and Bhatt (2015) cite that prospective em-
ployees are inclined to accept 7% less salary from organisations with positive employer image 
than those with negative image. 
 
The positive impact of employer branding goes beyond current and prospective employees to 
affect the firm’s customers, sales, and corporate brand. Research indicates employer branding 
leads to customer satisfaction and sales at a higher level (Mosley 2014; Berthon et. al, 2005). 
In general, the importance of employer branding mentioned above suggest that firms who ef-
fectively practice it attain competitive advantage (Conference Board, 2001).  This is because 
attracting, recruiting, and retaining a unique workforce enhances performance which is 
25 
valuable for a firm. Drawing upon the resource-based view, possessing a pool of talents that is 
valuable, rare, inimitable, and well supported by the organisation can be a source of attaining 
competitive advantage (Priem and Butler,2001; cited in Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004).  Boxall 
(2008) asserts that regardless of the possession of the best facility or technology, competitive 
advantage can only be guaranteed when employees are able to fully utilize them (Backhaus & 
Tikoo, 2004). Hence, attracting and retaining highly competent workforce through employer 
branding creates competitive advantage. 
  
26 
 
Table 3. Key employer branding outcomes. 
 
 
 
Employer branding benefits: 
For the employer 
Employer branding benefits: 
For the employee 
Employer branding benefits: 
For externals 
Synthesis of key developments within this stream 
 
Organisation attains a positive image as the best place to work 
or an “employer of choice”. 
An organisation can control its own narrative as an employer.  
Employer branding support the corporate brand-building initi-
atives such as organisational identity and culture.  
Employer branding offers a framework for engaging potential 
employees and enhances employee-employer value matching. 
Employer branding foster employee commitment to the organ-
isation. 
Employer attains retention of existing employees and attraction 
of prospective applicants. 
Employer saves cost in talent acquisition and employee attri-
tion.  
Employer branding is a source of competitive advantage 
through the creation of an inimitable workforce for the firm. 
Synthesis of key developments within this stream 
 
Employees are considered internal customers. 
Employees are well engaged in a dialogical process. 
Employees get aligned with corporate values. 
The sense of belonging of employees are enhanced through 
employer branding. 
Loyalty of employees are enhanced. 
Employer branding creates a platform for the voices of em-
ployees to be heard. 
Employer branding enhances employee-employer value 
matching. 
Employer branding shapes the understanding of existing em-
ployees with regards to unique attributes of the organisation. 
Synthesis of key developments within this stream 
 
Employer branding leads to customer satisfaction.  
Through employer branding prospective employees get 
a glimpse of the employment experience of a firm. 
Employer branding provides a platform for engaging po-
tential staff.  
Prospective employees can make an informed decision 
as to the employer of choice. 
Contributing articles: 
Sullivan (2004), Branham (2001), Boxall (2008), Heilmann et 
al. (2013), Berthon et al., (2005), Mosley (2014), Backhaus 
(2004), Biswas & Suar (2016), Ritson (2002), Berthon et. al 
(2005), Jain & Bhatt (2015) 
Contributing articles: 
Aggerholm et al. (2011), Backhaus &Tikoo (2004), Backhaus 
(2016), Heilmann et al. (2013), Moroko & Uncles (2008), 
Maxwell & Knox (2009), Conference Board (2001), Minch-
ington (2007), Staniec & Kalińska-Kula (2021). 
Contributing articles: 
Aggerholm et al. (2011), Backhaus &Tikoo (2004), Car-
lini et al. (2019), Mosley (2014). 
26 
 
 
2.1.3 Challenges of Employer Branding 
The preceding section revealed the benefits of employer branding. Although practicing em-
ployer branding comes with numerous benefits, it does not take away the challenges associated 
with it. Indeed, the journey to employer branding is not golden. Just like the silky road, chal-
lenges arise along the way. This section highlights challenges associated with companies prac-
ticing or intend to practice employer branding. 
 
One of the deadly sins in pursuing employer branding is false promises (Backhaus, 2016). In-
deed, false promises in employer branding are a mistake (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994; ref-
erenced by Backhaus, 2016). Consistency of an employer brand with the realities such as em-
ployment experience and organisational culture is inherent in the employer brand concept 
(Backhaus, 2016). However, in an effort to attract the best pool of talents, some companies 
promise what they cannot deliver in their employer branding messages. A typical case scenario 
can be found in Moroko et al.’s (2008) work where an employment branding message did not 
match the actual processes of a firm. The case demonstrated that a firm had the intention of 
employing (fresh) graduates and to offer them work-life balance. Consequently, the HR depart-
ment advertised this message without consulting line managers and/or informing them about 
the new ways of working.  The new employees after recruitment realised their managers where 
still in the offices at odd hours, forcing them to stay along. Hence, they felt disappointed since 
that was not what was promised (in the beginning). Within a year, all the new recruits (fresh 
graduates) had left the company (Moroko & Uncles, 2008).  In this scenario, the company was 
able to attract the right employees through its message, but unable to deliver what was promised 
in their value proposition leading to disappointment amongst new employees - herein a breach 
of psychological contract – which in turn ends in higher turnover (Backhaus, 2016; Moroko & 
Uncles, 2008) 
 
Another mistake some firms commit when pursuing employer branding is benchmarking com-
panies who have been recognised as Best Employers (Maxwell & Knox, 2009).  Maxwell et. 
al (2009) argue that benchmarking impedes the unique characteristics and identity of a firm. 
Owing to that the values of the corporate brand of the firm can hardly be aligned with the 
behaviours of employees, this in turn undermines the employer brand. In a multinational 
27 
corporation context, Martin et al. (2011) quizzed the authenticity of employer brand con-
structed at the global level and at the local level. Martin et al. (2011) argue that when the em-
ployer brand is developed in a multinational corporation and marketed externally, it may cor-
respond with the desires of top management. However, it may not seem authentic to the lived 
experience of employees in other locations far from the headquarters.  This happens when em-
ployees are not involved in the development of the employer brand. Hence, it becomes difficult 
to develop an EVP that matches the needs and wants of employees. More so, it becomes diffi-
cult for employees to live the brand. With this,  Martin et al. (2011) emphasised the inclusion 
of line managers and regular employees representing all levels in the formation of employer 
brand strategies. 
 
Another difficulty faced by firms that pursue employer branding is the sustainability of it 
(Backhaus, 2016). Since there is constant change management in especially large organisations, 
they are required to keep altering their employer branding strategy to stay relevant. In a sce-
nario where there is change in organisational ownership (e.g. merger and/or acquisition), mod-
ification of the employer brand becomes imminent. It is then required to alter the employer 
brand of at least one of the companies to blend both. This is a difficult challenge since employ-
ees of the two distinct companies have already associated themselves with their respective 
companies (Backhaus, 2016). This may lead to commotion. The work of Edwards and Edwards 
(2013) revealed that employees had to quit after a merger due to brand identity. For instance, 
the consistency of corporate social responsibility was crucial to employees. Furthermore, their 
study revealed that the changes in the employer brand impacted employees’ decision to stay 
with the newly created merger (Backhaus, 2016). Aside this, generational shift affects the sus-
tainability of an employer brand. An EVP that may attract generation X may not be attractive 
to generation Z. And since there is constant generational shift and an ever-changing demand, 
to have an employer brand that is sustainable over time, becomes difficult. 
 
Additionally, power play in organisations pose a challenge to employer branding. One of the 
goals of an employer branding strategy is to address the employment interests (needs/wants) 
of employees (current and prospective) and stakeholders. However, due to the influence of top 
management, strategies are developed to meet their interest to enable the access to draw re-
sources (Mölk, 2018). This is dangerous as the normative rules of senior management may not 
meet the best interests of employees and stakeholders. Consequently, the employer brand is 
bound to fail. 
28 
 
Content creation and channel of delivery is another challenge that can lead to a failed employer 
branding campaign. A firm may have the best of offering in its EVP. However, inability to 
create engaging contents to the targeted audience is a recipe for disaster. That said, even if a 
company produces good content, the mode and medium of delivery is another factor. Instances 
where the right channel is not recognised, employer branding contents – specifically EVP 
promises – may not reach the targeted audience for it be heard, hence failure.  Lastly, employer 
branding requires time, monetary investment and other resources to flourish. Without these, 
firms pursuing employer branding are treading on a fruitless journey.  
 
2.1.4 Employer Branding Processes 
The advent of employer branding has given birth to various process models in the development 
of an employer branding strategy by both practitioners and theorists. In this section, few of the 
models are discussed briefly and compared to add more insight to understanding the processes. 
Afterwards, one of the process models will be selected based on its suitability to the empirical 
setting. One of the models consist of a three-step process whereas the rest consist of five-step 
process. See figure 6 below. 
 
29 
Figure 6. Synthesis of the key steps within employer branding processes. 
 
Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) cited a three-step employer branding process defined by the human 
resource (HR) practitioner literature. The first step is the EVP development by the firm using 
the information about its culture, leadership style, qualities of existing employees, image, prod-
uct and service qualities, and the package of benefits for employees. In the second phase, the 
firm markets the EVP externally to its target groups such as prospective employees, recruitment 
consultants and agencies. In the last phase, internal marketing activities is carried out to fulfil 
the promise made to prospective employees as well as incorporate it as a part of the organisa-
tional culture (Frook, 2001; Backhaus & Tikoo 2004). This framework although indicate an 
outside-inside approach, it is one of the most cited in employer branding literature (e.g., 
Backhaus, 2016; Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004; Chhabra & Sharma, 2014; Heilmann et al., 2013). 
 
 
Figure 7. The 3-step employer branding process. 
 
On the other hand, employer branding consulting firm Universum proposed a five-step em-
ployer branding process model (see figure 8). The first stage recommended in Universum’s 
framework is to conduct research. Here, the current employer image is examined through in-
ternal and external research. Researching on existing employees and the labour market is cru-
cial to understanding the current employer’s image. More so, it helps identify the perception of 
employees about the employer as well as their needs and wants (Van Mossevelde, 2010; Heil-
mann et al., 2013). The second phase identifies the EVP. Heilmann et al. (2013) stress that the 
EVP displays the unique employment advantages offered by the employer and the reason to 
work for their organisation.  Van Mossevelde (2010) opines that an effective EVP increases the 
talent pool of an employer, enhances employee commitment, and has the tendency of saving 
cost for employers – since employers with weak employer brands pay a premium price to attract 
highly qualified talents  (Heilmann et al., 2013). Next is the creation of the communication 
30 
strategy which is based on step one and two. At this stage, Van Mossevelde (2010) recommends 
that the most attractive factors of the EVP must be emphasized in the communication strategy. 
Furthermore, the target group and the relevant communication channels must be well defined 
to enable the right reach.  The fourth step is the preparation of communication materials aimed 
at expressing the EVP to the target group such as current and prospective employees, and other 
stakeholders. Here, the ’what and how’, words (texts), images and videos are communicated in 
a way that are consistent with customer brands and corporate identity (Heilmann et al., 2013 ; 
Nguyen, 2019). The fifth and final step is the implementation of the steps to promote the EVP. 
Furthermore, a close evaluation and monitoring of the process is done, and alteration is required 
when needed (Heilmann et al., 2013; Parment & Dyhre 2009). 
 
Universum’s employer branding process model has been featured by several scholars (e.g., 
Heilmann et al., 2013; Nguyen, 2019; Parment & Dyhre 2009). In comparison, Universum’s 
framework share some similarities with the three-step HR practitioner model in terms of EVP 
creation and communication/marketing. However, the HR practitioner framework falls short in 
terms of ‘research’. As earlier mentioned, research gives an idea of the experiences of current 
employees and the perception the employment market have about an organisation as an em-
ployer. More so, crafting an EVP should be adjusted to organisational strategy and the expec-
tations of the targeted group (Bagienska, 2018). In this respect without research, the probability 
of creating an EVP that matches the needs, wants and/or expectations of the targeted group is 
less – hence, the employer branding is likely to fail.   
 
Figure 8. Universum’s employer branding process (Adapted from Parment & Dyhre (2009)). 
 
Parallel to Universum’s employer branding strategy framework is the one proposed by Ba-
gienska (2018). The framework consists of a five-step logical process (see figure 9). First, the 
current employer image is examined. Next is using the first step to formulate an appropriate 
employer image. The third step is the development of the EVP. Afterwards, the employer brand 
31 
is implemented. Thereafter, evaluation and modification. A critical observation of Bagienska's 
(2018) model and the one by Universum correspond to each other although there is clear dif-
ference in the explicit creation of a communication strategy in Universum’s model.  Moreover, 
Bagienska's (2018) model also corresponds with the three-step HR practitioner model with 
regards to EVP creation. This substantiate the claim that EVP is the heart of an employer brand-
ing strategy. 
 
 
Figure 9. The stages of employer branding process (Adopted from Bagienska (2018)). 
 
After examining the various frameworks, the one proposed by Universum will be employed in 
the empirical setting. This is because it consists most of the elements needed in an employer 
branding strategy. More so, this framework fits the definition of employer branding in this study. 
Moreover, this model has been used in practice by companies as Universum does employer 
branding consulting for organisations. In addition, as this study involves multiple case compa-
nies, hence, the Universum’s framework has a potential for the empirical part. 
  
2.2 Strategy-as-practice 
Emerged in the late 1990’s, strategy-as-practice is an influential research (sub) field that have 
made (and continue to make) a remarkable impact or progress in the strategic management 
discipline. SAP research is borne-out of the practice approach that seeks to dig deeper to reveal 
the micro-level activities in strategy work (Golsorkhi et al., n.d.). SAP applies social theories 
of practice or sociological theories to traditional strategy process (Jarzabkowski, 2019; 
Golsorkhi et al., 2015; Vaara and Whittington, 2012). More specifically, SAP focuses on the 
actual “doing of strategy” (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009, p. 69). Similarly, Kohtamäki, Rabetino, 
32 
Einola, Parida and Patel (2021) refer SAP as a grounded practice theory approach that views 
strategy an action taken by an organisation rather “a quality they possess” (p. 381). With its 
three components – Practices, Praxis, and Practitioners (see more in section 2.2.2) –, SAP ex-
amines who strategists are and what they do, how they use and are influenced by the use of 
artefacts such as technology when crafting strategy (Golsorkhi et al., 2015; Vaara & 
Whittington, 2012; Jarzabkowski, Balogun, & Seidl, 2007; Johnson, Melin & Whittington, 
2003; Whittington, 2006, 2007: cited in Kohtamäki et al., 2022).  
 
According to Jarzabkowski and Spee (2009), one of the reasons for the emergence of the SAP 
research field is due to the continuous dissatisfaction with the traditional strategy research. 
Indeed, conventional strategy research pays attention to formal strategic planning, organisa-
tional performance, and strategy outcomes. Furthermore, the normative strategy process is 
characterized by the configurations of control systems in an organisation (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 
2009). Hutzschenreuter and Kleindienst (2006) also identified the process field to consist of 
constantly increasing concepts and frameworks. Scholars such as Jarzabkowski and Whitting-
ton (2008) argue that there is a gap between the theory and practice in traditional strategy texts 
(Piipponen, 2018). Hence, the SAP research is an alternative to seal this gap by focusing on the 
“micro-level activities in strategy” or the “micro episodes of strategizing” to enhance the un-
derstanding of how strategy takes place (Burgelman et al., 2018, p. 12; Vaara & Whittington, 
2012, pp. 286–292). This is evident from the definition of strategy and strategizing from SAP 
proponents Jarzabkowski, Balogun and Seidl (2007, p. 7–8) as a: 
 
“[…] situated, socially accomplished activity, while strategizing comprises those 
actions, interactions and negotiations of multiple actors and the situated prac-
tices that they draw upon in accomplishing that activity.” 
 
Another difference between the two research fields is the ‘people’ factor in strategy process. In 
an SAP perspective, people are at the epicenter in strategy-making. This is corroborated by 
Whittington (2006), who identifies strategy as “something people do” (Kohtamäki et al., 2022; 
Whittington 2006, p. 613). Furthermore, Jarzabkowski and Spee (2009) argue that since SAP 
explores strategy “as something people do”, it gives an important spotlight to actors i.e. strat-
egy practitioners (p.71).   
 
33 
That said, in most conventional strategy theories, actors and their actions are nearly absent. 
Even those works that consider actors tend to focus on the elite group such as top management 
(Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009). Scholars maintain that SAP focuses on the “production and 
reproduction of strategic action” whereas strategy process research concentrates on strategic 
change and performance of the firm (Jarzabkowski, 2005: Jarzabkowski, 2008: Johnson et al., 
2003: Whittington, 2007: cited in Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009, p.70). Moreover, SAP research 
gives significant amount of attention to actors, their action, and their interaction in strategizing 
whilst in strategy process research, actors and their actions are less emphasized in strategy work 
(Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009). 
 
There has also been a huge contention between strategy process scholars and SAP scholars. 
SAP scholars argue that the focus on “abstract processes” by process scholars make them miss 
the intrinsic features and activities that make strategic processes actually function (Burgelman 
et al., 2018, p. 17). Similarly, Jarzabkowski (2019) critiqued that the process tradition although 
normative is not necessarily reflecting actual practice. Strategy process scholars on the other 
hand have alleged SAP scholars as lacking with regards to the substantive issues confronting 
organizational outcomes due to their extreme focus on micro-activities. Furthermore, process 
scholars have accused SAP scholars of under-theorizing power and less sensitive to issues to 
do with the objects or the materiality of practices (Burgelman et al., 2018).  Figure 10 displays 
the differences between the two research fields. 
 
34 
 
Figure 10. Differences between SAP research and strategy process research. 
 
2.2.1 Background and linkages of SAP 
The increasingly widespread of social theories especially “actor and system centric perspective” 
in management discipline caught the attention of strategy researchers – since it enhances the 
understanding of organisational actions and societal practices (Vaara & Whittington, 2012; Nini, 
2016, p.5).  As a result, Whittington (1996) introduced strategy-as-practice (SAP) to the stra-
tegic management discipline to shift the focus of strategy research beyond organisational core 
competence to include the actions and interactions of practitioners. More specifically, the initial 
introduction of SAP concentrated on managers, how they act and do strategy (Whittington, 
1996). The research field at the beginning sort to reveal “the effectiveness of strategists rather 
than just of organisations” (Whittington, 1996, p. 734). In spite of that, SAP research has taken 
a holistic approach to strategy formation (formulation and implementation) in a wider context 
(Jarzabkowski 2004; Whittington 2006).  
 
Owing to the earlier influential theorical works by Knights and Morgan (1991), Whittington 
(1996) and Hendry (2000); and empirical studies by Oakes, Townley, and Cooper (1998) and 
35 
Jarzabkowski and Wilson (2002), SAP started gaining visibility and established itself as a sub-
field in the strategic management discipline in the early/mid 2000s (Golsorkhi et al., n.d.; Vaara 
& Whittington, 2012). Since then, the last two decades have seen the proliferation of studies 
under the label SAP – making it a vital area in contemporary research in strategic management 
(Kohtamäki et al., 2022; Vaara & Whittington, 2012). 
 
The development and/or origin of SAP research can be attributed to several sources (Golsorkhi 
et al., 2015). Hence, there is a difference of opinion amongst scholars as to its true origin. Vaara 
and Whittington (2012) opine that SAP finds its theoretical root in the practice-based theories 
which can be attributed to the works of Wittgenstein (1951) or Heidegger (1962). Similarly, 
Burgelman et al. (2018, p. 11) and Schaztzki et al. (2001) acknowledge that SAP research 
emerged from the “practice turn in social theories” whilst its early roots can be drawn from 
the works of Knight and Morgan (1991) and Whittington (1996).  Golsorkhi et al. (2015) on 
the contrary argue that the “intellectual roots” of SAP can be traced from the classics of strat-
egy research. Indeed, scholars such as Langley (2007) and Tsoukas (2010) concur that SAP 
draw from strategy process research (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009: Piipponen, 2018). As well,  
Vaara and Whittington (2012) also agree that the substantive etymology of SAP can be traced 
from strategy process theories. Consequently, SAP can be seen to draw from both practice 
perspective of sociological theories and strategy process texts (see figure 11) (Jarzabkowski, 
2019; Golsorkhi et al, 2015; Vaara and Whittington, 2012). More so, SAP extends to embrace 
other theories such as activity theory, discourse theory, philosophy, anthropology, and ethno-
methodology (Vaara & Whittington, 2012).  
 
36 
 
Figure 11. The origin of SAP. 
 
Strategy-as-practice shares some commonalities with traditional strategy research – in particu-
lar, the process approach (although Chia and MacKay [2007] argue that this notion is not 
acknowledged by all scholars) – as well as the new Micro-Foundations strategy approach (Foss, 
2011: Eisenhardt, Furr, & Bingham, 2010). However, the uniqueness of SAP lies in its focus 
on actors and their actions in social practices. 
  
