Employer Branding in the Context of Sustainable HRM

The scarcity of highly qualified and motivated employees is one of the major problems human resource management is facing today. The labor market is changing from a sellers’ into a buyers’ market, as the job supply becomes higher than the job demand, especially in case of highly qualified and skilled employees. Consequently Human Resource Management (HRM) faces the challenge to attract and retain motivated and skilled employees in the long-term. However, as the competition for talents is also placing a new challenge on organizations to address a more diverse human workforce in different life and career stages, it is necessary to approach the diverse workforce with appropriate HRM practices.

Referring to sustainable HRM and thereby the substance-oriented view, organizations need to identify a solution that ensures resource access while preserving these resources at the same time. Therefore it is essential to consider the internal as well as external human resources in order to secure access to employees in the long-term. From a market-oriented perspective organizations have to align their HRM practices to the resulting needs of the diverse human workforce. Organizations therefore face the challenge to provide a consistent Employer Value Proposition (EVP) as well as guarantee enough flexibility to address different types of employees. Therefore the Employer Brand should contain sustainable HRM practices (e.g. employability, work-life balance) in order to become an employer-of-choice and thereby ensure a competitive workforce and a permanent supply with human resources.

The current research project aims to propose and test a model to explain how sustainable HRM practices are related to internal as well as external employer attractiveness. The proposed model will be tested empirically in a quantitative study in Germany.