Abstract
In 2007 Erickson and Gratton asked “What it means to work here” and discussed the need for a structured approach to establishing an employer image among potential employees. In July 2007, Lee also proposed an architecture for a next-generation holistic e-recruiting system. Based on these ideas and a design science approach we propose an extension of this framework by adding employer branding as an important new component and structured sub-process. Based on an extensive review of IS and HR literature, we show how employer branding should be integrated into the existing architecture to develop and implement an effective employer branding strategy. The results are a first step towards an architecture for a holistic e-HR management system.
TopProblem Relevance
This section discusses the relevance of our research topic and presents the findings of our literature review. Due to a global talent shortage, for example for groups of engineers and IT workers, we identified corporate staff recruitment as an interesting research area. As shown by a current call for papers by the European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS) (Riemenschneider et al. 2008) and surveys such as Luftman’s issues for IT-executives (Luftman et al. 2006), the successful hiring of specific target groups as IT professionals is a major challenge in both theory and practice.
Key Terms in this Chapter
HR-Strategy (Hiring Strategy): HR-Strategy is the general strategy of the HR-department. It includes the hiring strategy, talent management strategy and retention strategy. The main objective is to engage employees positively and successfully to achieve the company’s corporate purpose and strategic goals. For HR-strategy being successful it is important that the HR-strategy is satisfying the business needs, the needs of customers and the needs of employees. An effective HR Strategy is an integral part of corporate strategy and is deduced from the general business strategy of a company.
Candidate Attraction: Candidate attraction is part of the sourcing step of the recruiting process. In contrast to employer branding candidate attraction has a short-term focus on candidates. While the candidate attraction phase the HR-department is publishing job ads or is directly searching for appropriate candidates. Job ads can be published “offline” and “online”. Classical offline channels are newspapers or magazines and typical online channels are the company’s website or job portal such as monster. Companies can search directly in CV-databases of job portals or online communities (xing, linkedIn) to approach appropriate candidates. The main objective of candidate attraction is to generate applications.
Employer Branding: Employer Branding is a strategic instrument where marketing concepts particularly branding are applied to represent a company as an attractive employer and positions the company on the labor market. The result of employer branding campaigns is the employer brand. That means specific designed perception of the employer by job seekers. The main objective of employer branding are an effective and efficient recruitment and an enduring increase quality of applicants. Employer branding is not only design for external candidates it can be also used to address actual employees to link them with the company (retention). Employer branding has a long-term focus on candidates.
E-Recruiting: E-Recruiting (Electronic Recruiting) means to support the recruitment by the use of electronic media and HR-systems. An effective e-Recruiting system supports employers as well as job seekers. E-Recruiting and its supporting systems represent ideally the entire recruiting workflow. This includes the candidate attraction and all the communications between companies and candidates until the completion of the application. E-Recruiting systems are for example a company’s HR-website, an internet job board such as monster and a company’s system to manage applications.
IT-Architecture: The term “IT-Architectur” summarizes all static and dynamic aspects of IT (information technology) in organizations. These aspects include the infrastructure like hardware, software and data as well as the management of IT (configuration and capacity planning, load balancing, data backup, availability, reliability, disaster-planning, etc.). Furthermore functional aspects such as the necessary interfaces that provide a frictionless IT support of the business processes of organizations are part of the “IT architecture”.
War for Talent: The “War for Talent” was introduced by Elizabeth G. Chambers, Mark Foulon, Helen Handfield-Jones, Steven M. Hankin and Edward G. Michaels III in “The McKinsey Quarterly” (Vol. 1) 1998 discussing an expected talent shortage on the labor market. They pointed out that talent matters and that companies who are successful on the market are those who are the best with locating, assessing, recruiting, and keeping the most talented people. More and more companies start to “fight” for the most talented people and become competitors on the labor market as well.