Vaara and Whittington (2012) highlight that SAP complements normative strategy research in 
four ways: 
1) It adds sociological theories of practice to the heavily impacted economic theories in 
strategy research. More to that, it features other scholars (e.g., Foucault, Giddens, Bour-
dieu, Latour, Goffman, and others) from social sciences into the strategic management 
discipline. 
2) SAP deepens or widens the scope of explanation (e.g., outcomes, performance) of strat-
egy research. 
3) SAP broadens the research scope in strategic management studies to include not-for-
profit firms. 
4)   It brings a paradigm shift to the methodologies in strategy research. These include 
qualitative methods, observation, videography, action research, photography, research 
subject diaries, and many more. 
37 
 
In a complementary view, although strategy process research and SAP research have different 
basic concerns, they can be seen as compatible, belonging to the same family and overlap each 
other as both traditions create value for managers (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009). This is sup-
ported by the views of Baraldi, Brennan, Harrison, Tunisini and Zolkiewski (2007). A typical 
example of this complementary view is, as the process tradition focuses on the group and or-
ganizational level in strategic planning processes, SAP research focuses on the ‘the practice 
inside the process’. Essentially, both traditions come close, but the difference lies in SAP’s 
granularity  (Burgelman et al., 2018, p. 16).  
 
Burgelman et al. (2018) reflected on strategy process research and SAP research and suggested 
a combinatory view to integrate both fields as a single body of research called Strategy as 
process and practice (SAPP) in the strategic management discipline. This according to  
Burgelman et al. (2018) is to lessen the difference between the two groups and to understand 
how both fields homogenously shape strategy. See figure 9. 
 
 
Figure 9. Combinatory Model of Strategy as Process and Practice (SAPP) (adopted from 
Burgelman et al., 2018). 
 
38 
2.2.2 Practitioners, practices & praxis 
Indeed, SAP has advanced social practice theories and established itself as a distinctive sub-
field in strategic management discipline (Vaara & Whittington, 2012). Whittington (2006) pro-
posed three different elements to conceptualize strategizing (Seidl & Whittington, 2014). They 
include practitioners, practices, and praxis (Jarzabkowski et al. 2007; Whittington, 2006).  Jar-
zabkowski et al. (2007) further developed the conceptual framework for studying and/or ana-
lysing SAP research (Björkman et al., 2014). These interrelated concepts define the broad pa-
rameters of SAP research (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009).  Although, Whittington (2007) pro-
posed a fourth element – profession – to treat macro concept such as the institutional field of 
strategy comprising of business schools, researchers and the like, it is yet to be adopted by 
majority of SAP scholars. 
 
Many practice scholars deem the three elements as discrete, although, they are closely interre-
lated (Jarzabkowski et al., 2007a; Vaara & Whittington, 2012). Whittington (2006) confesses 
that it is not obligatory to simultaneously combine all the three different components in a study. 
However, Jarzabkowski et al. (2007a) propound that due to the interconnected of practitioners, 
practices, and praxis, it is impossible to study one of the concepts without incorporating aspects 
of the other concepts. Nonetheless, with his ‘methodological bracketing’, Giddens (1979) en-
courages the use of one or more components.  This section discusses each of the three compo-
nents and focuses on the ones relevant for the empirical setting of this study. 
 
39 
 
 
Figure 12. Framework: The 3 core concepts of strategy-making. 
 
2.2.2.1 Practices 
‘Practices’ is one of the vital components of strategizing in an SAP perspective. Within the SAP 
field are various concepts of practices and a strong research agenda towards its advocation. 
However, there is no dominant view on the concept (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009, p 69). There 
are varying definitions of practices in practice literature. On the one hand, some scholars refer 
the term as techniques, tools and frameworks or norms, routines and procedures in doing strat-
egy (e.g. Reckwitz, 2002; Whittington, 2006). On the other hand, some theorists identify prac-
tices to incorporate both (see e.g., Orlikowski 2007; Jarzabkowski & Spee 2009; Jarzabkowski 
and Whittington, 2008;  Vaara & Whittington, 2012). 
 
Practices involve the norms, procedures and tools used in strategy making (Vaara & 
Whittington, 2012). Reckwitz (2002) defines practices to include “shared routines of behav-
iour” (p.249-251; cited in Whittington, 2006). In parallel, Jarzabkowski and Whittington (2008, 
p. 101) explain practices to “[…] involve the various routines, discourses, concepts and tech-
nologies through which this strategy labour is made possible […]”. Since the purpose of this 
thesis is to explore practices involved in the formation of an employer branding strategy in a 
40 
multinational technology company, the definition of Jarzabkowski and Whittington (2008) is 
most relevant as it touches on all aspects of practices in a concise manner.   
 
The view of routine practices is contested by Jarratt and Stiles (2010) in their three categories 
of practices – routinized practice, which occur in a predictable operating context where the 
alignment of strategy is the focus; reflective practice which takes place in a complex and ever-
changing operating environment where strategy is emergent; and imposed practice which oc-
curs in a stable environment where strategy is incremental – to argue that not all practices can 
be referred routinised (Piipponen, 2018).  In spite of that, practices can be seen to be funda-
mentally concerned with the doings that enable the understanding of the construction of activ-
ities in strategizing (Jarzabkowski et al., 2007a; Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009).  Undoubtedly, 
the concept of practices are entangled and interconnected part of activity, embedded strongly 
in the doing (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009). Hence, it is challenging to identify them (Jarzab-
kowski & Spee, 2009). Due to the interrelatedness of practices, scholars such as Chia & Mac-
Kay (2007) define it to resemble praxis. This is not surprising as “strategy practices are typi-
cally emergent from praxis” (Whittington, 2006, p. 624). Furthermore, Jarzabkowski & Spee 
(2009) posit that “practices are a complex bundle” in that it becomes inconspicuous and un-
noticeable to practitioners (p. 82). In a sense, practices are crucial as they somewhat shape 
reality but do not define it (Björkman et al., 2014; Orlikowski, 2010; Vesa, 2013). 
 
Research on practices, in a wide range, have been treated by scholars. Initially, Jarzabkowski 
& Spee (2009) discussed some of the common approaches to practices, identifying themes such 
as discursive practices, which examines the forms of talks of strategists as practices (e.g. Rou-
leau 2005; Jarzabkowski and Sillince 2007; Sillince and Mueller 2007; Balogun and Johnson 
2004, 2005; Laine and Vaara 2007; Samra-Fredericks 2003, 2005; Vaara et al. 2004), and epi-
sodic practices, which studies the modes of strategy work such as workshops and meeting as 
practices (e.g. Hodgkinson et al. 2006; Bourque and Johnson 2008; Jarzabkowski and Seidl 
2008).  
 
Vaara and Whittington (2012) recently reviewed research on practices extensively in SAP un-
covering four themes (See table 2). They include:  
i) Practice of strategic planning: The stream of studies under this theme reveals the 
influence of the practices of strategic planning in enabling flexible and complex 
praxis. For instance, Jarzabkowski’s (2003) work reveals organisational cohesion 
41 
whilst Hendry, Kiel, and Nicholson (2010) study highlights complexities in strate-
gic planning (Vaara & Whittington, 2012). 
ii) Analytical practices: Works under this theme study the use of strategy tools and its 
influence on strategy work (e.g. Kaplan, 2011; Heracleous & Jacobs, 2008; Molloy 
& Whittington, 2005). 
iii) Socio-material practices: This theme is similar to the episodic practices discussed 
by Jarzabkowski and Spee (2009) since both streams of studies examines the”social 
nature of strategy” (Vaara & Whittington, 2012, p. 297) such as workshops and 
meeting as practices (e.g. Hodgkinson et al. 2006; Johnson, Prashantham, Floyd & 
Bourque 2010; Jarzabkowski and Seidl 2008). 
iv) Discursive practices: As already discussed above, discursive practices as a theme 
features a stream of studies such as construction (Vaara et al., 2010) and legitima-
tion (Vaara et al. 2004) of strategy, performative effects of discourse (Kornberger 
and Clegg, 2011), accounting practices (Ezzamel & Willmott 2008).  
 
Table 4. Example of practices studies (Adapted from Vaara & Whittington (2012)). 
Author Theme & theoretical 
base 
Empirical focus Findings 
Jarzabkowski (2003) Activity theory ap-
proach towards stra-
tegic planning 
Formal strategic prac-
tices 
Mediation between constituents in formal 
strategic practices can enhance organisa-
tional cohesion. 
Kaplan (2011) Analytical practices 
in discourse 
PowerPoint as discur-
sive practice 
PowerPoint is embedded in strategy dis-
course and enables ideation and negotia-
tion in a complex environment. 
Molloy & Whittington 
(2005) 
Analytical approach 
towards practices 
Strategic change prac-
tices 
Adequate skills in standardisation and 
customisation is a requisite for effective 
material and analytical practices.  
Hodgkinson et al. (2006) Socio-material ap-
proach towards prac-
tices 
Micro practices in 
strategy workshops 
Strategy workshops form a key part of 
“planned emergence processes” in strat-
egy-making. 
Johnson, Prashantham, 
Floyd & Bourque (2010) 
Socio-material ap-
proach towards prac-
tices 
Rituals of strategy 
workshops. 
The outcomes of strategy workshops are 
influenced by the role of specialists, the 
degree of dismemberment, and many 
more. 
Jarzabkowski & Seidl 
(2008) 
Socio-material ap-
proach towards prac-
tices 
Strategy meeting prac-
tices 
Activities such as voting and bracketing 
of issues in strategy meetings can lead to 
either stabilisation or destabilisation of 
strategy. 
Vaara et al. (2004) Discursive approach 
towards practices 
Strategy legitimation 
discourse 
Discursive practices in strategy formation 
either legitimate or delegitimate strategy.  
Vaara et al. (2010) Discursive approach 
towards practices 
Discursive practices in 
strategic plans 
Discursive practices (e.g., focused con-
sensus, self-authorisation) have a strong 
impact on strategic plans. 
42 
Kornberger & Clegg 
(2011) 
Discursive approach 
towards practices 
The power effects 
of strategic plans 
Strategy as text influences organisational 
redefinition and discipline. 
 
 
2.2.2.2 Praxis 
Praxis is a one of the three conceptual elements of strategizing and a central theme in SAP 
research (Kohtamäki et al., 2022; Whittington, 2006). Etymologically, praxis is a Greek word 
(Whittington, 2006) which means “doing” (Whittington, 2004, p. 62). There are variation as 
to the use of the praxis term (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009) as it is poorly understood (Seidl & 
Whittington, 2014). Praxis is related to the whole actions of humans (Reckwitz, 2002) consist-
ing of the interconnection between operation and actions (Jarzabkowski et al., 2007a; Szt-
ompka, 1991). Likewise, it is the focal point of a societal activity and human doings (Sztompka, 
1991). Praxis concerns how strategy work is conducted, or the actual activity involved in strat-
egy formation (Vaara & Whittington, 2012; Whittington, 2006). Jarzabkowski and Spee (2009) 
refer the term as a chain of activity in a particular period in accomplishing strategy. Burgelman 
et al. (2018) simply describe it as strategic activities carried out in a firm. Specifically, Whit-
tington (2006) highlights praxis as an intra-organisational activity required for strategic plan-
ning and execution. In contrast, Jarzabkowski and Spee (2009) argue that praxis goes beyond 
intra-organisational level. From the above definitions, praxis can be described as actions and/or 
activities involved in strategy-making in a firm. 
 
The praxis domain is wide, incorporating formal and informal, routine and non-routine activi-
ties in the confines of an organisation (Whittington, 2006).  Praxis and practices are interde-
pendent and mutually constitutive (Vaara & Whittington, 2012). Unlike practices which deals 
with routines, praxis focuses more on the process, however (Vaara et al., 2004; Whittington, 
2007).  Praxis shapes practices and practitioners, notwithstanding (Whittington, 2006).  
 
Praxis is increasingly studied by SAP scholars.  Kohtamäki et al. (2022) claim that praxis has 
the largest stream of studies in SAP research. Research on praxis delve deeper to uncover the 
complex nature of strategy work with focus on activities. The stream of studies on praxis have 
revealed micro-level details in broad concepts such as resources (e.g., Ambrosini, Bowman, 
and Burton-Taylor 2007), capabilities (e.g., Salvato, 2003), emergence (e.g., Regnér, 2003). 
Sensemaking (Balogun & Johnson, 2005; Stensaker & Falkenberg, 2007; Sillince & Mueller, 
43 
2007; Kaplan, 2008) is another theme that studies in praxis have treated (Vaara & Whittington, 
2012). See table 5. 
 
Table 5. Examples of praxis studies (Adapted from Vaara & Whittington (2012)). 
 
Author Theoretical base 
and theme 
Empirical focus Findings 
Ambrosini et al. 
(2007) 
Resource-based view 
towards praxis 
Managers’ and employees’ work and 
coordinating activities 
Formal and informal actions 
and interactions as well as 
physical layouts of managers 
are essential to competitive ad-
vantage.  
Salvato (2003) Capabilities approach 
towards praxis  
The recombination 
of micro-strategies 
Management can leverage on 
the set of resources and organ-
isational routines to directly in-
tervene in strategic evolution 
processes. 
Regnér (2003) Practice approach to-
wards praxis 
Strategy development in the centre and 
periphery 
Strategy making in the centre 
supports adaptation and further 
development of existing strat-
egy whereas activities in the 
periphery facilitate new strate-
gic knowledge courtesy of the 
utilisation of novel ideas gen-
erated externally. 
Balogun & Johnson 
(2005) 
Sensemaking ap-
proach towards praxis 
Change recipient 
sensemaking 
Strategic change implementa-
tion demands constant deliber-
ation amongst middle manag-
ers. 
Stensaker & Falken-
berg (2007) 
Sensemaking ap-
proach towards praxis 
Responses to strategic change pro-
cesses 
The interpretations of corpo-
rate change by individuals af-
fect organisation-level inter-
pretations as well as the re-
sponses of units.  
Kaplan (2008) Sensemaking ap-
proach towards praxis 
Strategizing as framing and politics Politics is practiced by actors 
to gain strategic visibility and 
support for their frames. 
Sillince et al. 
(2011) 
Sensemaking ap-
proach towards praxis 
Shaping strategy 
through rhetoric 
Emergent strategic action is 
shaped by actors’ construction 
and exploitation of ambiguity 
to protect, appeal and adopt 
common values. 
 
 
 
2.2.2.3 Practitioners 
’Practitioners’ is another central concept in SAP research and a crucial element in strategy-
making. Practitioners are the people who make, shape and execute strategies (Whittington, 
44 
2006). Vaara and Whittington (2012) assert that practitioners are the people who are involved 
in strategizing or seek to influence it. Somewhat similarly, Burgelman et al. (2018) describe 
practitioners as a variety of actors involved in the episodes of strategy work. 
 
Fundamentally, practitioners conduct strategy praxis (Whittington, 2006) and are intercon-
nected with both praxis and practices (Jarzabkowski et al., 2007a). This is nicely explained by 
Jarzabkowski et al. (2007a):  
 
“[practitioners] shape strategic activity through who they are, how they 
act and what practices they draw upon in that action.” (p. 10) 
 
In this phenomenon, practitioners are simply humans, people (Whittington, 2006), individuals 
(Jarzabkowski et al., 2007a; Vaara & Whittington, 2012), or strategists (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 
2009; Whittington, 2006) – who are ‘constituents’ of the work of strategy. They include actors 
who are involved directly in the strategy work (e.g. senior executives, middle managers, stra-
tegic planners, middle managers, consultants) and others who indirectly influence the strategy 
(e.g. advisers, the media, policymakers, and many more). In essence, without practitioners it is 
impossible to conduct or have a strategy (Piipponen, 2018). 
 
Based on the unit of analysis and location of strategy practitioners, SAP literature has classified 
practitioners into two set of divisions (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009). They include i) individual 
vs aggregate actor; and ii) internal vs external actor. In the first set, some studies give promi-
nence to an individual such as Håkan the CEO or Minna the CFO whilst other studies classify 
practitioners as aggregate actors or group of actors such as shareholders, top managers, or mid-
dle managers (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009). The second set identify strategy practitioners rel-
ative to organisational periphery. For instance, an internal practitioner is the one who is allo-
cated within the organisation (e.g. CEO, managing director, project manager, or middle man-
ager) whereas an external practitioner is the one who could influence the strategy of an organ-
isation but not located within that organisation (e.g. consultants, media, or institutional actors) 
(Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009). 
 
Traditionally, mainstream research on strategy has concentrated on top management (Vaara & 
Whittington, 2012). SAP research has widened the scope to include other practitioners such 
as strategic planners (Angwin, Paroutis, & Mitson, 2009; Whittington, Basak-Yakis, & 
45 
Cailluet, 2011) and middle managers (Mantere, 2005, 2008; Suominen & Mantere, 2010; 
Rouleau, 2005) (Vaara & Whittington, 2012). Table 6 displays the findings of the aforemen-
tioned scholars.  Additionally, through discursive practices, SAP research has revealed the 
roles and identities of actors (Vaara & Whittington, 2012).  For instance, some scholars have 
demonstrated how managers utilise discourse to exercise their power (Laine & Vaara, 2007) 
whereas others such as McCabe (2010) have highlighted the exercise of power through strat-
egy discourse (Vaara & Whittington, 2012). 
 
Table 6. Examples of practitioner studies (Adapted from Vaara & Whittington (2012)). 
Author Theoretical base 
and theme 
Empirical focus Findings 
Mantere (2005) Structuration theory to-
wards practitioners 
Strategy “champions” and 
participation 
Structured strategy practices dispels 
creativity due to its rigid process to 
allow wider participation. 
Angwin et al. 
(2009) 
General practice theory to-
wards practitioners 
Senior strategy directors’ 
role 
The role of senior strategy directors 
in strategy formation and imple-
mentation is “interconnected” 
Whittington 
et al. (2011) 
Sociological lens on the 
profession of practitioners 
The historical development 
of the strategy profession 
Strategic planning as a profession is 
structurally cumbersome but de-
mands endurance. 
Mantere (2008) Structuration theory to-
wards practitioners 
Involvement of middle  
managers as strategists 
Middle managers’ inclusion in 
strategizing is possible only when 
executive management trust them 
and are willing to provide the nec-
essary resources. 
Suominen and 
Mantere (2010) 
Practice theory towards 
practitioners 
Middle managers 
in strategizing 
Middle managers consume strate-
gies “instrumentally, playfully and 
intimately”. 
Rouleau and Balogun 
(2011) 
Sensemaking approach to-
wards practitioners 
Middle managers 
in strategic change 
The ability to perform fruitful con-
versations and to set the socio-polit-
ical “scene” constitute competences 
in strategy discourse. 
 
 
As earlier mentioned in section 2.2.2.1, the empirical part adopts the concept of strategy prac-
tices. Therefore, the focus of this study is on practices i.e. the technologies, methods, norms, 
strategy planning, frameworks, mental and bodily activities, knowledge (Jarzabkowski et al., 
2007a; Reckwitz, 2002). However, due to its interrelation with praxis and practitiners, some 
aspects of the two will be incorporated in the studies.  
 
46 
2.2.3 HRM-as-practice 
As employer branding is partly linked to human resource management (HRM) literature, it is 
imperative to discuss the connection between HRM literature and strategic management liter-
ature. The last two decades have witnessed streams of research in human resource management 
that has concentrated on HRM practices and organisational performance as well as the strategic 
management of humans (Björkman et al., 2014). This stream of work has broadened the un-
derstanding of different effects of performance in HRM (Huselid, 1995; Becker and Huselid, 
1998; Boselie et al., 2005; Combs et al., 2006). Parallel to that is another stream of HRM re-
search that has focused on the different roles of HR function. This series of studies have un-
ravelled the “HR function as an organizational actor” (e.g., Caldwell, 2003; Storey, 1992; 
Ulrich, 1997; Welch and Welch, 2012), the enactment of HR roles, the contextual influences of 
HR, and the role of HR function in dealing with demands of stakeholders (Björkman, Ehrnrooth, 
Mäkelä, Smale and Sumelis, 2014, p. 123). 
 
Although these two research streams have contributed tremendously to the HRM field, they 
are seemingly disconnected from each other. Hence, Björkman et. al (2014) developed “HRM-
as-practice” – imitating the SAP in the field of strategic management – as a research agenda 
to enhance the human resource management-performance literature with an actor-centric ap-
proach and focus on activities that will shift the paradigm regarding the roles in human resource 
(HR) research, providing an effective theoretical perspective in studying the practice of human 
resource management (HRM). According to Björkman et al. (2014), HRM-as-practice provides 
a comprehensive approach that shifts the research in HRM practices or HR function to incor-
porate the building blocks of SAP (i.e., practitioners, practices, and praxis). The authors suggest 
this will shift “HRM practices” to the “practice of HRM” (p.123).    
 
