Developing employer of choice status: exploring an employment marketing mix

Developing employer of choice status: exploring an employment marketing mix

Article Type: Abstracts From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 18, Issue 1

Wickham M., O’Donohue W.Organization Development Journal (USA), Autumn 2009, Vol. 27 No. 3, Start page: 77, No. of pages: 19

Purpose – Suggests how an organization can become an employer-of-choice in a labor market. Design/methodology/approach – Discusses use of employer branding strategies as a way to achieve employer-of-choice status, links use of such marketing-based strategies to strategic human resource management, and draws on marketing theory to adapt, and extend, the marketing mix concept to an employment marketing mix approach to recruitment. Lays out elements of a marketing mix approach, includes product, price, place, promotion, process, people and physical evidence, outlines marketing function activities associated with each element, explains how HR functions/activities can parallel the marketing functions/activities, and depicts an employment marketing mix framework, covering the seven elements, that suggests offering inducements to target employees, articulating what contribution the organization expects in return for the value the employee derives from the organization, communicating to prospective employees the value of the organization’s product, describing workplace systems and procedures, detailing the prospective employee’s roles for achieving the organization’s goals, and providing information on people in the organization, the workplace and the work environment. Originality/value – Advice for organizations seeking to recruit talented employees.ISSN: 0889-6402

Keywords: Employers, Labour market, Recruitment, Marketing strategy, Organizational development