CSR & Diversity as Online Signals to Attract Prospective Employees.
| Author | Yadav, Rama Shankar |
| Position | Corporate social responsibilities |
Introduction
Talented employees are important constituents of human capital. In recent times research on human capital has witnessed an augmented attention in the field of management. It is well established that the human capital of any organization enhances the knowledge repositories and performance of the organizations. Further, it can also help in attaining competitive advantage to the organizations (Cascio & Boudreau, 2016; Al-Alawi, Al-Marzooqi & Mohammed, 2007; Barney & Wright, 1998). Although significant contributions are made by talented employees in an organization but there lies a distinct challenge before the organizations in attracting talented employees because of better mobility options (Schuler, Jackson & Tarique, 2011). Hence, owing to the competence and contribution of the human capital, organizations have started adopting various innovative strategies to attract them globally (Collings & Cascio, 2019; Quinn, Rynes & Bretz, 2002). It is not an exaggeration that organizations have indulged into war of talent to attract and influence job choices of these prospective employees (Beechler & Woodward, 2009; Elving et al., 2013; McKinsey, 1998). In order to win the battle employers have started projecting positive information in the labor market (Beechler & Woodward, 2009). This information acts as a signal to the prospective employees (Spence, 1978).
In the entire game of perception management for attracting talent, organizations are not only exhausting word of mouth, print media but also online media (Jonsen, Point, Kelan & Grieble, 2019). The entire process gives an opportunity to the job seekers to evaluate the employers and choose the one which fits their requirements. In recent times the escalating relevance of internet has led organizations to formulate and implement different online strategies in order to attract prospective employees. Lee (2005), Doherty (2010), Elving et al. (2013), Ladkin & Buhalis (2016) have validated that prominent organizations not only disseminate relevant information on their websites, social media platforms but also have interactive online interface to interact with prospective employees.
The extant literature review suggests that organizations are using online platforms for transmitting positive information to be employer of choice. However, there remains a scarcity of literature which dialogs about the broad themes and types of information disseminated via internet by the organizations for attracting the prospective employees (Jonsen, Point, Kelan &Grieble, 2019). Moreover, there are very few studies which have compared the online information disseminated by organizations globally (Jonsen, Point, Kelan & Grieble, 2019).
In this study the authors try to fill the above-mentioned gaps using Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and content analysis of online information disseminated by top 20 organizations of the world. The content analysis identified the major themes disseminated by the organizations on their websites and Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) identified the top four parameters highlighted by the organizations on their websites in order to attract prospective employees. In the following sections a detailed literature review, research methodology, result analysis of the study along with discussion and implication section are presented.
Literature Review
Organizational environment is becoming increasingly dynamic and complex. These complexities have resulted into new challenges for the organizations at the global level. One major challenge which has emerged before the organizations is attraction and retention of talented employees (Cascio & Boudreau, 2016; Schuler, Jackson & Tarique, 2011). Attraction and retention of talented employees become more critical given the shortage of talent globally. In order to be employer of choice, organizations started disseminating valuable information not only through print media but also on websites and other online platforms.
Organization's website serves as a major channel to organize all the important signals at one place and also serves the purpose of increasing their familiarity, brand attractiveness with the job seekers (Doherty, 2010). There are studies which suggest that online signals disseminated by the organizations influence job seeker's perception. In a study conducted by Gregory et al (2013) it was found that more than 50 percent of the prospective applicants originate through online platforms. Thus, it has cost saving implications too for the organizations. Hence, given the advantage ofthe online medium almost all major organizations including government sector and private sector are capitalizing it for influencing the job seekers.
Some studies have also tried to examine the impact of social media presence of organizations on shaping the perception ofjob seekers. It was found that their perception changed after an exposure to the organization's website. In the same vein Backhaus, Stone and Heiner (2002), Du, Bhattacharya & Sen (2010), Yadav, Dash, Chakraborty & Kumar (2018) etc. emphasized the importance of displaying Corporate Social Responsibility activities (Rendtorff, 2018) on organizational websites in order to create a positive impact on potential employees. Thus, in order to increase familiarity about the organizations and to influence prospective employees organizations use their websites. Organizational websites serve as an important tool for employer branding and impression management (Winter, Saunders, and Hart, 2003; Ladkin & Buhalis, 2016). Hence prospective employees exhaustively search organizational websites in order to make more informed choices about their job.
Limitations in Existing Studies
The limitations in existing studies are illustrated in fig. 1 and later discussed. Despite the importance of the online platforms in disseminating organizational information which ultimately helps in attracting and recruiting prospective employees, there remains a dearth of literature which talks about the nature of information or signals disseminated by the top organizations in the world (Jonsen, Point, Kelan & Grieble, 2019). Further, there are very few studies which have compared the nature of information disseminated by local organizations and global organizations. Hence, there emerges an opportunity to conduct a research exploring types of information disseminated through online platforms by organizations in order to attract and recruit prospective employees. Thus, in this study we try to fill the existing gap with the help of content analysis of websites of top 20 organizations. The techniques used in the proposed method are discussed below:
Fuzzy-Analytical Hierarchy Process
Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process [FAHP] is applicable when there are multiple factors that are uncertain to quantify. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process [FAHP] (Singh & Prasher, 2019) integrates the fuzzy concept to Analytic Hierarchy Process [AHP] (Windy & Saaty,1980). AHP makes the pair-wise comparison of the factors using crisp notation. In FuzzyAHP, the pair-wise comparisons of both criteria and the alternatives are carried out through the fuzzy triangular...
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