 Björkman et al. (2014) translates the conceptual framework from SAP studies by (Jarzabkow-
ski et al., 2007a) – consisting of practices, practitioners, and praxis – to the context of HRM. 
The authors’ notion of ‘practices’ captures the combination and adaptation of resources on var-
ious levels (micro, meso and macro) such as analytical frameworks, tools, norms, processes, 
technologies, and concepts in HRM construction. Björkman et al. (2014) refer practitioners as 
knowledgeable and skilful individuals or aggregate actors who perform practices and praxis 
within and outside an organisation. For praxis, the authors note that it is the activities of people 
involved in the work of HRM (Björkman et al., 2014).  
47 
 
Per Björkman et al. (2014), the most common research in HRM is at the practice level focusing 
on high performance work systems (HPWS). It has been contended that this stream of research 
has concentrated on intentions rather than actual doings, however.  Nevertheless, subsequent 
HRM studies have gone beyond to tap into “implementation” and “internalization” (Björkman 
et al., 2014, p. 126). Similar to this is HRM process theory which draws on broader perspectives 
of practices and goes beyond to feature praxis and practitioners (Björkman et al., 2014). It 
could be concluded that HRM literature is yet to treat other elements in the concept of practices 
such as cognitive, material, physical and discursive practices (Björkman et al., 2014). Hence, 
this thesis will contribute to the HRM literature as it focuses on practices to include what has 
been missing (e.g., cognitive, material, physical and discursive practices) 
 
Regarding practitioners, the HRM international literature and the HRM-performance literature 
have paid insufficient attention. Closely linked is the HR role literature but it has also been 
silent on individuals and how they enact their roles (Björkman et al., 2014). Studies on actors 
outside the HR department has also received less attention. This brings to the conclusion that 
definition of practitioners in HRM literature is narrower compared to the SAP literature defi-
nition which includes people with direct (e.g. managers, employees, consultants) and indirect 
(e.g. media, gurus, policy-makers, business schools) influence on strategy work (Björkman et 
al., 2014; Jarzabkowski et al., 2007a).   
 
Although the HRM field has a compilation of works in macro, meso and micro levels, the 
concept of praxis – to some extent – is absent. More so, praxis related questions – compared to 
practices – have not be given much attention (Björkman et al., 2014).  
 
As a result, Björkman et al. (2014) suggest HRM-as-practice as a new lens in HRM studies. 
Furthermore, the authors advocate the intersection between the three related concepts (practices, 
practitioners and praxis) as a research agenda for future research. They propose the following: 
i) Practitioners and practices: Practitioners and practices as an intersection refers to 
HR professionals’ everyday practices through which they engage and do their work. 
In this section, the authors suggest investigating three key areas to include ‘time 
(i.e., on which activities individual HR practitioners spend their time)’, ‘assigned 
importance (i.e., which people, resources and activities HR actors prioritize in their 
48 
everyday work)’, and ‘conduits’ (i.e., through which means, and methods HR actors 
seek to exert influence) (Björkman et al., 2014, p. 130). 
ii) Practitioners and praxis: This category primarily concerns the relevant HRM people 
in a particular setting and their interactions with one another in influencing the do-
ings of HRM work in organizations. Björkman et al. (2014) propose that the exam-
ining of discursive narrative through this intersection can increase the understand-
ing of the influence of discourse construction and collective identities in the devel-
opment of HRM macro-praxis (Björkman et al., 2014). In addition, investigating 
narratives can enhance understanding of who HRM practitioners are, their roles, 
what they do, and who they regard as a legitimate practitioner (Björkman et al., 
2014; Fenton and Langley, 2011; Mantere, 2005).  
iii) Practices and praxis: This intersection relates to the interconnection between meth-
ods, tools, and discourses that HR people use in executing their daily tasks and the 
influence of these at different levels in HRM work (Björkman et al., 2014). Here, 
the agenda highlights the inclusion of discursive (e.g., the use of discourses in HRM 
work), cognitive (e.g., logic and reasoning of practitioners in HRM work), material 
and spatial practices (e.g., influence of location of HR department and staff in the 
patterns of HRM work) that influence the work of HRM praxis at micro, meso, and 
macro-levels. It is worth noting that this intersection is a potential for the empirical 
part of this thesis. 
 
Figure 13 presents the framework for HRM-as-practice including the suggested intersections 
of study by Björkman et al. (2014). 
 
49 
 
Figure 13. HRM as Practice framework. (Adapted from Björkman et al. (2014)). 
 
2.3 Synthesis: A model for studying employer branding practices. 
After treating the two main literature – employer branding and strategy-as-practice – relevant 
for this study in the previous sections, this part combines both research areas. Ultimately, this 
section introduces a framework that seeks to answer the main research question, which is, what 
are the practices involved in the formation of an employer branding strategy in a multinational 
technology company? 
 
The literature section began with exploring the background and definition of employer brand-
ing. It is established that the roots of employer branding arose from the marketing discipline, 
and it involves the combination of marketing principles and HR activities. This thesis defined 
employer branding as a (sub) strategy extracted from an organisation's strategy that communi-
cates the employment offering and unique characteristics of the firm in order to motivate and 
retain current employees, attract prospective recruits, and establish a positive image in the em-
ployment market. Subsequently, the characteristics, benefits and challenges of employer brand-
ing were treated. Afterwards, few employer branding strategy models were discussed and com-
pared. Here, particular attention was given to the processes. Although all the featured models 
had slight differences, EVP is a central element in all. Consequently, Universum’s five-step 
process model was selected. Researching (internally and externally) the current employer im-
age to measure the attractiveness of the employer to different target groups, is the first step. 
50 
Next is the formulation of EVP which stresses the unique employment offering and firm char-
acteristics. The third and fourth phase is the creation of a communication strategy and commu-
nication materials. The final step is the implementation of the strategy to promote the EVP and 
its accompanying attributes, as well as evaluation and monitoring of the entire process 
(Heilmann et al., 2013; Nguyen, 2019; Parment & Dyhre 2009; Van Mossevelde 2010). 
 
The second part of the literature discussed strategy-as-practice (SAP). This literature is relevant 
for the employer branding process as it enhances the understanding of organisational actions 
and societal practices (Vaara & Whittington, 2012: Nini, 2016, p.5). Hence, SAP serves as a 
good lens to examine the micro-level activities in the employer branding process from a prac-
tical approach. Section 2.2.1 discussed the background and linkages of SAP.  In summary, SAP 
is seen to draw from both practice perspective of sociological theories and conventional strat-
egy (process) theory (Jarzabkowski, 2019; Golsorkhi et al, 2015; Vaara and Whittington, 2012). 
Section 2.2.2 described the three interrelated elements of strategizing – practices, praxis and 
practitioners. Each of the element was discussed separately. However, ‘practices’ was selected 
as the centre of focus in this work. The definition of practices – “[…] involve the various rou-
tines, discourses, concepts and technologies through which this strategy labour is made possi-
ble […]” – by Jarzabkowski and Whittington (2008, p. 101) was chosen for the purpose of this 
study as it goes beyond concrete tools to incorporate analytical and social practices. 
 
To combine employer branding process with SAP theory perspective, the process model by 
Universum is adapted and incorporated with ‘practices’. In this study, ‘practices’ is divided into 
two main categories: discourse (sayings in discursive practices) and doings (tools or technolo-
gies, routines, and praxis). Discourse in discursive practices involves sayings that occur when 
the process is described by different people. Hence, discourse in this instance will be of assis-
tance to revealing how each step of the process is described by respondents in the empirical 
setting. The ‘doings’ comprises of the various mechanisms that makes the strategy work happen. 
Elements in the doings category comprise of tools/technologies, routines, and praxis (Koh-
tamäki et. al, 2021). Tools/technologies in this category refers to concepts, technologies, and 
devices used in the process; routines involves the meetings, strategy workshops, community 
calls and many more; and praxis are the actions that takes place in the practice of executing 
strategy.  
The two main categories of ‘practice’ together with Universum’s employer branding process 
framework creates a model that will be used in examining the practices involved in the 
51 
formation of an employer branding strategy (model) in a multinational technology company. 
Indeed, the combination of employer branding strategy with SAP theory is new. Therefore, this 
thesis contributes to both research areas. It also extends to contribute to HRM-as-practice. 
 
 
Figure 14. Framework to study and analyse the practices of employer branding strategy. 
 
52 
3 METHODOLOGY 
The previous chapter reviewed relevant literature to give an understanding to the subject mat-
ter as well as assist in the formulation of the right questions to be used in this chapter. This 
chapter presents the choices employed with regards to the methods in this study. It explains 
the philosophical assumptions, research strategy and method. Subsequently, the case, data 
collection, and analysis are presented. This helps in the validity and reliability of the study 
explained at the end of the chapter. 
 
3.1 Philosophical assumptions 
Development of knowledge in a particular field comes with some belief systems and assump-
tions (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2019). Consciously or unconsciously, a researcher makes 
some number of assumptions at every stage in research, hence, it must be tackled carefully to 
help design a well-organized research project (Burrell and Morgan 2016; Saunders et al., 
2019). These assumptions include ontological assumptions, the encountered realities which 
affects the researcher’s approach in research; and epistemological assumptions, concerns hu-
man knowledge i.e., acceptable knowledge (Saunders et al., 2016) and its dissemination to 
others (Burrell & Morgan 2016; Saunders et al., 2019). These assumptions affect the method-
ological choices and interpretations of findings (Crotty 1998; Saunders et al., 2019). Never-
theless, a credible research philosophy can be attained through consistency of assumptions, 
underpinning the entire methodological parts together (Saunders et al., 2016; Saunders et al., 
2019).  
 
Ontological, and epistemological assumptions fall between opposing extremes namely objec-
tivism and subjectivism. Based on the purpose of this study, subjectivism in ontology and 
epistemology are adopted (see figure 15 below). This is because this study employs different 
narratives of different actors that inform different social realities. In this phenomenon, there is 
no universal facts. Subjectivism embraces the notion that the social nature of reality is based 
on perceptions and experiences of different social actors – constant to change which is rela-
tive to time and context (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2016; Saunders et al., 2019). On top of that, 
subjectivism acknowledges that the values of the researcher cannot be detached from the data 
analysis, hence, reflecting on the values of the researcher is imperative (Saunders et al., 
2019).  
53 
 
Figure 15. Extremes in research assumptions (Adapted from Saunders et al. (2019)). 
 
On a broader scope, the research philosophy of this work is interpretivism since the findings 
of this thesis are interpreted by the author alongside the different interpretations of employer 
branding strategy practices by interviewees. Interpretivism primarily concerns how people 
make sense of the social world with the aim of enriching “the understandings and interpreta-
tions of social worlds and contexts” (Saunders et al., 2019, p. 149). Indeed, interpretivism is 
tightly knitted to the subjectivist paradigm of ontology and epistemology (Chowdhury, 2014; 
Saunders et al., 2019). 
 
Deduction, induction, and abduction are three types of approaches to theory development. 
The deductive approach develops a theoretical framework, and a research strategy is designed 
to test it; the inductive approach uses empirical data to build theory or a conceptual frame-
work; and the abductive approach is an iterative process which combines the deductive and 
inductive approaches – i.e., abduction alternates between induction and deduction (Saunders 
et al., 2019).  Saunders et al (2019) explained abduction as:  
 
“[…] collecting data to explore a phenomenon, identify themes and explain pat-
terns, to generate a new or modify an existing theory which you subsequently 
test through additional data collection […]” 
 
54 
Eriksson and Kovalainen (2016) maintain that abduction explains and give meaning to a phe-
nomenon through concepts and categories. This study adopts the abductive approach because 
the collected data is used to identify themes and patterns by using a framework generated 
from existing literature. Although theory is built from the beginning, the theory is further en-
hanced in the empirical setting which in turn offer suggestions for further research. 
 
3.2 Research strategy & method 
Case study as a research strategy is often used in social sciences (e.g., business, anthropology, 
education, nursing and many more) and across other disciplines to conduct an in-depth inves-
tigation of a contemporary event without manipulating relevant behaviours (Yin 2014: 2019).  
Yin (2009) maintains that case studies contribute to the better understanding of complex so-
cial phenomena such as a group, an organisation, an individual and the like – which allows 
for retaining a holistic and real-life perspective in an investigation. Yin (2014) further argues 
that possibility to deal with variety of evidence such as artifacts, documents, interviews, and 
observations is a unique strength of a case study research. Since this study examines the 
model for employer branding practices in a multinational technology company, case study is 
an appropriate strategy to use as it employs a systematic data gathering approach. 
 
The approach to case study research can either be single or multiple. The difference lies in the 
number of cases employed in a particular research.  Multiple case study – herein comparative 
case study – approach differs from the conventional single case study in that it investigates 
multiple phenomena within a common conceptual framework (Agranoff & Radin 1991). In 
this work, the comparative case study approach (see Agranoff & Radin, 1991) is adopted. 
This is because the practice of a primary case is analysed comparatively with secondary cases 
in this thesis purposely to identify gaps, common and unique patterns. Indeed, comparative 
case study stems from the multiple-case research design by Yin (1984) which follows a repli-
cation logic (Agranoff & Radin, 1991: p. 204). The advantage of employing this approach is 
that it is rigorous and identifies “important variables that emanate from multiple settings” 
(Agranoff & Radin, 1991: p. 205). The downside, however, is the time constraint in generat-
ing relevant cases for the investigation (Yin 2009). Nevertheless, this is the best alternative 
for this study as it allows for drawing the ideal model in the formation of an employer brand-
ing strategy. Moreover, this will enhance the practices of the primary case (company) since 
the study reveals the best practices.  
55 
 
Generally, research falls under three main categories – descriptive, explanatory, and explora-
tory. This also applies to case study research. Case study research is categorised to include: i) 
descriptive case studies, ii) explanatory case studies and iii) exploratory case studies (Yin 
2014, p. 8).  Per the purpose of this study and the research question at hand – What are the 
practices involved in the formation of an employer branding strategy in a multinational tech-
nology company? – the nature of this research is designed to fulfil an exploratory case study. 
Overall, exploratory research is useful in understanding an uncertain nature of a phenomenon. 
Moreover, it is emergent and can be focused broadly in the beginning and then narrowed as 
the investigation progresses (Saunders et al., 2019). 
 
To be able to accomplish the purpose of this study, selecting the right method of data collection 
and analysis is crucial. Ordinarily, there are two main methods of data collection and analysis 
– qualitative and quantitative. Eriksson and Kovalainen (2016) contend that it is hard to indi-
vidually define the two methods but easier to compare them. Saunders et al. (2019) assert that 
numeric data and non-numeric data differentiate quantitative research method from qualitative 
research method. Technically, quantitative method generates and uses numerical data (numbers) 
whereas qualitative method generates and uses non-numerical data (audio recording, words, 
videos, and many more).  
 
Considering the research question, philosophical assumptions, and the research strategy, the 
qualitative method – as a way of collecting and analysing data – is suitable for this study. The 
qualitative approach is interactive and naturalistic (Saunders et al. 2019). Data generated 
through qualitative research is categorised as either primary data or secondary data. Primary 
data are empirical data or first-hand information collected by the researcher through interviews, 
observations, or in some other way. On the other hand, secondary data are already existing 
empirical data such as memos, diaries, video recordings and many more (Eriksson & Ko-
valainen, 2016). In this study, primary data are generated through participant observation and 
semi-structured interviews. With participant observation, the researcher becomes a member of 
a social world by observing and participating in the activities of those to be observed (Saunders 
et al. 2019). Participant observation was selected as the best way to gather primary data from 
the primary case company since “it records action as it takes place” (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 
2016, p.100). More specifically, the researcher participated in the formulation of the EVP and 
employer branding strategy process of the primary case company in order to adequately 
56 
compare the practices to the other selected cases. Saunders et al. (2019) argues that the “high 
level of immersion” of the researcher in the research setting creates an atmosphere of under-
standing informants’ perceptions and interactions better (p. 390). Furthermore, the researcher 
sees beyond what people say to include what they actually do which in turn gives access to 
data that are hardly possible in other methods (Yin, 2014: Thompson, 2016). Semi-structured 
interviews are used to gather empirical data from the secondary case companies. Saunders et 
al. (2019) propound that semi-structured interviews are ideal for exploratory research. The 
flexibility in semi-structured interviews allow for further probe to give meaning and under-
standing (Saunders et al., 2019). Moreover, company blogs, presentation slides, and published 
reports served as secondary data to enhance the study.  
 
 
3.3 Case selection 
As earlier mentioned, this thesis explores the formation of employer branding strategy in a 
multinational technology company in comparison to four other cases – two multinational tech-
nology companies and two employer branding consulting firms. The other two multinational 
technology companies were selected based on the industry they operate in and their employer 
branding performance (latest employer branding rankings). Furthermore, the two employer 
branding consulting firms were also selected to add a consultative perspective to the study. 
These consulting firms work with clients to include multinational companies who operate in 
the technology industry. For the purposes of confidentiality, the cases are named as follows: 
Multinational Technology Company 1 (primary case company), Multinational Technology 
Company 2, Multinational Technology Company 3, Consulting Firm 1, and Consulting Firm 2.  
 
3.4 Data collection and analysis process 
Data collection 
This research uses a multiple qualitative data collection technique. Also called the multi-
method qualitative study, this design uses more than one qualitative technique in collecting 
data (Saunders et al. 2019). As earlier mentioned in section 3.2, primary data were generated 
from participant observation and semi-structured interviews.    
 
57 
At the primary case company, there was a participant observation. An EVP and employer 
branding strategy meetings served as a source of generating empirical data in analysing the 
formation of employer branding strategy. Six EVP workshops were observed online between 
April 28 to July 1 consisting of a core team made up of 18 participants from HR, Talent Acqui-
sition, Corporate Communications, Marketing, and Brand Management – including the Project 
Manager and the participant observer. Each workshop lasted an hour. Furthermore, a two-hour 
duration employer branding strategy (focused on students in Finland) formulation meeting was 
observed online. An additional online interview was conducted with the project manager (par-
ticipant 1) and an employer branding specialist (participant 9). Furthermore, a clarifying inter-
view was held with one of the Vice Presidents of strategy. The response from the vice president 
is coded as VPS. All the meetings were conducted in English, video recorded, and transcribed. 
To clarify, the researcher did not actively intervene in the strategizing process as a participant 
observer. Additionally, access to three EVP and employer branding presentations (totalling 92 
slides) from the meetings were used as a secondary data. The table below presents the details 
of the participant observation and the additional interview. 
 
Table 7. Details of workshops. 
Meeting Date  Duration 
Workshop 1 28.4.2022 60 minutes 
Workshop 2 5.5.2022 60 minutes 
Workshop 3 12.5.2022 60 minutes 
Workshop 4 19.5.2022 56 minutes 
Workshop 5 25.5.2022 60 minutes 
Employer branding strat-
egy formulation meeting 
27.6.2022 90 minutes 
Workshop 6 1.07.2022 47 minutes 
 
Table 8. Participants list. 
Participant Position 
1 Project manager 
2 Senior Business HR partner (US) 
3 HR Manager (US division) 
4 HR Business partner (MP, US) 
5 HR Manager (UK division) 
6 Talent Acquisition Specialist (UK) 
7 Senior HR Advisor (China) 
8 Head of Local HR (Finland) 
9 Employer Branding Specialist (Finland) 
10 HR Advisor (Norway) 
11 Talent Acquisition Team Lead (Europe) 
12 People Development Expert 
13 Senior Manager, Corporate Communication 
58 
14 Marketing Manager 
15 Brand Management Trainee  
16 Internal Communication Lead 
17 Global Lead of Talent Acquisition Services 
18 Participant observer 
 
 
Regarding the secondary cases, a semi-structured interview was employed in generating pri-
mary data. A total of six interviews were conducted over a period of three months. At Consult-
ing Firm 1 and Multinational Technology Company 2, two separate interviews were arranged. 
At Consulting Firm 2 and Multinational Technology Company 3, one interview was arranged 
for each. In the case of Multinational Technology Company 3, there was a group interview. The 
informants representing the respective cases have worked with as well as have in-depth 
knowledge in EVP and employer branding strategizing. All the interviews were conducted in 
English and online via Microsoft Teams. The duration of all the interviews ranges between 31 
minutes and 67 minutes. 
Cameras were put on during the interview to allow the observation of interviewees’ body lan-
guage and facial expressions – enhancing the understanding of the expression of informants. 
The interviews were recorded, and transcripts downloaded. Overall, access to the selected case 
companies provided rich data for the analysis process. Hence, all the selected cases represent 
valuable in-depth case study investigation (Kohtanmäki, Einola & Robetino, 2020; Patton, 
2015). The table below presents the details of the interviews. 
 
Table 9. Details of interviews. 
 
Case Company Interview 
date 
Inter-
viewee(s) 
Position(s) Interview 
duration 
Consulting Firm 1 21.7.2022 1 Employer Brand Consultant 63 minutes 
Multinational Technology Com-
pany 2 
22.7.2022 2 Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist 55 minutes 
Consulting Firm 1 28.7.2022 3 Digital Communication Project 
Manager 
52 minutes 
Consulting Firm 2 14.8.2022 4 COO and Employer Branding Strat-
egist 
61 minutes 
Multinational Technology Com-
pany 3 
18.8.2022 5, 6, 7 HR Communications Manager, 
Brand and Marketing Vice Presi-
dent, Global Resourcing and Devel-
opment Manager 
67 minutes 
Additional interview with Multi-
national Technology Company 1 
24.8.2022 Participant 1 
and Partici-
pant 9 
Project Manager, Employer brand-
ing specialist 
60 minutes 
Multinational Technology Com-
pany 2 
14.9.2022 2, 8 Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist, 
Global Talent Acquisition Manager 
29 minutes 
59 
Additional interview with Multi-
national Technology Company 1 
19.09.2022 VPS Vice President, Strategy 29 minutes 
 
    
Data analysis 
In a research design involving multiple cases, data are analysed in two phases namely within-
case analysis and cross-case analysis (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2016). Initially, each individual 
case is analysed separately using the within-case analysis approach. This permits the familiar-
isation of each individual case as well as provides detailed analysis for all the cases which in 
turn makes it easier to identify and link empirical patterns to form a holistic perspective (Eriks-
son & Kovalainen, 2016: Stake, 1995). 
 
In this study, within-case analysis of the five cases are conducted by rewatching recorded vid-
eos of the observation and interviews as well as reading through transcripts. Subsequently, the 
relevant information from informants are summarised and supported with in-text quotes. It is 
imperative to note that sensitive data is not reported for the purposes of confidentiality. More-
over, the actual names of the companies and respondents are replaced with coded names to 
guarantee anonymity of both the case companies and informants (Kohtamäki et. al, 2020). Af-
terwards, the highlighted information are used to fill the relevant boxes in the analysis frame-
work for each individual case consisting of a five-step (Universum’s) employer branding pro-
cess model incorporated with four categories of ‘practices’ (refer to Figure 12). Even though 
the analysis framework interpretated the data effectively, a data structure was used as a tool to 
present identified outcomes and enhance the connection between data and findings (Kohtamäki 
et. al, 2020: Nag, Corley & Gioia, 2007). In the data structure, the first-order categories stem 
from the data, the second-order themes are formed based on interpretation to help describe the 
concepts, and the third-order categories are created from the “aggregate dimensions” of the 
second-order category (Nag, Corley & Gioia, 2007, p.20). A table of synthesis comprising of 
direct quotes from the individual cases is presented to back up the data structure. This serves 
as further evidence to conclude the within-case analysis section. The figure below displays the 
data structure. 
 
 
60 
 
 
Figure 16. Data structure. 
 
The next phase, cross-cases analysis, follows. In this phase, the analysis draws comparison of 
the cases to identify differences and similarities (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2016). The cross-
cases analysis – stemming from the within-case analysis – reveals the gaps as well as similar 
practices in the formation of employer branding strategy in the primary case relative to the 
secondary cases. The relevant patterns are presented in the analysis framework.  
 
3.5 Validity and reliability 
Validity and reliability are credibility theories that are used to determine the quality of a re-
search.  Validity is concerned with the ability to measure what the research has intended as 
well as the accuracy of data collection and analysis (Saunders et al., 2019).  Reliability, on the 
other hand, concerns consistency. In a sense, reliability measures the repeatability of a re-
search. In this way, same methodology should be able to generate similar results when used 
by a different researcher.  
61 
 
Thompson (2016) contends that the likelihood of repeatability in participant observation is 
low because observation is often dependent on researcher’s characteristics and personal 
skills. Similarly, Saunders et al. (2016) argues that repeatability is less achievable in the long-
term with regards to semi-structured interviews given that data is collected over a particular 
period of time and is prone to change. However, the degree of validity in both participant ob-
servation and semi-structured interviews are high (Saunders et al., 2016: Thompson, 2016). 
 
Nonetheless, the recorded (video) interviews and transcripts generated as data in both partici-
pant observation and semi-structured interviews and the overall description of the research 
methods increase the degree of reliability of this study as they serve as the means of interpre-
tation.  To corroborate the validity of this study, interpretations of the data were sent to the in-
formants for validation purposes. Furthermore, building a data structure is a key component 
of establishing the precision of this qualitative research (Nag, Corley & Gioia, 2007). In addi-
tion, due to the number of cases employed in this study, it could be stated that the findings of 
this study can be externally generalizable (Saunders et al. 2016, p. 205–207) for the for-
mation of employer branding strategy in a multinational technology company.  
 
  
62 
4 FINDINGS 
Findings of the empirical setting is presented in this section. Detailed analysis is conducted for 
each individual case using the within-case analysis approach. Afterwards, all the cases are an-
alysed using cross-cases analysis to reveal the gaps as well as the similar practices in the for-
mation employer branding strategy in the primary case relative to the secondary cases.  
 
 
4.1 Within-case description and analysis 
In this section, the individual case is briefly introduced. Subsequently, the case is analysed 
following analysis framework. Each of the five steps of Universum’s employer branding 
strategy process (Research, EVP Development, Communication Strategy, Communication 
Material, and Action) is discussed relative to each of the four categories of practice (Sayings, 
Tools, Routines, and Praxis). Afterwards, the finding of the respective case is presented in the 
analysis framework at the end of the within-case analysis. This is done in a similar manner 
for all the cases. At the end, a table of synthesis is presented to illustrate the practices and in-
terview passages related to each individual case. 
 
4.1.1 Multinational Technology Company 1 
Multinational Technology Company 1, established in the third decade of the 19th century, op-
erates in the marine and energy markets in over 70 countries. Currently, the organisation’s 
employer image has dwindled in the last two years based on the employer branding ranking 
in its home country. 
 
Research 
Multinational Technology Company 1 conducted desktop research to renew its organisational 
strategy. What arose as a discursive practice in this stage was the thoughts of creating a cor-
porate story by senior management that flows through to employees. VPS highlighted that the 
corporate value was created to “really relate to every employee” and be a guiding principle to 
shape the behaviours. 
 
The tools and routines in this phase are tightly interlinked. A strategic framework was used as 
a tool to analyse benchmarked companies. Communication tools were also used to facilitate 
63 
internal communication. The general routine at this stage was benchmarking and testing. VPS 
explained that senior management took a “top-down approach” to “benchmark a set of com-
panies”. Afterwards, values or narratives were created and later the resonance of the values 
were tested across the communication and marketing as well as HR communities. It could be 
realised that communication and collaboration were central at this stage. 
 
The praxis in this phase is conducting desktop research to analyse a set of benchmarked com-
panies and cascading it to corporate values and employee engagement. Afterwards, the Multi-
national Technology Company 1 ‘Narrative’ was created from the organisational strategy. The 
general narrative became a tool for corporate communication. The observation revealed that 
job profiles of talent groups are yet to be tackled. 
 
Employee Value Proposition 
Whilst observing the creation of the EVP, Participant 1 highlighted that the absence of EVP 
in Multinational Technology Company 1 has created a lack of focus and inconsistent messag-
ing with employer branding and its activities. Therefore, the creation of the EVP will serve as 
a foundation to own a narrative and “be able control it” (Participant 1).   
 
In this stage, Multinational Technology Company 1’s ‘Narrative’ was used on a case-by-case 
basis for brainstorming session when constructing the EVP.  Secondly, Participant 1 empha-
sised that the “knowledge of data, research, and expertise [of the team] into the workshops 
and the co-creation process” was crucial. Hence, this can be considered an essential tool. 
Copywriting tools such as a Microsoft PowerPoint and Word are used for the co-crafting of 
the EVP. In addition, communication platforms and tools such as Microsoft Outlook and Mi-
crosoft Teams were used as a means of communication and collaboration.  The routine of the 
EVP development stage consists of five consecutive weekly meetings following a formal pro-
cess to create, benchmark and tailor the EVP. This process also included reflection sessions to 
consolidate the efforts of the team as well as discuss the way forward after a final version of 
the EVP was sent to the executive board. 
 
The praxes identified in this stage are team formation and co-crafting. As mentioned in sec-
tion 3.2 a core team was formed for the development of the EVP project. The team consist of 
18 participants from HR, Talent Acquisition, Corporate Communications, Marketing, and 
Brand Management functions coming from different levels within the company’s hierarchy. 
64 
With diverse background, the team brought different perspectives in the dialogical and co-
creation process. It could be drawn that the right team selection is central in an EVP develop-
ment process. Afterwards, the team came together to develop the EVP. This is known as co-
crafting. From the observation, the core team was sub-divided into smaller teams to work on 
designated assignments related to the EVP. Part of the sub-division was the copywriting 
group who synthesised the common elements by the various group to create a masterpiece. 
Alternately, the preliminary draft was reflected upon, and a lot of concerns were raised by 
different participants. For instance, Participant 9 raised concerns about ‘diversity and inclu-
sion’ as being “more of a concept than an action”; Participant 6 proposed the interlinkage of 
“wellbeing, psychological, safety” in a single pillar; and Participant 9 questioned the effect of 
the “global collaboration” stated in the EVP pillars. In addition, Participant 1 hinted that the 
copywriting team “crossed checked” the draft with the latest internal employee survey (exec-
utive summary results) to ascertain resonance. Subsequently, the draft was finalised and pre-
sented to the Board of Management for approval – to which they approved. 
 
Communication Strategy 
When discussing about the creation of a communication strategy for the employer brand, it 
became apparent that Multinational Technology Company 1 “don't have […] a separate 
strategy as such” for communicating the employer brand. However, the intention was to inte-
grate it with corporate communications. The reason behind this thought according to Partici-
pant 1 is that the corporate communication strategy was carved out of the organisation’s ‘nar-
rative’. Therefore, having a separate communication strategy for the employer brand was not 
necessary. 
 
In spite of that, after the EVP was developed, presented and approved by the executive board, 
a general meeting was held within the core group to discuss the different tactics to use in 
communicating and promoting the EVP. The EVP was drafted in English. However, since 
other functions (e.g., field services) operate in local languages, there were concerns as to the 
translation of the EVP. Participant 2 justified her support for local language by stating that it 
“up the impact and it [will] help [employees] feel part of the company and the community” 
there by increasing “inclusion” and “engagement”. At the end, it was agreed to translate the 
EVP to various local languages to accommodate local understanding. From the above conver-
sation, it can be deduced that the need for flexibility is crucial in the communication of the 
EVP as it gives meaning to employees, enhances their understanding of the EVP and 
65 
increases their sense of belonging. In addition, using the local language in the countries of 
operation may grab the attention of externals and attract them to some extent. 
 
The core team used Microsoft Teams as a tool to converge and discuss the communication 
plans online. Per the observation, the routine and praxis in this stage are tightly knitted. They 
include brainstorming and deciding on the themes and content materials to create, as well as 
the channels to use. Regarding the content materials, the participants suggested variety of 
contents to be created to include banners (roll-ups) for career events or trade shows, people 
stories for social media publication, customised souvenirs (e.g., T-shirts, hoodies) bearing 
some elements of the EVP and many more. 
 
At the end of the observation, it was realised that the discussions about the tactics for the 
communication of the EVP was not formalised. Rather, it was later revealed that the intention 
was to integrate it with corporate communications. Participant 1 pinpointed that a separate 
communication strategy for employer branding was not required since it demands just only 
“actionizing”.    
 
Communication Material 
Whilst discussing about the creation of content materials, the ‘narrative’ – herein the EVP el-
ements – were mentioned several times. Participant 9 highlighted that the elements of the 
EVP must be reflected in all the contents to be created. There are variety of tools used in this 
stage. Often, video contents are created by external vendors and hence, their experience and 
knowledge can be considered as tools. Copywriting tools (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint) and 
graphic design tools (Canva) is used to create blogposts, posters, and other visual contents.  
 
The routines in creating communication materials vary depending on the kind of content. 
However, content creation follow three common patterns. Developing the concept of the con-
tent, creation of the content, review and approval. For instance, if a video content such as em-
ployees’ stories is to be created using an external vendor, a meeting is held in the initial stage 
to define the concept. Moreover, a separate meeting is held with the employees to be featured 
to inform them about the outlines in the content to be created. Next, the external vendor cre-
ates the video with the employees. Subsequently, the videos are edited and sent for review. 
The final version is sent to the company after approval. It could be seen that constant commu-
nication and collaboration is observed in this stage. The actual doing in this stage are tasks 
66 
related to content creation. Contents for employer branding are often localised. However, 
blogposts, videos, articles and many more are created in all locations – overall. Specifically 
in the Nordic location, video contents are created to include employee stories, diversity 
themes, and sustainability themes. Participant 9 accentuated that there are “trainees’ stories” 
contents created purposely for Instagram. Furthermore, contents containing the elements of 
the EVP is created for the company’s careers page. It could also be inferred from the discus-
sion that the contents created are applicable to both internals and externals 
 
Actions  
Observing the discussion about the action stage suggested that actionizing the whole process 
did not follow a global framework, but localities may implement in their own way and how 
they deem fit. For instance, Multinational Technology Company 1 – based on the newly de-
veloped EVP – did not create an overall employer branding strategy. However, they first cre-
ated an “employer branding student strategy” focused on the Finland locale (Participant 1). 
In this way, it can clearly be seen that strategies are created and implemented segment by 
segment. This means that the other regions may have to implement the EVP in their own way 
since plans have not been made for their locales.  Nonetheless, Participant 1 mentioned the 
integration of the EVP with corporate communications may still be a guide for implementa-
tion in other regions. 
 
Another issue that arose as a discursive practice was the need for an extensive collaboration 
with functions such as communications and marketing. Participant 1 hinted that employer 
brand and corporate brand should be closely connected. This is because when both brands 
(corporate and employer) are aligned, messaging about the organisation becomes consistent. 
Therefore, any messaging that is “put out is also about employer branding” (Participant 1). 
In this way, customers/consumers of the firm’s products and services get informed about the 
employment environment of the firm and could be attracted to apply for jobs in the company.  
Participant 9 added that employer branding involves all players in an organisation and “it’s 
not only one person's [HR] job”. Overall, it can be stated that aligning both brands leads to 
systematic and consistent messaging about the organisation which in turn solidifies the over-
all brand. More so, execution of the employer branding demands the involvement of both 
“business functions and support functions” from all levels (Participant 9). 
 
67 
Tools and routines in this stage are interlinked. Variety of tools are used in this phase to pub-
lish employer branding contents, communicate with stakeholders (internally and externally), 
and analyse the performance of the entire implementation. Promotion of the employer brand 
– which is a routine – is done through publishing employer branding contents or campaigns 
on social media. Publishing contents on social media also generates data for the analysis pur-
poses. Furthermore, social media serves a platform to engage with the public – who may be 
current employees or prospective employees – which is very key. The company also uses its 
intranet and newsletters to promote employer branding activities to existing employees. More 
so, data collection tool such as Microsoft Forms is used to collect feedback from participants 
in any employer branding related activity. Aside social media and internal platform, there are 
other tools that are used to promote the employer brand. For instance, customised souvenirs 
are used at events for promotional purposes.   
  
Implementation and evaluation are the core praxis in the action phase. Regarding implemen-
tation, the EVP and the employer branding strategy in general is promoted in different ways 
and on different platforms. In Finland specifically, Multinational Technology Company 1 pro-
motes their employer brand through participating in career fairs. Participant 9 disclosed that 
an “ambassador group” is established for “employee advocates to speak […] about the 
EVP” and its offering to their network. Indeed, employee advocacy is considered one of the 
most effective ways to promote an employer brand because the words from employees about 
their employer are more believed than the one coming from HR, Marketing, and/or Senior 
Management of a firm. Additionally, the company promotes its brand as an employer by part-
nering with relevant organisations such as educational institutions (of all levels), and other 
non-profit organisations and advocacy groups. For internal employees, for instance, the Fin-
land region has a programme specifically designed for summer trainees. The programme con-
sists of different events such as career workshops, sporting activities and many more that 
seek to enhance the employee experience of trainees. It was highlighted that another way to 
promote the EVP internally was to use the CEO as a tool to share the new EVP in his 
monthly greetings to increase the awareness and engagement. 
 
Evaluation of the employer brand is basically following up on employer branding and hiring 
related activities. Specifically in Finland, Participant 9 typified that prioritised schools and 
student groups were monitored whether the focus on them has made an “impact on […] ap-
plications or on selected people”. Another way of measuring the EVP and the employer 
68 
branding in general is through feedback from employees with attention on some of the EVP 
elements or employment promises as well as employment experiences mentioned in the feed-
back. Complementary to the employee survey is following other external studies such as 
Young Attraction Index study. In addition, the number of applications received per year is 
also monitored. Participant 9 emphasised that although getting a lot of applications is appreci-
ated, the focus is to gain quality applicants. It was hinted that the employer branding strategy 
is furthered developed after evaluation. Participant 9 exemplified that if the target groups are 
not getting the EVP message there is the need to “think about the communication again”.  
 
Overall, it could be deduced that developing the EVP and implementing it through employer 
branding activities demand a lot collaboration across different functions. Hence, the role of 
networking and collaboration – which can be termed as a routine – is central. Getting to work 
with people from different teams from different functions is an enabler for a successful im-
plementation. The figure below presents the summary of the practices discussed. 
 
 
Figure 17. Employer branding practices of Multinational Technology Company 1. 
 
69 
4.1.2 Consulting Firm 1 
Consulting Firm 1 is an employer branding consulting firm established in a Nordic country 
30 years ago and located in 20 countries. The company is specialised in guiding employers in 
their quest to attract and retain highly qualified talents through their employer branding sur-
veys and reports.   
 
Research 
In the discussion about research, Interviewee 1 revealed that it would be a travesty to develop 
an employer branding strategy without research. In essence, research is a necessity or a pre-
requisite as it guides the entire employer branding strategy journey. Although research is cru-
cial, Interviewee 1 emphasised that it demands “understand[ing] the talent market [internally 
and externally] and the company's visions, mission, goals, strategy” to be able to “make stra-
tegic decisions”. The discursive practice in this stage reveals research as a key initiator and a 
necessity as well as a proactive approach that shapes the EVP development stage.  
 
The tools identified in the research stage can be divided into two themes: i) knowledge of in-
dustry trends, corporate strategy and brand perception ii) concrete tools (e.g., social media 
and panel providers), analytical tools (e.g., spreadsheets) and communication tools (emails, 
team calls, and many more). The two categories of tools give insight on the employment mar-
ket and the corporate vision as well as gathering and analysing data. Interviewee 1 empha-
sised the important role of social media in data collection since Consulting Firm 1 “do a lot 
of ads on social media to collect all these responses”. The routines observed in the first stage 
include team meetings and/or client meetings to identify the core interests of the talent market 
in relation to the company’s goals and values. Interviewee 1 stated that a lot of meetings are 
held to “keep the processes consistent”. The team deliberated about the type of research to 
conduct and to get the preliminary survey approved as well as. Thereafter, other routines such 
as survey launching, data collection, and data reporting are followed. It is imperative to note 
that the tools are tightly connected to the routines in this stage. 
 
Finally, the actual doings in the first stage is conducting research internally and externally. 
Interviewee 1 stressed that interviewing senior management reveals their strategic perspec-
tives such as “company's visions, mission, goals, strategy” that allows for the development of 
an EVP that aligns with the overall corporate strategy. Subsequently, an internal employee 
70 
survey is conducted “to have an authentic perspective from employees”. Indeed, this is im-
portant to know the ‘real’ employment experience from existing employees since senior man-
agement “don't know really what's going on in the lower levels of the organization” (Inter-
viewee 1). Alternately, an external survey is conducted to find out the general perceptions 
and preferences of the talent market as well as attributes that are attractive to them. On top of 
that, competitors are analysed. This is of assistance to differentiating an employer’s employ-
ment attributes and offerings from competitors – thereby becoming unique. It can be identi-
fied that the tools and routines are directly embedded in the praxes of conducting employer 
branding research. Overall, the research gives a strong foundation to start developing the 
EVP and the entire employer branding strategy. 
 
Employee Value Proposition 
Regarding the EVP discussion, two themes were identified. Interviewee 1 mentioned that 
there is the need to ensure that the EVP is unique, authentic, attractive and aligns with the 
overall corporate strategy. This is achieved by research that fulfil strategic perspectives, inter-
nal employees’ perspectives and external perspectives.  Interviewee 1 also pinpointed that a 
lot of companies nowadays have “same taglines” for their EVPs. This is perhaps, differentia-
tion has become difficult.  Interviewee 1 added that the development of EVP “can last up to 
6-7 months” as the process needs to understand the key three perspectives. 
 
The tools identified in this stage include knowledge of internal, external and strategic per-
spectives, and communication tools that makes internal and external communication possible. 
Knowledge of the above-mentioned perspectives are key to establishing a relevant and reso-
nant EVP. More so, business communication tools, channels and platform such as emails and 
Microsoft Teams are used for effective communication between stakeholders. Interviewee 1 
mentioned that concrete tools such as “PowerPoint and Excel” are used for the purposes of 
presenting data and copywriting. 
 
The EVP stage involves series of interactions amongst stakeholders in the various stages of 
the EVP development process. This phase consists of a three-interconnected-step namely de-
velopment, co-crafting, and finetuning. Interviewee 1 summarised that meetings with clients 
are observed to present and discuss research findings in the development stage; workshops 
and breakout rooms are observed in the co-crafting stage for EVP co-creation and prelimi-
nary approval; whilst in the finetuning process meetings are held together with randomly 
71 
selected employees to validate the EVP as well as presenting the final draft of the EVP. 
Simply put, the routine is observed to define key priorities and attributes of the EVP in a col-
laborative strategizing manner. The routine is tightly connected to the praxes. 
 
The praxes at this stage follow the three-interconnected-step earlier mentioned in the rou-
tines. Since the EVP development rests on the research, Interviewee 1 specified that the de-
velopment stage utilises the findings of the research to map what is “overlapping in terms of 
authenticity, strategy and attractive[ness]”. Subsequently, the co-crafting process is observed 
consisting of Consulting Firm 1, its client and their stakeholders to create the EVP. In this 
phenomenon, the information derived from the development stage is presented and discussed 
with clients. Thereafter, the client together with their key stakeholders involved in the em-
ployer branding project – such as global employer brand lead, local employer branding man-
agers, HR leaders and communication leaders – are put in breakout rooms to discuss “the 
overall topics that the EVP should be talking about” (Interviewee 1). Once the key priorities 
of the EVP are defined, the EVP attributes are drafted, and goes through a series of iterative 
processes until the suggested draft is approved. 
 
Finally, the approved EVP is tested to verify authenticity of the EVP messages, resonance to 
employees, and attraction to externals through validation focus groups consisting of a collec-
tion “between 50 and 150 […] completely random employees” (Interviewee 1). Interviewee 1 
exemplified that there was an instance where a focus group confessed that the sustainability 
status claimed by their employer was an overpromise because they “are not there yet” (Inter-
viewee 1). Subsequently, the EVP is “fine-tuned” based on the feedback from the focus 
groups (Interviewee 1). Afterwards, the final version of the EVP is converted into content 
materials such as brand books or guidebooks which consist of the EVP, its pillars, HR guide-
lines and many more. 
 
Communication Strategy 
In this stage, Interviewee 3 encapsulated that setting a clear goal for communication in the 
long and short term was central. Furthermore, the communication goal must be tied to the al-
ready created EVP and its attributes, and then tailored to specific target groups. Interviewee 1 
specified that for a multinational company, “the communication strategy is usually just local-
ized” (Interviewee 3). In essence, tailoring the communication to specified target groups is 
72 
essential since specificity of interests and preferences of audiences in every country/region 
differ considerably.  
 
With regards to the tools in this phase, Microsoft teams is used for online meetings with cli-
ent and stakeholders. More so, project management tool called Monday.com is used for strat-
egy planning and internal communicating to “guide the flow of the process” (Interviewee 3). 
In short, tools that foster communication and collaboration is a necessity. Conventionally, the 
formulation of the communication strategy is a collaboration between Consulting Firm 1 and 
their client consisting of series of meetings i) to discuss a set of goals to consider in the com-
munication strategy ii) to follow-up with the clients for approval of suggested communication 
strategic initiatives. It could be inferred from this instance that collaboration and communica-
tion in the creation of the strategy are routines which interconnect with the tools. 
 
Obviously, the praxis in this phase involves planning and development of the communication. 
The scope of the project, the EVP (and its attributes), corporate brand, and target groups are 
highly considered when planning in order to have a clear strategy. In this instance, the com-
munication strategy process starts with brainstorming with the client to “come up with differ-
ent strategy suggestions” (Interviewee 3). Subsequently, strategic initiatives are crafted and 
presented to the client and feedbacks are sought after. Interviewee 3 stressed that the strategic 
initiatives are converted into campaigns and content materials after approval. Tasks such as 
identifying the type of campaigns, deciding on channels and tools, and scheduling (timelines) 
are important praxes relevant to the communication strategy formulation.  
 
Communication Material 
Regarding the discussion in the communication material process, the themes of establishing 
the kind of employer brand to present as well as an integrated communication focus are vital. 
This include considering the type of content to produce, the tone of voice in messaging, the 
channels to use, the visual consistency of the employer brand with corporate brand, and many 
more. Here, Interviewee 3 elaborated that the visuals must be consistent with the corporate 
brand for easy identification and recognition which in turn lead to a consolidated image “in 
the eyes of the targeted audience or community”.  
 
73 
Tools used in this phase are interlinked with knowledge and experiences of the designing 
teams. In addition, tools that facilitate internal and external communications (e.g., Outlook, 
Microsoft Teams, SharePoint) as well as tools that enable the creation and production of con-
tents are central (e.g., InDesign, Photoshop, AfterEffect, Premiere, Illustrator, Lightroom). 
The routine at this stage include i) client deliberation to set a clear path for the content pro-
duction; ii) designing and presentation of contents to the client for feedback; iii) as well as 
adjusting (if needed) and finalising the contents for implementation. 
 
Brainstorming and content production are the two main praxis themes in this stage. The team 
initially brainstorm about design ideas, how to tailor them to meet client details and needs, 
identify the relevant content for the targeted group as well as the appropriate channels for the 
right reach. These thought processes are needed in the beginning before the actual materials 
are created. The second theme is virtually translating the ideas into different type of contents 
and formats. Interviewee 3 highlighted that the team creates employee introductory or em-
ployee story videos or other relevant themed videos by using client’s employees. This is done 
by conducting a video interview with the client’s employee.  A similar content is created in a 
written format (article). In a sense, a photo of the employee is accompanied with the texts to 
give it a human touch. Hence, photoshoot is required, a praxis in this case. 
 
Interviewee 3 also elaborated that their data suggests that stories of current is “one of the […] 
biggest points of interest that people have when they are considering an employer”. Indeed, 
prospective employees want to hear employment experiences from regular employees than 
hear from senior management. This is because the employment experience coming from a 
regular employee represents the true picture as to how it is like to work for the employer. 
 
Action 
Two themes were identified as discursive practices in the action stage. First, the focus of em-
ployer branding should not only be geared towards attracting external talents. Interviewee 3 
emphasised that employer branding should “actually focus on […] internals […]  before fo-
cusing on external talents” to enable employee retention and serve as the “best sort of testa-
ment” as to the kind of employer an organisation is. Further, internal focus leads employees 
to speak highly of the firm which makes it “very easy […] communicating that [employer 
brand]” to externals (Interviewee 3).  Secondly, the implementation of employer branding 
strategy according to Interviewee 1 should alternate between intended and emergent 
74 
approaches. For instance, a scenario where an employer branding campaign during the imple-
mentation “is really not resonating at all and that people are not getting it” there should be 
the possibility to alter the strategy (Interviewee 3).  
 
Various tools are used in communicating with clients, publishing and analysing performance 
of campaigns in this stage. Content materials are generally published on websites (e.g., com-
pany websites and/or third-party websites), and social media platforms to get the employer 
branding campaign or message to the targeted group. Interviewee 3 noted that the type of 
content and channel of delivery is highly dependent on the targeted audience and the market. 
Aside publishing, social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and many oth-
ers) also serve a multifaceted purpose to include engaging externals and analysing the perfor-
mance of the employer branding campaign or contents. It was also highlighted that “Face-
book is still the obvious channel” to reach a significant amount of people (Interviewee 3). 
Other analysis tools are used to conduct internal survey in the implementation stage to evalu-
ate the effect of the employer brand amongst existing employees.  
 
Routines in this phase is essentially the promotion of the employer brand internally and exter-
nally. Interviewee 3 asserted that routines such as community calls are observed to talk about 
the employer brand to existing employees from the employer context. The external promotion 
of the employer brand follows some sequence of events consisting of series of meetings with 
clients. Interviewee 3 narrated that meetings are held to “share the previews with [the] clients 
and for final approval” as well as “provide a full report on the metrics” at the end of the 
campaign. This routine is crucial to assess the launching and performance of the campaign. 
 
Conspicuously, the praxis in this stage is basically the implementation of the employer brand-
ing strategy that has been set forth in the preceding stages. The implementation includes 
launching/publishing and promoting the employer branding campaign or contents to the tar-
geted market and groups, as well as monitoring and evaluating the performance of the cam-
paigns.  Undoubtedly, the praxes can be seen to be tightly interlinked with the tools and rou-
tines in this phase. Hence, it is virtually impossible to separate them. The figure below pre-
sents the practices of the formulation and implementation of employer branding strategy by 
Consulting Firm 1. 
75 
 
 
Figure 18. Employer branding practices of Consulting Firm 1. 
 
4.1.3 Multinational Technology Company 2 
Multinational Technology Company 2, founded in the first decade of the 20th century and 
headquartered in one of the Nordic countries, specialises in elevator and escalator engineer-
ing. The firm’s brand as an employer has consecutively been ranked highly in the last five 
years in annual employer branding scorings in its home country.    
 
Research 
In the research discussion, Interviewee 2 emphasized that research influences the entire em-
ployer branding strategy process as it serves as an enabler to understanding “what kind of 
things in employers are important for [employees]”. Overall, the discussion surrounding this 
phase was about the concomitance of research to the success of the entire employer branding 
strategy process. 
76 
 
Tools used in this stage are feedback collection tools such as “Google forms as well as 
Webropol” (Interviewee 2). Moreover, tools that enable effective communication such as 
email is used. The routine in this stage is searching for the drivers of interest and attractive 
attributes. The routine include informing employees about the survey, launching the survey, 
reminding employees to respond, and reporting the results. Clearly, it can be deduced that the 
tools and routines are tightly interlinked. 
 
Fundamentally, the actual doing in this stage is conducting research. Interviewee 2 revealed 
that “two folds of questionnaires are in use” to “figure out the kind of feedback that [employ-
ees] have for the employer, the things that are motivational for them and what kind of things 
[…] are important when thinking of an employer”. The outcome of the survey further reveals 
the strength and weaknesses of the employer from the perspectives of existing employees 
globally and locally. 
 
Externally, Interviewees 2 and 6 stated that data is generated from candidate feedbacks 
through job applications, and from customers and partners through interviews. Furthermore, 
external surveys are purchased from third. Cumulatively, it can be concluded that the re-
search phase determines existing and potential employees’ perceptions of the employer, their 
values and motivations, and their habits. The findings derived from the research is used to de-
velop the EVP.  
 
Employee Value Proposition 
When discussing about the EVP development, three core themes were identified – corporate 
alignment, flexibility, and length of time. Firstly, Interviewee 2 highlighted that the EVP 
must be developed in a way to represent the [organisation] as an employer for [its] employ-
ees. This is because such an EVP depicts genuineness and honesty. Moreover, Interviewee 8 
hinted that the EVP must align with the corporate brand because it is impossible to “fully sep-
arate the [corporate] brand from the employer brand”. From the above discussion it can be 
inferred that the development of an EVP is heavily dependent on the results of research (e.g., 
employee feedback survey, external feedback survey) and elements of the corporate vision, 
values, brand and strategy. 
 
77 
Secondly, the interviewees (2 & 8) emphasised that the EVP is crafted to represent the organ-
isation on a global level. However, it requires flexibility in order to adapt to specified lo-
cale(s). Thirdly, Interviewee 8 stressed the entire EVP development process could take “be-
tween 9 to 12 months” to get finalised.  
 
In this stage, concrete tools that foster internal and external communication (emails and con-
ference calls) are essential since the EVP is created through cross-functional collaboration be-
tween the global HR, marketing and branding teams. Interviewee 8 clarified that Multina-
tional Technology Company 2 hired an external partner to help in the process because the ex-
ternal partner “has a good market and benchmarking data and understanding of where the 
other companies are […] profiling and how they are building their EVP”. Therefore, the 
knowledge and skills of the external partner can be considered as a tool. Furthermore, tools 
that foster copy writing and presentation (e.g., PowerPoint and Excel) were used for EVP 
planning purposes. Knowledge of the research findings is considered a tool since it gives in-
sight on the habits and preferences of employees (existing and potential).  
 
Routines and praxis in this phase are tightly interlinked. According to Interviewee 8, the 
working group come together to review and compile the various survey results to assess their 
strengths, current image (employer and corporate) and the expectations of internals and exter-
nals stakeholders. Based on that and a review of existing EVP from competitors, an EVP is 
drafted. It is important to note that benchmarking is done in this phase for the purposes of dif-
ferentiation. Next, the preliminary draft goes through an iterative process through workshops 
until an approved version is reached. In summary, the routines in this phase are survey result 
review, drafting and benchmarking, reviewing draft and approving EVP. 
 
Multiple themes can be identified as praxes in this stage. First, a team is formed for the crea-
tion of the EVP. Interviewee 8 explained that the “the working group [includes] the program 
team, the talent acquisition team” and some personnel from HR as well as an external part-
ner, notwithstanding. After the creation of the core team, planning and development of the 
EVP is next. Interviewee 2 stated that the result of the research is reviewed in this process. 
Thereafter, the EVP pillars and messages are drafted. In addition, the finalised version is con-
verted into a guidebook or a framework (template) that guides the implementation process. 
Interviewee 8 also mentioned that budgeting for [the EVP is done] in the same process” for 
its implementation. 
78 
 
Communication Strategy 
The third phase, creating communication strategy, are highly dependent on the first and sec-
ond phases. Interviewee 2 emphasised that communications about the EVP and the employer 
brand in general should be “representing [the organisation] as employer”. Specifically, the 
communication strategy must draw from the findings of the research as well as elements of 
EVP. In addition, it was mentioned that the EVP is the root of the communication strategy. 
Therefore, it could be drawn that the discussion about the creation of communication strategy 
revolves around the theme of ensuring a communication that represents the true employment 
environment. Another theme identified as a discursive practice is the thoughts of flexibility in 
the communication strategy. Although the strategy is formulated on the global level “it is up 
to countries to figure out how it fit for them” (Interviewee 2). Hence, the need for flexibility 
is paramount to enable effective implementation in different locations and for different target 
groups. 
 
With regards to tools, Interviewee 2 stated the team also uses an internal tool which “collects 
monthly or quarterly level communication plans”. Furthermore, copywriting tools such as 
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) are used to document the communication 
plan. More so, communication tools (e.g., emails, Microsoft Teams) are used to foster inter-
nal communications. Fundamentally, the routine in the third phase is planning and schedul-
ing. Detailed plans as to communicating the EVP and the timelines to implement them in the 
various locations is done by kind courtesy of a “collaboration between the Global HR and 
Global Marketing teams because they are in charge of the communication plan”.  
 
Brainstorming the communication strategy in accordance with the EVP is a praxis in this 
phase. Interviewee 2 highlighted that during brainstorming, the team ideate and decide on the 
kind of messaging, themes and campaigns, types of communication materials, and communi-
cation channels to use. This process is not only considered a praxis but a routine as well.   
 
Communication Material 
In the discussion about the communication material, Interviewee 2 stressed that creating co-
herent contents was central. Although a company may have an EVP consisting of the most 
attractive attributes, without a resonant content, it will be given less attention. Therefore, the 
type of content created is one of the drivers of a successful employer brand as it serves as a 
79 
vehicle to delivering EVP/employer branding message. Per Interviewee 2, Multinational 
Technology Company 2 creates contents that are centred on employee experience and the 
employment environment. 
 
Since the communication strategy guides the type of content to be created, it can be referred 
to as a central tool in this stage. Copywriting tools and videography tools are used to create 
blog posts, theme video contents and many more. Furthermore, the skills of external vendors 
are considered as tools when creating content materials that require their input. The routines 
of the communication material stage include concept development, creation, and review. 
From the company’s perspective, the concept of the content (e.g., employee career story) and 
the mode of content (e.g., video or article) are defined in the initial stage. Subsequently, the 
content is created according to the defined concept.  Afterwards, the content is reviewed and 
approved for implementation. 
 
The praxis explains this phase further. Creating appropriate content materials for internals 
and externals are the actual doings in the communication material phase. Contents – such as 
blog posts, articles, themed videos – which highlight career stories and daily routines of exist-
ing employees are created for both internal and external audience. Specifically for internals, 
employer branding related contents or training materials are created to give them insight on 
employer branding and its importance.  The respondent stressed that themed videos are cre-
ated to give “visibility to the employees” as well as reveal “more concrete” employment en-
vironment of the employer as possible (Interviewee 2). 
 
Actions 
Themes surrounding a clear framework of implementation and flexibility of implementation 
were identified as discursive practices. On the one hand, Interviewee 2 highlighted that there 
should be uniformity and consistency in the implementation to prevent miscommunication 
and misrepresentation of the employer brand. Therefore, a flexible and “clear frame[work] 
globally” is central as an important guidance tool (Interviewee 2). 
 
Undoubtedly, concrete tools and analytical tools are used in the action stage. A communica-
tion framework is used as a template for implementation. Communication materials are con-
tent tools that carry the employer branding message. Furthermore, publishing tools such as 
(company) website, social media platforms are used to publish and disseminate the content 
80 
materials or campaigns to the targeted audience.  These tools also serve as analytical tools to 
evaluate the performance of contents and campaigns. Lastly, communication tools such as 
emails, team calls and many more are used for information sharing about the EVP and em-
ployer branding campaigns. 
 
The routines and praxes in this stage are closely interrelated. Fundamentally, the routines in-
clude promotion (internally and externally) and following up of the EVP and/or employer 
branding campaigns. Internally, the EVP is promoted through global HR calls to brief all HR 
representatives. Alternately, contents about the EVP or employer branding campaigns are 
published on the company’s intranet to reach internal employees.  External promotion is done 
through publishing employer branding contents on company’s websites and social media 
platforms as well as participating in employer branding related events such as career fairs, 
student collaboration, and the like. Simultaneously, following-up of the promotional cam-
paigns are observed. This is done in various ways depending on the type of promotional ac-
tivity. For instance, contents promoted on social media are followed up through engaging and 
answering the questions of commentors.  
 
Clearly, implementation and evaluation are considered praxes in this stage. Implementations 
include the various mechanisms that get the EVP and/or employer branding activities pro-
moted to the targeted audience. As it can be realised from the discussion in the routines, im-
plementation through promotion is done virtually and physically using different themes. 
More specifically, Multinational Technology Company 2 promotes their EVP through con-
stant communication across their HR community. Moreover, internal employees are also in-
formed about employer branding related topics via internal info-sites.  
 
Interviewee 2 added that Multinational Technology Company 2 has established an employee 
advocacy network that trains employees to become active ambassadors. The interviewees 2 
stressed that “in the future, [...] [employee advocacy] is even more needed” citing that exist-
ing employees will become “active ambassadors and [will] tell their story about [Multina-
tional Technology Company 2] as an employer. Moreover, line managers are trained on ways 
to project and promote Multinational Technology Company 2 as an employer.   
 
In the second praxis, evaluation of the entire employer branding implementations is observed. 
Externally, the company evaluate their entire employer branding campaigns through their 
81 
social media engagements (e.g., like, comments, followership), and recruitment performance 
and efficiency such as application volume, application quality, duration per hire, and many 
more. Employee engagements, employee lifecycle (e.g., onboarding, and exit surveys), and 
“how people refer other people” (employee referral) are some of the ways Multinational 
Technology Company 2 evaluate their employer branding internally (Interviewee 2). 
 
Overall, Interviewee 2 emphasised that employer branding should be embedded in the behav-
iours of the people that are representing the company. The figure below presents the sum-
mary of the practices of Multinational Technology Company 2. 
 
 
Figure 19. Employer branding practices of Multinational Technology Company 2. 
 
4.1.4 Consulting Firm 2 
Consulting Firm 2, established 3 years ago, is a consulting firm that is specialised IT recruit-
ment and employer branding. Consulting Firm 2 has guided dozens of companies on a success-
ful employer branding strategy journey. 
82 
 
Research 
The discursive practices identified that employer branding research must be conducted to un-
derstand […] the talent audiences […] to attract” as well as “understand […] the most busi-
ness critical and hard to find categories” (Interviewee 4).  Interviewee 4 explained that con-
sidering the employee experience in the research process is a “key phase in successful re-
search”. However, this is often overlooked. 
 
Data gathering and analysis tool such as “Excel and Google Data Studio” are used in this 
stage (Interviewee 4). Interviewee 4 highlighted that Consulting Firm 2 often utilises the tools 
of their client company as well to gather data. In this phase, it was brought up that delibera-
tion is a routine to outline goals of the project, define the kind of research to undertake, set-
tings questions based on the research goals, launching and sending survey to respondents, and 
analysing and reporting the survey results. In essence, the routine is primarily searching for 
the signals of interests of the talents and management. 
 
In the praxis stage, Interviewee 4 explained that Consulting Firm 2 conducts internal research 
through online survey or in-person interviews to uncover the current employees’ “real feel-
ings” and employer’s vision and aspirations (Interviewee 4). Interviewee 4 also highlighted 
that the Consulting Firm 2 further examines the client company’s social media presence, ca-
reer sites and “thought leadership game” of their employees. In addition, external research is 
also conducted to reveal the perceptions of externals (e.g., potential candidates, recruitment 
agencies, the employment market) have about the company. It can be concluded that the 
types of research conducted uncovers the strategic perspective, internal perspective, and ex-
ternal perspective. These perspectives reveal the key selling points for the client company and 
serve as the root for the formulation of a genuine EVP. 
 
Employee Value Proposition 
When discussing about EVP development, the common thought that arose in the case of Con-
sulting Firm 2 is that EVP is “ever evolving”. Although EVP is built for the long-term, it 
“needs to be revisited” to stay up to date with the ever-changing nature of stakeholders – 
both internal and external. It was also mentioned that revising an EVP depends on the size of 
the company. For multinational companies, it is recommended to revisit the EVP “every 
83 
three to five years” (Interviewee 4). In addition, it was stressed that EVP development in a 
multinational company can “take a year” to be completed (Interviewee 4). 
 
Another theme that arose as a discursive practice is the degree of involvement in the EVP de-
velopment process. Interviewee 4 propounded that in many companies, HR or Talent acquisi-
tion team often creates the EVP. However, in the EVP creation process “no [regular em-
ployee] is involved” (Interviewee 4). Such an EVP is hardly resonant and hardly reflects the 
true nature of the company as an employer – hence, liable to fail. It can be inferred from the 
discussion that for a genuine and resonant EVP to be created, key and diverse talent groups in 
the organisation must be involved in the EVP development process.  
 
It is obvious that the formulation of the EVP is highly dependent on the research. Hence, the 
research is regarded as a tool in this phase. Secondly, the knowledge of Consulting Firm 2 in 
the EVP creation process can be considered as a tool since they are an external service pro-
vider to the clients. Due to intense collaboration in this phase, communication is a necessity. 
Interviewee 4 mentioned that “Miro” is used to foster internal and external communication 
and collaboration. Additionally, tools such as “Microsoft Word and PowerPoint” are used for 
copywriting (Interviewee 4). The routine in this phase is basically identifying the interests of 
internals and the interests of key talents groups to attract. The routines include drafting the 
EVP (headline, pillars and the employer attributes); testing the EVP via focus groups for au-
thenticity and resonance; and reviewing and approving EVP through an iterative process.  
 
Multiple themes can be identified as praxes in this stage. This include team formation and 
EVP development (co-crafting and finetuning). A team is formed as a core group to the steer 
the formulation of the EVP. According to Interviewee 4, often the people involved in the core 
team are selected diverse representatives from HR, talent acquisition, marketing, design and 
branding teams. Consulting Firm 2 always emphasise the mandatory inclusion of people who 
“represent the key talent group [the company] wants to attract” in the EVP process (Inter-
viewee 4). The lack of involvement of the key talent groups in the process often lead to skip-
ping the testing of the EVP. With this, it becomes difficult to create a true, compelling and 
resonant EVP. 
 
The second praxis theme is the actual development of the EVP where the team members 
come together to ideate and start drafting the EVP. This is called co-crafting. Afterwards, the 
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EVP is finetuned. Finetuning is done by testing the EVP draft with employees from different 
levels and from different talent segments to validate authenticity and resonance. The initial 
EVP draft is adjusted based feedback from the tested group 
 
Communication Strategy 
In this stage, two themes arose as discursive practice. The communication strategy primarily 
concerns the choices in messaging, contents and the right channels to use. Interviewee 4 high-
lighted that knowing and understanding the specified audience with regards to their ‘wants’, 
‘motivations’, and ‘where they spend their time’ is crucial. Without this, the “communication 
strategy goes to waste” (Interviewee 4). Interviewee 4 underlined that although this is basic, 
most of the companies “overlook it”. Hence, when they do employer branding, they hardly 
understand their target audience. Adequately resourcing employees to communicate is a way 
of empowering and encouraging them to share. This leads to building a “thought leadership 
game” in the organisation to enable employees share their expertise, professional lives and 
career stories to the public(Interviewee 4). When it comes to career decisions, people follow 
other people rather than company communication. Therefore, involving some key employees 
in the communications strategy is “one of the cornerstones stones in modern employer 
branding” (Interviewee 4). 
 
Ordinarily, Consulting Firm 2 as a vendor is a tool to the client company in the process. Fur-
thermore, tools such as Excel, PowerPoint, Word and email are central for documentation and 
communication in this stage.   The routine and praxis of this phase are tightly interlinked. 
Routine-wise, the talent audience, the key points that resonate with them, and their preferred 
channels of use are defined. Moreover, deciding on the relevant communication contents 
and/or materials are observed. Brainstorming on the contents and campaigns to create for 
specified audience as well as the channels of reach can be seen as the actual doing in this 
stage. Another praxis theme identified in this phase is the creation of “social media strategy 
and setting key metrics” for the employer branding implementations (Interviewee 4). This is 
of assistance to effective measuring or evaluation of the performance of the employer brand-
ing campaign and activities. 
 
Communication Material 
In this phase, what arose as discursive practice is the need to consider the prominence of the 
corporate brand when creating communication materials. Interviewee 4 asserted that when 
85 
“the world already knows [the corporate] brand”, the communication materials to be created 
could focus more on the elements of the EVP. If the case is the reverse, the communication 
materials could incorporate both the corporate and employer branding messaging. For exam-
ple, including product and services of the company with a people-centric approach. Another 
discursive practice concerns making internal employees the epicentre of the communication 
materials as it will give them public recognition and in turn enhance internal employer brand-
ing. 
 
Concrete tools that facilitate copywriting, photo and video editing are central in this phase. 
Interviewee 4 indicated that Consulting Firm 2 uses a collaborative platform called Miro for 
structuring content concept. More so, Canva is used to create employer branding related ma-
terial such as flyers, presentations and videos. Working with client companies requires con-
stant communication, hence, tools that facilitate external communication is vital. Consulting 
Firm 2 as an external vendor follows a three-step routine when creating content material for 
client companies to include content definition, content development, content review and ap-
proval. 
 
Praxis in this stage involves variety of material contents created for employer branding com-
munication purposes. They include video materials, presentation materials, recruitment com-
munication materials. For video materials, diversity, career, and sustainability are essential 
themes that can be used in creating employer branding communication video materials.  In-
terviewee 4 recommended the creation of “short video material” which can easily grab the 
attention of the viewer “within three seconds”. It also mentioned that video materials grab 
the most attention since “people are attracted to other people” (Interviewee 4). Presentation 
materials such as PowerPoint deck are created as a recruitment communication material and 
sales material for engaging key talent groups about career choices. Furthermore, companies 
must ensure that recruitment agencies update their recruitment materials to fit the companies’ 
promises. 
 
Action 
The most effective way of activating an employer branding strategy is the involvement of 
“[internal] employees to take part in the activities” (Interviewee 4). Additionally, as em-
ployer branding is broad, division of labour or responsibilities is required to foster effective 
86 
implementation. The discussion surrounding effective activation is deemed a discursive prac-
tice in the action stage.  
 
In this stage, the communication strategy is used as a guide tool for implementation. Commu-
nication tools, copywriting tools, publishing and analysis tools are central in this stage. Pro-
ject management tool is also used to facilitate the process. Consulting Firm 2 facilitates the 
employer branding activities for the client companies. Hence, Consulting Firm 2 collaborates 
with the right team from the client company for the specific employer branding activity and 
“set certain KPI's for each quarter or annually, and then follow them through” (Interviewee 
4).  It can be stated that this process demands a lot of meetings and collaboration. Simply put, 
the routine in this stage is facilitating employer branding promotion and follow-ups. 
 
The actual doings in the action stage is implementation and evaluation of the employer brand-
ing strategy. Implementation is done through promoting online via website and social media 
channels. Offline promotion also occurs through physical events career events, seminars, con-
ference and many more. In addition to the implementation, Interviewee 4 mentioned that 
“trainings and also individual sparring” sessions are organised for internal employees on ef-
fective communication about their expertise or about the company as an employer. The per-
formance of the various employer branding activities are analysed after implementation 
through internal surveys and “applicant tracking system” (Interviewee 4). Interviewee 4 
highlighted that some of the targeted impact after implementation include gaining “highly 
relevant and qualified talent leads”. The figure below presents the summary of Consulting 
Firm 2’s practices. 
87 
 
 
Figure 20. Employer branding practices of Consulting Firm 2. 
 
4.1.5 Multinational Technology Company 3 
Multinational Technology Company 3 is a large Finnish multinational company. In recent years 
the company has risen markedly in Finland’s employer branding ranking surveys. 
 
Research 
The discursive practice in the research stage revolved around the importance of a structured 
approach in the whole employer branding development process to identify the “most important 
target group, and […] to differentiate from many other employers who are also looking for 
talents” (Interviewee 6). In this phase, data generating tools and internal communication tools 
were used. Interviewee 5 also mentioned that Multinational Technology Company 3 used an 
existing survey conducted in cooperation with a “leading engagement survey provider”. 
 
Data gathering and analysis are the main routines in this stage. Practically, the research routines 
for Multinational Technology Company 3 involves compiling the results of the engagement 
survey and the reputation survey and then creating a global marketing and HR survey to 
88 
enhance the employer branding process. All of these together led to identifying the key 
messages, preferences, tone of voice and key channels of targeted groups. The interviewees (5 
& 6) also emphasised that the systematic structure in place was of assistance to the success of 
the whole process.  Praxis-wise the company conducted three different types of survey to 
include “employee survey, reputation survey, global marketing and HR survey” (Interviewee 
5). After analysing the results of the surveys, Interviewee 6 stated that a guidebook (document) 
was created which helped in the documentation and organisation of thoughts with regards to 
target groups, relevant and supporting messages and many more to steer the formulation of the 
EVP.  Clearly, the routines, tools, and praxis in this phase can be seen to tightly intertwine. 
 
Employee Value Proposition 
Multiple themes were identified as discursive in the third phase. During the EVP creation 
process, interviewee 5 acknowledged that it took Multinational Technology Company 3 “nine 
months”  for the EVP (from construction to approval) to be ready for implementation. Secondly, 
the degree of flexibility in the EVP is to enable any easy implementation for regiinal locales. 
Interviewee 6 exemplified that the Multinational Technology Company 3 summarised its main 
EVP message in a sentence which “very nicely applied to address different target groups and 
different needs and situations”. The degree of flexibility according to the interviewees (5 & 6) 
encouraged employees to utilise the main message in their own way on social media. Another 
theme that can be identified as a discursive practice is that even though the company engaged 
an external partner, Multinational Technology Company 3 was very involved in all aspects of 
the EVP work. 
 
Various tools were used in the EVP creation stage. A template also called the ‘framework of 
thinking’ is used as a tool in this stage to guide the process. Additionally, communication tools 
such as emails, video conferencing tools were used to foster communication between everyone 
involved. The skills of external partners can be considered a tool in this stage. Obviously, 
routines in this phase can be seen to consist of series of events to include defining, evaluating, 
and approving all aspects of the EVP development work. Although this process is considered 
a routine, it could also be classified as a praxis in the EVP development process.  
 
The first praxis in the EVP phase is assembling the relevant team for the project. This includes 
the search for the relevant teams as well as the right partner to cooperate with. In the case of 
Multinational Technology Company 3, the relevant team from the internal perspective was 
89 
made up of selected representatives from the HR and Marketing & Communication teams. 
Interviewee 6 pinpointed that the contribution of senior management (e.g., Head of HR and 
Head of Marketing and Communications) in the process was crucial. More so, a marketing and 
communication agency was involved to help with “the messaging and visualisation of the EVP” 
(Interviewee 6). Another praxis in this stage is the actual formulation of the EVP which 
encompasses the values and culture of the company, and attributes and many more. Afterwards, 
to support the implementation, a guidebook containing the practical deliverables was created. 
This guidebook outlines the details of the EVP such as definition, key messages, the tone of 
voice, and the different elements in practice. 
 
Communication Strategy 
The discussion in this stage revealed that the creation of the EVP as well as communication 
strategy are simultaneous and highly entwined. In this phase, the discussion was centred around 
partnership – looking for the right partner i.e. a marketing and communication agency to help 
in the process. The informants (Interviewee 5 & 6) highlighted partnering with an external is 
of utmost importance to the development and success of the entire employer branding strategy 
work. The mutual thoughts about it and the intense involvement of the external partner is 
deemed a discursive practice in this phase. Another discursive practice identified in this phase 
was the thoughts “about the common messages and the specific messages for each target group” 
(Interviewee 6).  
 
The tools used in this phase include the EVP guidebook, external partners and communication 
tools (e.g., emails, video conferencing tools). The routine in this stage is similar to the routines 
in the preceding stage. The interviewees (5 & 6) disclosed that there was a high-level 
collaboration between the internal team and the agency in this stage. Here, the routines consist 
of defining the target groups, planning the relevant contents and channels, and informing the 
relevant teams about the launching plan. 
 
As part of the doings, the team came together to brainstorm about how to bring the EVP to life. 
The ideation process considered “the messages of the target group, the main message of the 
EVP, and the visuals involved” – and the appropriate channels to reach them, notwithstanding 
(Interviewee 6). More so, existing contents were also mapped in the brainstorming process. In 
addition to brainstorming in this stage, Interviewee 5 specified that a guidebook was created 
“about how [to] communicate [the] EVP, the tone of voice, [and] how the career site should 
90 
look like”. It can be inferred that this is a proactive approach as it creates a clear path for 
implementation. 
 
Communication Materials 
The discursive practice identified in this phase is ensuring that the created communications 
materials served the purpose for the implementation of the EVP. In this phase, concrete tools 
and materials are used to get the work done. The communication guidebook is used as a tool 
in this stage to serve as a guide in creating the appropriate contents for the right audience. 
Furthermore, concrete tools such as cameras, editing tools, word processing tools were used to 
create videos and blog contents. Moreover, communication tools such as email and 
videotelephony tools were used for internal and external communications. 
 
Naturally, the crafting of communication materials is a routinised process as it follows the the 
‘framework of thinking’. Interviewee 5 stressed that the selected people from HR and 
Marketing & Communications teams meet to discuss the kind of contents to create. Once the 
materials are created, they are handed internally to the relevant teams “for them to implement 
area by area.” (Interviewee 5). It can be stated that examples of materials were created to 
ensure good quality contents and alignment of the brand. Obviously, the praxes of the fourth 
stage include content creation related tasks such as newspaper advertisements, blog posts and 
the main EVP and/or employee videos. Interviewee 5 also accentuated that some of the contents 
“are applicable to internals, externals or both”.  
 
Action 
When discussing about the action stage, the common thought in the case of Multinational 
Technology Company 3 is “systematically implementing the messages” – although some level 
of flexibility is allowed – to ensure the success of the entire employer branding work. 
Interviewees 5 also pointed out that the employer branding implementation must be “integrated 
into the [organisational] strategy process”. This is because employer branding does not 
become successful in isolation since “whatever the company does, affects [the employer brand] 
as well” (Interviewee 5). Hence, incorporating the employer brand and the corporate brand 
from the planning to the implementation stage propels a strong employer brand. 
 
The tools in the fifth phase are basically used for implementation and evaluation purposes. The 
communication materials earlier created are used as tools to convey the message of the EVP. 
91 
Publishing tools such as company websites and social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, 
Youtube, Instagram, and many more) are used to publish the communications materials. With 
the help of the guidebook, all content materials for publication must be scheduled in advance. 
Although contemporary channels such as social media plays a vital role in publishing contents, 
the impact of traditional channels such as the newspaper is still relevant. Aside that, social 
media serves as a platform to analyse the performance of the published materials or campaigns.  
 
Per Multinational Technology Company 3, the promotion of the employer brand especially 
externally is vital to the employer branding work and can be seen as a routine in the action 
phase. Training sessions are held with relevant teams and stakeholders as to how to promote 
the employer brand. Furthermore, analysing and reflecting upon the implemented campaigns 
is crucial for improvement purposes. Interviewee 6 stressed that “regular meetings around 
implementation” are held internally to talk about the process and progress. 
 
Primarily, the actual doing that can be identified in the action phase is the simultaneous 
promotion of the employer brand externally. This is done through publishing contents, 
campaigns, and event participations. For instance, employee videos are published on the 
company’s websites and their social media channels about the employment experience in the 
company. Notwithstanding, career websites are also updated with the EVP messaging. 
Furthermore, the company engages potential employees and other external stakeholders at 
recruitment events to talk about Multinational Technology Company 3 as an employer. Another 
theme in this process is evaluating the employer branding through the company’s job 
application portal to determine the “application volumes and application quality” (Interviewee 
7); and purchasing talent surveys and monitoring employer branding rankings to identify its 
status in the employment market. Afterwards,“new elements related to the EVP may be 
developed” (Interviewee 5). 
 
For Multinational Technology Company 3, “collaboration with different parts of the 
organisation on the EVP topic as much as possible” is a necessity because it supports the 
promotion of the EVP to externals (Interviewee 5). Interviewee 5 further highlighted that social 
media “has become more and more important” to express an EVP or disseminate an employer 
branding campaign. Due to the extreme importance of social media, Multinational Technology 
Company 3 trained its HR and Marketing & Communication on the effective promotion of 
92 
EVP on social media platforms.  Multinational Technology Company 3’s practices in the 
formation of their employer branding strategy is illustrated in the figure below. 
    
 
Figure 21. Employer branding practices of Multinational Technology Company 3. 
 
During the within-case analysis, key highlights were taken into consideration and provided as 
evidence of practices with interview quotes from the various cases employed in this study to 
back up the data structure in section 3.4 (refer to figure 16) to further enhance the visibility of 
the emergence of data and how it means to the findings. The table below synthesises the key 
practices of employer branding by each individual case. 
 
 
93 
Table 10. Synthesis of the key practices of employer branding. 
 
Practices Multinational Technology 
Company 1 
Consulting Firm 1 Multinational Technology 
Company 2 
Consulting Firm 2 Multinational Technology 
Company 3 
Determining employer 
image/narrative 
“The key important point is that 
we wanted the values to really 
relate to every employee working 
here” VPS 
 
“Then the thinking is that we 
need to create persona cards for 
that group, understand them 
really well, who they are, what 
they like, what they don't like, 
what are brands they follow and 
so forth.” Participant 1 
“Especially important for [your] 
employer branding strategy, you 
need to understand the talent 
market. […] understand the 
company's visions, mission, goals, 
strategy, etc. You will not be able 
to make decisions just by ‘I think 
this is like that’ or ‘I believe’ […]” 
Interviewee 1 
“[the research] is very fruitful 
information for us to understand 
what kind of things in employers 
are important for them 
[employees]. So that we can 
think through that do we fit into 
those criteria and are there some 
things we can utilise somehow” 
Interviewee 2 
“[The research] is 
everything. I would never 
do employer branding 
without at least some type 
of research. So first I would 
understand […] the talent 
audiences that we want to 
attract especially. So, we 
need to understand what 
are the most business 
critical and hard to find 
categories. Still, many 
people don't really link the 
employee experience to 
employer branding and 
that's the key phase in 
successful research” 
Interviewee 4 
“[…] We had specific 
questions about our values, 
teamwork, your own work 
development. It is extremely 
helpful.” Interviewee 5 
 
“We were thinking about what 
would be our most important 
target group, and we were also 
thinking about how we 
differentiate ourselves from 
many other employers who are 
also looking for talents. […] 
What we were looking for 
whilst analysing the results 
was […] what is the essence 
and the positive thing about 
working at [our firm]. [The 
research] strengthened how we 
already thought.” Interviewee 
6 
 
 
Strategy formation 
process 
“So we had these 18 experts and 
we asked them to bring that 
knowledge [data, research, 
expertise] into the workshops 
and that co-creation process. 
Our strategy is that we start 
integrating it [the EVP] as soon 
as possible and as many 
“let's make sure that your EVP is 
not a repetition of your 
neighbours. We do […] smaller 
group sessions with these big 
group of 30 people and we 
separate them maximum 10 people 
and we do exercises with them. We 
identify the overlaps, the gaps, and 
then we work from there. And … 
“We are building the employee 
value proposition and employer 
brand based on the new overall 
[corporate] brand. […] I don’t 
think you can fully separate the 
[corporate] brand from the 
employer brand. We have been 
discussing that we have a clear 
frame globally. We can say that 
“What I always say to my 
clients is like [EVP is] ever 
evolving. [EVP creation] is 
an iterative process. […] 
The communication 
strategy is filling the 
“We created it [EVP] so that 
there is a main message, but it 
can be very nicely applied to 
address different target groups 
and different needs and 
situations” Interviewee 6 
94 
channels and ways that we can.” 
Participant 1 
 
“One thing that we are working 
on and doing in the Americas is 
teaming up with our marketing 
on conference in making sure 
that when we go to different 
conferences within the areas or 
within the regions that if there is 
an opportunity to sell [the 
company] as an employer that 
we can do that.” Participant 2 
 
“We have the Ambassador 
Group that we are now 
establishing […] to speak the 
message of our employer 
branding strategy” Participant 9 
we come to a point where … we 
discuss… the overall topics that 
the EVP should be talking about.” 
Interviewee 1 
 
“The goal setting and the target 
groups are usually the ones that 
are really big on that sort of 
communication strategy creation. 
I think it's really important to be 
open minded to optimizing it. […] 
If you see that something is really 
not resonating at all and that 
people are not getting it, make sure 
you highlight this.” Interviewee 3 
 
“These projects can last up to 6-7 
months” Interviewee 1 
these are the things that globally 
we want to have in a similar way 
everywhere. But at the same 
time, we also have the 
localisation and segmentation 
guidance.” Interviewee 8 
 
“So of course we all need to be 
aligned with the global strategy, 
but then it is up to countries to 
figure out that how does it fit for 
them and have some flexibility 
here and there so that they can 
use it as they see” Interviewee 2 
 
“We have been training the 
employees and managers that 
these are the key messages and 
this is how you can for example, 
set up your social media 
accounts and start to promote in 
those channels and how you can 
get the message out” 
Interviewee 8 
 
“If we combine the whole brand 
process, I will say we are looking 
between 9 to 12 months …” 
Interviewee 8 
 
 
blanks. […] Usually, the 
most effective is when we 
get [internal] employees to 
take part in the activities. 
We implement the 
campaigns through 
meetups, seminars, 
conferences. Yeah, those 
can be or internal 
knowledge sharing events 
or external knowledge 
sharing events. It's a lot 
about trainings, arranging 
trainings and also 
individual sparring” 
Interviewee 4 
 
I know that some big, big 
companies, [the employer 
branding process] can take 
a year” Interviewee 4 
 
“It was definitely a 
collaboration. And then 
working systematically 
together to then come to a 
successful end result. Again I 
have attended the global 
marketing and communication 
meetings to encourage much 
collaboration with different 
parts of the organisation on the 
EVP topic as much as possible. 
[…] Social media has become 
more and more important that 
we had a joint training session 
to make it relevant as well” 
Interviewee 5 
 
“There is no separate track. It 
is integrated into the 
[organisational] strategy 
process. It is very important to 
focus to build the employer 
brand but then is also the 
performance and whatever the 
95 
company does, affects it as 
well.” Interviewee 6 
 
“When the work started and 
when the guidebook was done 
and we were ready to hand it 
for implementation, I think it 
was nine months” Interviewee 
5 
Evaluation of outcomes “Of course, the number of 
applications per year. So we 
have a good talent pool, but we 
also want to focus on quality of 
the applicants.” Participant 9 
“So we have much more clear 
metrics. The return on investment 
from these campaigns is that you 
actually get those goals met and 
then the client starts to see more 
applications.” Interviewee 3 
“The external ones, of course we 
are looking at the recruitment 
KPI at the moment. Do we get 
more relevant candidates, and do 
we decrease the time to hire? 
And internally we have been 
following up, for example, these 
referrals that how much our 
people refer the people …” 
Interviewee 2 
“So we need to understand 
from the ATS the applicant 
tracking system like what 
are the sources of the leads 
and what's the quality of 
them. Not just random like 
applications, but highly 
relevant and qualified 
talent leads.” Interviewee 
4 
“The Universum and other 
surveys is the way we evaluate 
them.  When we get the results 
of the engagement survey, you 
do look at it […]” Interviewee 
5 
 
“Then application volumes 
and application quality […]” 
Interviewee 7 
96 
 
4.2 Cross-case analysis 
The preceding section introduced each individual case and discussed its employer branding 
strategy practices. Following the order of the preceding section (Research → Employee Value 
Proposition → Communication strategy → Communication Material → Action), this section 
will discuss the differences and similarities in the practices between the primary case and the 
secondary cases in connection with SAP and employer branding literature.  
 
In general, the results of cross-case analysis can serve as an ideal model for employer branding 
practices in a multinational technology company.   
 
4.2.1 Research 
A successful employer brand has been the goal of all the individual cases. However, such a 
feat cannot be attained in the vacuum. Undoubtedly, adequate research is the root for the suc-
cess of businesses. Same is the case when creating an EVP and/or an employer brand strat-
egy. Without research, the EVP and the whole employer branding strategy would be based on 
assumption. The creation of an EVP and subsequently an employer branding strategy de-
mands understanding the experience of internal employees and employer perceptions 
by externals through research. Although all the individual cases conducted research (a 
common praxis) or had some existing data prior to developing their EVPs and employer 
branding strategies, the degree of research differ considerably. More specifically, as the Mul-
tinational Technology Company 1’s Narrative (corporate values) – which is the basis for the 
development of their EVP – was based on desktop research, only the aspirations of manage-
ment were factored. In essence, internal employee experiences and external data of talents 
were missing. On the contrary, the secondary cases mentioned that prior to developing their 
EVPs, different types of research were conducted to identify the aspirations of management, 
the current employment experience, the employer image within and beyond the industry of 
operation, as well as the competitors who are competing for the same talents.  
In short, the research conducted by the secondary cases (especially Consulting Firm 1 and 
Consulting Firm 2) managed to understand three key perspectives such as strategic perspec-
tives, internal (employee) perspectives, and external (potential candidates and competitors) 
perspectives. This corresponds to the Mosley and Schmidt’s (2017) suggestion that the 
97 
diagnostics prior to the creation of an EVP and subsequently an employer branding strategy 
must include ‘employment experience’, ‘external perception’, and ‘competition’ (p. 41, 42). 
It can be understood that the research conducted by the primary case company– herein Multi-
national Technology Company 1 – for their ‘Narrative’ fulfilled the strategic perspectives and 
fell short of the other two – a clear gap in this case. This may mean that an EVP created from 
only the aspirational source may lack grounded reality of employment experience and candi-
dates’ needs. Mosley and Schmidt (2017) argued that research that informs the creation of 
corporate values has potential for the creation of an EVP. However, an EVP built on research 
devoid of the elements of employee experience and external talents may not be able to stand 
the test of time. Therefore, having a dataset that addresses the three key perspectives is a pro-
active approach that enables the creation of an ideal, credible and resonant EVP. If not, a re-
active approach may be required to finetune the EVP. 
Agreeably, knowledge of industry trends was mentioned as a central tool when conducting 
research. This serves as an underlying support to asking the right questions to gather relevant 
data. Moreover, tools that foster communication, data gathering, and analysis is unani-
mous. In general, the routine for all the cases was searching for drivers. Critically, the pri-
mary case was in search of the drivers of corporate values whereas the secondary cases were 
searching for the drivers of talents’ interests (perceptions) relative to corporate values.  
 
 
4.2.2 Employee Value Proposition 
When discussing about EVP development, there were mutual thoughts amongst all the cases 
about authenticity and distinctiveness of EVP in alignment with corporate brand. On top 
of that, all the cases view EVP as a long-term project. However, the most apparent difference 
between Multinational Technology Company 1 and the rest of the cases is the duration for the 
creation of the EVP. Contrary to the secondary cases who claim that EVP development takes 
between six months to a year and half, Multinational Technology Company 1 constructed its 
global EVP within five weeks. Gharsallah (2022) maintain that it can take up to one year to 
develop an EVP. In essence, EVP development takes time. This could mean that – as Mos-
ley and Schmidt (2017) put it – Multinational Technology Company 1 fell into “the common 
temptation to fast-forward to a new employe[e] value proposition” after senior management 
has given the green light to invest in employer branding (p. 42). 
 
98 
It is imperative to note that taking a considerable time to develop an EVP ensures that all the 
key issues are addressed in the build up to a relevant and resonant EVP. From the interviews 
it was also revealed that redefining or redeveloping the EVP in a multinational company 
within three to five years is vital. This is consistent with Mosley’s (2014) empirical findings 
that most employers revisit “their EVPs every 4-5 years” (p. 142).  
 
Tools that support communication and copy writing are central for all the cases in the cre-
ation of the EVP. Indeed, communicating and documenting is a necessity when strategizing 
(creating an EVP). Aggerholm et al. (2011) postulate that communication has gone beyond 
being identified as a mere problem-solving tool to be seen as an essential part of an organisa-
tion’s “dialogical processes, complex discursive formations and interpretation of meaning 
among the organi[s]ational stakeholders” (p. 106). In spite of that it is unsurprising per se to 
identify that (various) communication tools were mentioned by all the cases. As strategy tools 
are central to the strategy planning process, it can be drawn that communication and copy-
writing tools are strategy tools that form an integral part of the EVP process (Jarzabkowski & 
Spee, 2009). 
 
The most common routine amongst all the cases is the collaborative creation of the EVP. All 
the cases also observed weekly meetings. From a strategic management perspective – SAP 
specifically – the development of the EVP and creation of the employer branding strategy 
process across all the cases can be seen to alternate between deliberate and emergent pro-
cesses. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel (1998) assert that there is the need to mix deliberate 
and emergent strategies to “exercise control while fostering learning” (p.11). Undoubtedly, 
the interplay between deliberate and emergent processes is considered the best strategic ap-
proach in this ever-changing business environment and can be attained by virtue of collabora-
tion (Bodwell & Chermack, 2010: Mintzberg & Walters, 1985). Multinational Technology 
Company 1 and Multinational Technology Company 2 observed benchmarking in their EVP 
development process. However, the rest of the cases did not mention that as a routine. Mosley 
and Schmidt (2017) propound that benchmarking competitors activity allows for comparative 
assessment and tailoring of EVP. Therefore, benchmarking is an essential routine in the pro-
cess. 
 
Team formation and co-creation is a common praxis amongst across all the cases when de-
velopment the EVP. Although this study focusses on practices, the role of actors in the 
99 
process cannot be totally ignored. As SAP scholars put it, practitioners are the people who are 
constituents and shapers of strategy and without them it is impossible to conduct strategy 
work (Whittington, 2006; Piipponen, 2018). Same applies to EVP development and employer 
branding strategizing. Involving the right people in the process is pivotal to the creation of an 
ideal EVP and a successful employer branding strategy. All the cases involved representatives 
from HR, marketing and communication, and talent management. Although this is in line 
with Mosley’s (2014) definition of key stakeholder groups for EVP creation, the scholar rec-
ommends the inclusion of line managers in the process (e.g., interviews, development work-
shops, validation meetings) (p.126). This corresponds to the view of Martin et al. (2011) who 
also suggest the inclusion of line managers in the process. Conversely, the inclusion of line 
managers in the process allows for the alignment of organisational processes and realities 
which further solidifies authenticity and dispels false promises. Aside from that Multinational 
Technology Company 3 involved a representative from their sustainability team. This follows 
Aggerholm et al.’s (2011) re-conceptualisation of employer branding stakeholder definition to 
include corporate social responsibility. This according to the theorists transforms employer 
branding “into a sustainable and trustworthy value-creating process” (Aggerholm et al., 
2011, p. 107).  
 
A common practice in organisations is that the core responsibility of employer branding is of-
ten left on the shoulders of HR. Bäckström (2022) argue that organisation – especially in Fin-
land – treat employer branding as a subset in the job scope of HR and/or marketing. As a re-
sult, employer branding tasks are less prioritised. From a consultative perspective, Consulting 
Firm 1 recommend that having employees or a team (e.g., a global employer branding lead 
and local employer branding managers and/or specialists) dedicated solely for employer 
branding is an ideal way for an efficient and effective practice. 
 
Another crucial difference in the praxis was the issue of testing the EVP. The primary case 
did not conduct a test on its EVP before finalising it. However, Consulting Firm 1 and Con-
sulting Firm 2 mentioned the evaluation of EVP via focus groups (randomly selected employ-
ees) on their preliminary EVP drafts to validate resonance and finetune it if necessary. Mos-
ley and Schmidt’s (2017) described an unvalidated EVP as “a pie-in-the-sky EVP” (p. 79). 
Pawar and Charak’s (2014) study and review of EVP highlight the need to test the EVP in the 
creation stage. Employee surveys may identify employees’ experiences and motivations, but 
it is not sufficient to be a proof point to validate the credibility and appeal of an EVP (Mosley 
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and Schmidt, 2017). Indeed, an EVP devoid of evaluation may deliver false promises which 
will undermine the employer brand. Hence, finetuning of the EVP through testing the pre-
liminary EVP draft with focus groups is an essential praxis that cannot be ignored. Addition-
ally, three of the cases created an EVP guidebook after finalisation. The guidebook is an es-
sential tool which enables a systematic implementation of the EVP across the organisation – 
especially for multinational corporation. Consequently, producing an EVP guidebook is 
crucial.     
 
4.2.3 Communication Strategy 
A common pattern in the discussion of the communication strategy for the employer brand 
were flexibility and corporate brand alignment. Often is the case that in multinational or-
ganisations, communication strategy for the EVP are on a higher level. Mosley (2014) em-
phasize that the core pillars of a global EVP must be translatable to the local level. Hence, 
flexibility is essential to adapt the communication to different target segments. Sanchez 
(1997) propound that strategic flexibility is required to readily respond to changing phenom-
ena. This is achieved through “planning approaches and allowing for locally emergent strat-
egies” for a spontaneous response (Sanchez, 1997, p. 81). Furthermore, the alignment of the 
communication strategy to the corporate brand was emphasised by all the cases. Mosley and 
Schmidt (2017) agree that the integration of employer brand and corporate brand brings con-
sistency outcomes in terms of messaging and visuals. This breeds familiarity and trust, and in 
turn solidifies the brand (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017).  
 
Similar to the EVP development phase, tools that facilitate communication and copywrit-
ing are essential for communication and documentation. Overall, the mutual routine in this 
stage is collaborative strategy development to define the communication of the EVP mes-
sage (key selling points), contents to create, channels of reach, and scheduling plan. From the 
observation, Multinational Technology Company 1 did not define their social media strategy 
perhaps because talent personas were not (yet) defined. This leaves the process unstructured 
and may negatively affect the communication of the employer brand if the right medium of 
delivery is not identified for the right targeted audience.  Mosley and Schmidt (2017) postu-
late that the media preferences of targeted talents (e.g., their social networks and where they 
consume news) should be well defined to enable a smooth mapping when strategizing.   
 
101 
Brainstorming can be seen to play a vital role in all the cases praxis-wise. When strategizing 
about the communication of the EVP, the teams collaborate to ideate on the key selling points 
relative to specified audience, the relevant contents and channels, as well as an editorial cal-
endar. Whilst brainstorming, it is important to document it and create a communication 
handbook. This was mentioned by Multinational Technology Company 3 and Consulting 
Firm 1. The handbook serves as a guideline to enable consistency in the presentation and im-
plementation of the employer branding strategy across the organisation. Moreover, it serves 
as a toolkit to ensure local adaptation (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017). Multinational Technology 
Company 1 neither formalised its communication strategy nor created a communication 
guidebook for its employer branding. This is a praxis that cannot be left out. 
 
4.2.4 Communication Material 
Obviously, the discussion about the creation of communication material(s) revealed similar 
thoughts centred around the coherence of content material relative to specific theme as 
well as consistency with corporate brand. Heilmann et al. (2013) stress on consistency of 
content materials with customer brands and corporate identity. Indeed, consistency is one of 
the traits of successful brands, and it requires a system or a clear framework that can 
synthesise both employer brand and corporate in visual designs (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017). 
As earlier mentioned, brand alignment when done successfully results in a consolidated brand 
image in the eyes of the targeted audience or the community.  
 
When creating communication materials for employer branding, tools that enable 
communication and content production were seen as central. Although all the cases used 
different types of applications and softwares, all the tools served the common purpose of 
communication and content creation. With regards to routines, a shared behaviour in terms of 
concept development, content creation, and review can be identified in all the cases.  
 
Content creation is a common praxis amongst all the cases. Coherent content relative to the 
specified theme and channel (in the form of text, image, video and many more) was 
emphasised strongly. Furthermore, the creation of videos centered around employees’ 
experiences and the employment environment was highlighted. Employee videos estbalish 
authenticity and reality of the employment environment, and it has a huge impact on 
externals. Videos that are 1-2 minute long easily grabs attention (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017).  
102 
 
4.2.5 Action 
The activation of the employer branding strategy in the secondary cases could be seen to fol-
low a clear (global) employer branding framework. This global framework is interlinked with 
the corporate brand to ensure a common implementation with the overall organisational strat-
egy. In contrast, the primary case has no global employer branding framework to guide its 
employer branding strategy activation in various locations. Perhaps this could be attributed to 
the lack of a global employer branding strategy by Multinational Technology Company 1. 
Without a global framework, implementation in the various localities becomes cumbersome 
and may undermine consistency of the employer brand. Therefore, global employer branding 
strategy as well as a global framework of implementation is required in this regard.  
 
It could be identified that all the cases developed their strategies in an incremental manner 
through learning and flexibility to be able to effect the required changes (when needed). It 
was emphasised that whenever an implementation plan is not generating the intended out-
come, there is a possibility to alter it. This according to the Minzbergian view (notion of 
emergence), is an adaptive process that intertwine formulation and implementation 
(Mintzberg &Walters 1985). Indeed, strategy is a complex phenomenon consisting of in-
tended and unintended outcomes (Bakir & Bakir, 2006), and the emergent approach is ideal 
in this phenomenon (Bodwell & Chermack, 2010). In view of these complexities, Kohtamäki 
et. al (2020) call for managerial tools to cope with emergence. More so, the practices of the 
cases support the assertion that organisations have become dynamic and emergent and no 
longer cling to rigidity (Taylor and Van Every, 2000; Cheney et al., 2004; cited in Aggerholm 
et al., 2011). 
 
In this last stage, similar tools are used for publishing and communication purposes. From 
the cases discussed, it could be noticed that all the cases used their intranet, career sites, and 
social media platforms to publish and promote their EVP elements and employer branding 
contents and activities. Survey tools are used to generate feedback from internal employees. 
Aside that social media serves a multifaceted purpose to include analysing published contents 
and/or activities since the channels provide data on the performances of published contents 
and/or activities. It could be inferred that the similarity in the use of social media channels 
such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram in employer branding is conventional in 
103 
the multinational technology industry. Although Consulting Firm 1 and Consulting Firm 2 
mentioned TikTok – a latest short-form video channel –, it seems the multinational technol-
ogy companies are yet to adapt to it. The empirical setting signifies the important role of so-
cial media as a strategy tool. Despite its central role to the cases in this study, there seem to 
be no trace of social media’s role as a strategy-making tool in strategy literature (Piipponen, 
2018). 
 
Facilitating the promotion of employer branding related contents and activities as well 
as following-up of promotional activities are an essential routine in all the cases. All the 
cases promote employer branding internally and externally. The discussion with the various 
cases revealed that constant communication is a necessity to ensure effective promotion. 
 
All the cases activate their employer branding strategy through implementation and evalua-
tion. Implementation concerns the use of different mechanisms to market the EVP and/or em-
ployer branding activities to internals and externals. This is realised through virtual platforms 
and physical events. A common practice in the implementation stage is event participation 
(e.g. career event, seminars, and many more) and publishing contents on company sites and 
social media. Furthermore, the importance of employee advocacy was strongly highlighted. 
Simply put, employee advocacy is a deliberate programme geared towards training existing 
employees to become ambassadors of the employer. In a sense, this mechanism reveals the 
true experiences of employees in the working environment, churns an authentic message and 
a serve as a source of attracting externals. As earlier stated, words from employees about their 
employer is believed three times more than what is communicated by senior management or 
through official marketing communication (LinkedIn Talent Solution, 2016). Consequently, it 
can be drawn that employee advocacy can be used as an avenue for prospective employees to 
properly assess the employee experience of a firm and aid their decision-making. The imple-
mentation of employee advocacy complements Moroko and Uncles’ (2008) stance on using 
corporate product brands “as a proxy for understanding employer brands” (p. 167). 
 
The other praxis, evaluation, analyses the performance of the implementations of the em-
ployer branding. All the cases mentioned the use of annual internal survey to assess the per-
formance of the employer brand from existing employees. Moreover, employee referral, em-
ployee engagements and employee lifecycle are other means of evaluation. Externally, all the 
cases monitor their recruitment performance (e.g, application volume, application quality, 
104 
duration per hire), social media engagements, and external studies related to employer brand-
ing. With regards to the targeted impact after implementation, a similar goal by all the cases 
is attaining highly qualified leads or quality applicants.  
 
Overall, it could be deduced that a strong collaboration and engagement across and beyond 
the organisation is paramount for a successful activation of the employer branding strategy. 
Leaving employer branding to only one department in an organisation is a dangerous mistake 
and tantamount to failure. HR, Marketing & Communications, Sales, and the business func-
tions need to collaborate extensively for a systematic and consistent communication of the 
organisation as a corporate body and as an employer. Additionally, intensive engagement with 
existing employees in a dialogical process is required to align corporate values and behav-
iours. This will evoke strong emotional affinity, sense of belonging, and leads to employee 
commitment and loyalty (Minchington, 2007; Staniec & Kalińska-Kula, 2021). 
 
In conclusion, it can be stated the practices of employer branding strategy in the primary case 
have many similarities in common with other multinational technology companies as well as 
the practices of the consulting firms featured in this study. However, the few gaps that were 
identified such as the degree of research data, testing the EVP, creating a global employer 
branding strategy and a guidebook are crucial and must be given the necessary attention to 
get the employer branding flourished. In general, the role of engagement is crucial in all 
stages of the employer branding strategy process as it reveals the priorities of senior manage-
ment, the actual motivations and experience of existing employees, and the preferences and 
interests from externals in the research phase; fosters the creation of a relevant and resonant 
EVP for both internal and external stakeholders in the EVP stage; facilitate the creation of a 
coherent communication strategy and communication materials; and serve as an enabler for a 
successful implementation. The figure below presents the summary of the cross-case analy-
sis. 
105 
 
 
Figure 22. Formation of employer branding practices in a multinational technology company. 
  
106 
5 CONCLUSION 
5.1 Theoretical implications 
Employer branding has become an active practice in organisations, especially in multina-
tional corporations due to the increasing war for qualified talents to survive in this disruptive 
employment era. By acquiring and retaining the best talents, this enables firms to sustain their 
competitive advantage (Berthon et al., 2005; Chhabra & Sharma, 2014; Staniec & Kalińska-
Kula, 2021). In this regard, employer branding has become a “licence to operate” (Agger-
holm et al., 2011, p. 106) and require significant attention. Previous literature on employer 
branding has examined employees (both current and prospective), employer brands manage-
ment, motives and practices of employer branding, and attractiveness of employer brand 
(Mölk, 2018). Moreover, current studies on the subject matter has focused on outcomes rather 
than processes (Aggerholm et al., 2011). Despite that the literature that conceptualise the em-
ployer branding processes neglect the micro-level details in the employer branding work. 
Hence, the actual doings in the development and implementation processes of employer 
branding are less known.  
 
The aim of this study has been to explore the practices involved in the formation of an em-
ployer branding strategy in a multinational technology company in a bid to shift the focus 
from “predefined outcomes” (Aggerholm et al., 2011, p. 118) to deepen the understanding of 
the processes. The thesis began with exploring the background and definition of employer 
branding. Subsequently, the characteristics (Moroko and Uncles 2008), benefits (Sullivan, 
2004: Branham, 2001: Boxall, 2008: Heilmann et al., 2013: Berthon et al., 2005) and chal-
lenges of employer branding were treated (Backhaus, 2016: Moroko & Uncles, 2008: Max-
well & Knox, 2009). Afterwards, few employer branding process models (Backhaus & 
Tikoo,2004: Parment & Dyhre 2009: Bagienska 2018) were discussed and compared, and a 
five-step process model by Universum was selected. The steps in the model include research, 
employee value proposition, communication strategy, communication material, and action. 
 
The practice perspectives of strategic management – herein SAP – was treated as it serves as 
a good lens to examine the practices in the formation of employer branding strategy from a 
practical approach. SAP is relevant for the employer branding process as it enhances the un-
derstanding of organisational actions and societal practices (Vaara & Whittington, 2012: Nini, 
107 
2016). The background and linkages of SAP (Kohtamäki et al., 2022; Vaara & Whittington, 
2012: Whittington, 1996:2006), and the three elements of SAP – practices, praxis and practi-
tioners – were discussed (Seidl & Whittington, 2014: Jarzabkowski et al., 2007a: Whittington 
2006). Furthermore, HRM-as-practice was discussed as it serves as an interplay between HR 
literature and strategic management literature (Björkman et al., 2014). Afterwards, the em-
ployer branding literature and the SAP were synthesised. In this instance, the selected five-
step process model was combined with the two main practice categories of discourse (sayings 
in discursive practices) and doing (tools or technologies, routines, and praxis). The combina-
tion creates a model used in analysing five different cases as well as making a cross-case 
analysis. In short, an in-depth multiple case study was used to unravel the processes of em-
ployer branding work by using saying and doings to map the development and implementa-
tion process (Kohtamäki et. al, 2021). 
 
The findings of the study reveals a great deal of similarities in the practices as far as the for-
mation of employer branding strategy is concerned although there are differences in the mi-
cro-level details that cannot be ignored. All the cases acknowledged the importance of re-
search as a practice prior to creating an employer branding strategy. That said, there were dif-
ferences between the primary case and the secondary cases regarding the depth of research 
that was conducted. Nonetheless, there is similar routine of searching for drivers with the 
support of industry knowledge. In addition, there exist a mutuality in the praxis of conducting 
internal and external research. 
 
Creating an authentic and distinctive EVP in alignment with corporate brand (Mosley & 
Schmidt, 2017) is a mutual thought amongst all the cases when developing EVP. This corrob-
orates the fact that EVP is a core component of an employer brand and the formulation of its 
strategy as it serves as the main differentiator of a company’s employer brand and that of its 
competitors (Arasanmi & Krishna, 2019; Bagienska, 2018). More so, all the cases have a 
similar view that EVP is created for the long-term but needs to be revisited to stay relevant.  
However, the duration of EVP development was a clear difference between the primary case 
and the secondary cases. Collaborative strategy creation (Bodwell & Chermack, 2010: 
Mintzberg & Walters, 1985) of the EVP was seen as a mutual routine facilitated by communi-
cation and copywriting tools. In spite of that benchmarking (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017) during 
the development process was the difference amongst the cases. In general, the EVP stage 
identified similar praxes such as team formation and co-creation. However, the dissimilarity 
108 
lies in the testing and finetuning of the EVP. This is a requirement that cannot be skipped 
when the goal is to have an authentic EVP (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017). 
 
Alternately, creating a flexible communication strategy (Mosley, 2014) for the employer 
brand in alignment with the corporate brand was a common pattern found in the third stage. 
Routine and tools in this stage is the same as the ones in the preceding phase. There lies a 
commonality in the praxes in terms of brainstorming on the messaging, contents to create, 
and the channels to use. The main difference is that the primary case did not formalise its 
communication strategy for the EVP. Another difference amongst the cases is the creation of 
a communication handbook (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017). The gaps mentioned in the praxes are 
crucial and must be given utmost attention.  
 
Creating content material for employer branding purposes have similar thoughts centred 
around coherence and consistency (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017). The mutual routines – concept 
development, content creation, and review – brings the EVP to life with the support of com-
munication and content production tools. It was interpreted that coherent content relative to 
the specified theme and channel is a requisite. The mutual praxes in the fourth stage is related 
to creating contents centred around employees’ experiences and the employment environ-
ment. 
 
Similar amongst all the cases, the employer branding strategy is seen to be activated in an in-
cremental fashion (Mintzberg &Walters 1985). Notwithstanding, there is a clear difference 
between the primary case and the secondary cases with regards to implementing the employer 
branding strategy using a global framework. Tools used in the action stage support launch-
ing/publishing, promoting, and evaluating employer branding contents and/or activities as 
well as communicating with stakeholders. Routines-wise, facilitating the promotion and fol-
low-ups of employer branding activities is mutual.  The actual doing in the last stage is im-
plementing the employer brand by marketing it to internal and external stakeholders and eval-
uating the performance. It was strongly interpreted that there is a strong need for employee 
advocacy to enable a successful promotion of the employer brand to externals. Moreover, so-
cial media is highlighted as the most important tool in promoting and analysing the perfor-
mance of the EVP and employer brand. In addition, the need for a strong collaboration and 
engagement across and beyond the organisation was strongly highlighted. Indeed, there are 
109 
mutual patterns found between the primary case and the secondary cases. However, the gaps 
identified are less but crucial, and should be given considerable attention. 
 
In summary, this thesis contributes to research in both employer branding and SAP. The re-
search broadens the scope of the employer branding research field to include strategy-as-
practice. As the first theoretical contribution, this research through the SAP approach adds a 
new perspective to the already existing literature of employer branding dominated by the 
marketing and human resource disciplines (e.g. Backhaus, 2016: Backhaus &Tikoo, 2004: 
Aggerholm et. al, 2011: Kaur & Sharma, 2015). More specifically, this thesis unwinds the mi-
cro-level details of employer branding process neglected by employer branding scholars by 
using the sayings and doings of practice theory in SAP to reflect and shape the employer 
branding journey (Kohtamäki et. al, 2021) and reaffirms that praxis and practices as interde-
pendent and mutually constitutive (Vaara & Whittington, 2012). Moreover, three main topics 
of practices (determining employer image/narrative, strategy formation process, and evalua-
tion of outcomes) which emerged from second order categories were identified from the con-
nection between empirical data and both theories in this study. 
 
On top of that, this study responds to the research gap in the less attention given to employer 
branding in the strategic management discipline raised by Mölk (2018), shifts the focus of 
employer branding research from outcomes to processes called by Aggerholm et al. (2011), 
and contribute directly to the studies on ‘practices’ in SAP (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009: Ba-
logun & Johnson 2004, 2005; Laine and Vaara 2007; Samra-Fredericks 2003, 2005; Vaara et 
al. 2004: Vaara & Whittington, 2012). In this way, the scope of explanation of employer 
branding strategizing is widened (Vaara & Whittington, 2012). 
 
Additionally, this study contributes to the emerging HRM-as-practice theory proposed by 
Björkman et al. (2014). Specifically, this work contribute to the intersection of practices and 
praxis lenses as it highlights the role of HR people in the execution of employer branding 
work. Furthermore, the exploratory analysis model proposed – comprising of the combination 
employer branding process and SAP – serves as a contribution to both employer branding and 
SAP theories as well as a gateway for further research. Overall, this study argues that merg-
ing of employer branding literature with SAP theory is an important way to enhance the un-
derstanding of the actions, interactions, and the flows of activity as well as the frameworks, 
110 
tools and technologies that shape employer branding work. Moreover the merging of both 
theories strengthen the links between theory and corporate reality. 
 
5.2 Managerial implications 
Employer branding is still considered an emerging approach for the acquisition and retention 
of highly qualified talents in this increasingly competitive employment environment. The 
findings in this study provides value for managers and especially for the primary case (Multi-
national Technology Company 1). The findings in the practices of employer branding strategy 
formation in a multinational technology company demonstrate that the creation of an ideal 
EVP and subsequently an employer branding strategy demands understanding the experi-
ences of internal employees and employer perceptions, and this is acquired through in-depth 
research that fulfils the strategic (management) perspectives, internal (employees) perspec-
tives, and external (potential candidates and competitors) perspectives (Mosley & Schmidt, 
2017, p. 41-55). Since the primary case’s research fulfils only one perspective, it is prudent to 
fulfil the other perspectives to ascertain the resonance of the EVP. More so, Multinational 
Technology Company 1 will need to have a global consensus as to the talent in need and to 
attract. 
 
Secondly, EVP development takes time. The need to spend considerable length of time on an 
EVP development project ensures that all the critical processes that will bring better out-
comes such as in-depth research, collaboration, and many more are exhausted. Furthermore, 
testing to finetune EVP in the development stage is often overlooked by many companies be-
cause they believe data from research is sufficient as a proof point. This is a deadly mistake 
that can render an EVP irrelevant. Multinational Technology Company 1 will need to test its 
EVP with focus groups to assess its authenticity and resonance (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017). 
This recommendation is applicable to all companies developing their EVPs.  
 
Additionally, the role of actors in the EVP development stage was emphasised. The inclusion 
of line managers and selected regular employees that represent all part of the organisation 
(Aggerholm et al., 2011) – aside from the commonly known representatives from HR, talent 
acquisition, marketing & communication and branding – is crucial in the EVP development 
process. This strengthens the dialogical creation process that results in the development of an 
authentic and highly resonant EVP. Moreover, this changes the helicopter structure of 
111 
strategy development and make it more open, resulting in a more robust employer branding 
strategy bearing less rejections during implementation (Mölk, 2018). Furthermore, involving 
an external consultant when crafting EVP is recommended especially when the company 
does not have a team who have adequate knowledge, skills and experiences in EVP strategiz-
ing. Aside that, external consultants usually have sets of data which can be resourceful in the 
EVP development process. 
 
Practicing employer branding as a multinational organisation requires consistent communica-
tion in all locales. Hence, creating a communication handbook and a global framework of im-
plementation for employer branding purposes is important. This happens when the company 
creates a global employer branding framework. 
 
The scope of employer branding tasks was highlighted in the findings. Management in multi-
national technology companies could strengthen the practice of employer branding by finding 
a dedicated and diverse team solely for employer branding. This could comprise of an em-
ployer branding global lead and local representatives. A dedicated team can prioritise all em-
ployer related tasks, which is key to effective and efficient practice. Furthermore, the practice 
of employer branding is not for a particular team but the entire organisation. Most especially, 
HR, Marketing & Communications, Sales, and the managers of the business functions need to 
collaborate extensively for a systematic and consistent communication of the organisation as 
a corporate entity and as an employer. Rightly put by Backhaus (2016), “consistency in mes-
saging, both internally and externally, results in a greater employee commitment of the over-
all brand” (p.12). 
 
Often when marketing employer branding, many organisations tend to concentrate much on 
external marketing and less on internal marketing. However, employer branding is not devel-
oped to only create a positive image to externals (Backhaus, 2016). Thus, less concentration 
on internal (employer) branding ultimately destabilises the employer brand. Before marketing 
a brand as an employer to externals, it is prudent to communicate it to existing employees. In-
ternal employer branding has a positive impact on organisational identity and help shape the 
understanding of existing employees with regards to unique attributes of the organisation 
(Backhaus, 2016: Maxwell & Knox, 2009).  As such, management could foster strong en-
gagement with employees across the organisation to ensure delivery of employment prom-
ises, understanding employees’ experiences and realities, as well as addressing other agendas 
112 
that will enhance retention (Mosley & Schmidt, 2017, p.122). Indeed, retention of internals 
preserves “valuable, rare and inimitable human resources” that leads to competitive ad-
vantage (App, Merk & Buttger, 2013: Backhaus 2016, p. 15). Furthermore, HR can leverage 
on employer branding to improve recruitment activities to enhance candidate experience 
which in turn impacts the employer image and brand.  
 
It is imperative to note that employer branding require substantial investment in terms of 
money, time, and resources. Moreover, the impact of employer branding takes time. Hence, 
management could avoid high(er) expectations in the short term. The role of social media 
was emphasised in this study. Hence, considering a social media strategy in the employer 
branding work is important.  
 
Overall, employer branding is an ever-evolving process because preferences of talents change 
over time. Due to this, a static employer image will become less appealing and perhaps be-
come obsolete over time. Therefore, there is the need to revisit the EVP. For a multinational 
company, 3-5 years is a recommended period to revisit the development of the EVP (Mosley 
& Schmidt, 2017: Backhaus, 2016). Since multinational companies are prone to change man-
agement, it is important to adapt the employer branding message to match the current reality. 
This will build trust and prevent reputational damage (Backhaus, 2016). 
 
5.3 Limitation and suggestions for future research 
Due to the fierce competition for talents in the labour market, employer branding has become 
significant. Therefore, employer branding as an emerging field has a lot of potential. Most es-
pecially, its introduction to the strategic management discipline is relatively new. Hence, 
there are several opportunities for further research. This thesis explores the formation of em-
ployer branding practices in multinational technology companies using the SAP practice 
lenses. Similar studies could be conducted for small and medium-sized enterprises using the 
same analysis framework created in this study. This could be of assistance to comparing the 
practices between large firms and small and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, as the cases 
employed in this study originate from only one country which is a limitation, further studies 
conducted in different countries could increase the understanding of the practices of employer 
branding in different locales.  Alternatively, a study could be conducted using the lenses of 
practitioners and practices, or practitioners and praxis to explore the employer branding 
113 
strategizing process. These intersections (see Björkman et al., 2014) could give more insight 
on the actions and influences of actors and their practices in employer branding strategizing.  
 
In addition, the study mentioned numerous social platforms to include TikTok. It was realised 
that the multinational technology companies are yet to utilise emerging social media chan-
nels. It would be interesting to study emerging social media platforms and their impact on 
employer branding marketing. Furthermore, investigating how employees make sense (draw-
ing from Heidegger’s sensemaking) of employer branding strategies could uncover and en-
hance employer branding best practices. 
 
Another study could examine the coordination of how corporate strategy, business strategy 
and employer branding strategy is crafted. How does each of the process interrelate and var-
ies? The resource-based view has been utilised in employer branding to support the claim of 
attaining competitive advantage through the retention of valuable, rare, and inimitable work-
force.  Likewise, the effects of dynamic capabilities on employer branding could be exam-
ined. This could give more insights into how the renewal and reconfiguration of a firm’s re-
sources can be a source of attraction and retention of employees. A study of a sort will further 
contribute to research in both employer branding and strategic management. 
 
114 
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APPENDICES 
APPENDIX 1 
Interviews questions for secondary Multinational Technology Companies 
 
Name of case:                                    Interviewee’s position:                                         Date of interview: 
 
How did your employer branding journey start? How has its progress been? 
 
Research 
Prior to constructing your EB strategy did you conduct research? If yes, what informed the research?  
What kind of research was conducted? Internal or external? What kind of analysis was done?  
Which tools were used in conducting the research? What kind of routines did you have when researching? 
How valuable was the research? What was the research used for? 
 
Employee Value Proposition 
How was your EVP developed? Who were involved in the development process? 
What kinds of routines did you have when creating the EVP? Tools? 
Is the EVP constructed on the global level same as the local level? 
 
Communication Strategy 
What kinds of processes are involved in the creation of the communication strategy? 
What do you consider/emphasize in the communication strategy?  
What kinds of routines were observed? Tools? 
Is the communication strategy global or localised? 
 
Communication Material 
What kind of materials do you create for your EB campaign? 
What do you factor in the creation of communications materials? What tools do you use? 
What is done for internals? What is done for externals? 
What kinds of routines are involved in the creation of communication materials? 
 
Action 
How do you implement the EB strategy?  
What kind of routines do you observe in the EB strategy implementation process? Tools? 
What is the role of employees, line managers, and others in the implementation process? 
What has been the (targeted) impact after implementation? How do you monitor and evaluate the implementation?  
Do you alter the EB strategy after evaluation? 
 
  
123 
APPENDIX 2 
 
Interview questions for Consulting Firms 
 
Name of case:                                    Interviewee’s position:                                         Date of interview: 
 
In a general perspective how will you describe an employer branding strategy process? 
 
Research 
Prior to constructing EB strategy do you conduct research? If yes, what informs the research?  
What kind of research is conducted? Internal or external? What kind of analysis is done?  
Which tools are used in conducting the research? What kind of routines do you have when researching? 
How valuable was the research? What was the research used for? 
 
Employee Value Proposition 
How do you develop EVP? How involved are you in the EVP development process with your clients? 
Who else are involved? What kinds of routines do you observed in the creation of the EVP? Tools? 
Is the EVP constructed on the global level same as the local level? 
 
Communication Strategy 
What kinds of processes are involved in the creation of the communication strategy? 
What do you consider/emphasize in the communication strategy?  
What kinds of routines were observed? Tools? 
Is the communication strategy global or localised? 
 
Communication Material 
What kind of materials do you create for your EB campaign? 
What do you factor in the creation of communications materials? What tools do you use? 
What is done for internals? What is done for externals? 
What kinds of routines are involved in the creation of communication materials? 
 
Action 
How do you implement the EB strategy?  
What kind of routines is observed in the EB strategy implementation process? Tools? 
What is the role of employees, line managers, and others in the implementation process? 
What has been the (targeted) impact after implementation? How do you monitor and evaluate the implementation?  
Do you alter the EB strategy after evaluation?