International Conference on Management and Information Systems August 4-6, 2014 ISBN 978-81-924713-4-1 8 Influences of Employer Brand Image on Applicant Attraction in Recruitment Process Ridhi Sharma University of Jammu ridhisharma@yahoo.com Employer Branding has been considered as one of the hottest strategies in the recruitment process. It acts as one of the communication tools for acquiring and retainingtalent. A strong employer brand is characterized by the unique attributes that the employer offers to prospective and current employees. This exploratory study attempts to provide a holistic perspective on employer branding and also seeks to determine the influences of employer brand image on attracting the talent pool. The study explored the underlying structure of employer brand by identifying its dimensions from the perspective of prospective applicants. Participants of the study were 100 management or engineering final year students studying in the University of Jammu. Dimensions of brand image were measured by using 21 item scales consisting of 7 items assessing perception of job itself, five items assessing perception of compensation/job security at the organization, while nine items assessed perception of work/company. All items have been adapted from measures applied in Harris and Fink’s 1987 study. Applicant’s attraction is measured by 5 item scale assessing their intention to pursue a job with the organization. All items were adapted from Highhouse et al’s 2003 study. 1. Introduction The modern business environment is marked with challenges of intense global competition, rapid technological changes, growth of the knowledge economy, and a growing need for talented employees. These significant changes have stimulated organizations to devote considerably more resources to the activities oriented towards attracting qualified individuals. At organizational level companies are putting more emphasis on creating strategies to differentiate themselves from competitors. One of the most popular recruitment strategies adopted by many companies nowadays is Employer Branding. Employer brand as a strategic HR tool helps organizations to focus on how they can identify themselves within their markets as an employer of current staff, as a potential employer to new recruits and as a supplier or partner to customers. Employer branding may be a new terminology for many companies, yet it is becoming more and more important to organizations since maintaining and building a strong internal and external brand is an important factor in retaining loyalty, motivation and driving performance. 2. Employer Branding The concept of “Employer Branding” has been first coined by Ambler and Barrow (1996), the authors described employer brand as the ―package of functional, economic, and psychological benefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing company. Employer branding, therefore, is understood as the set of distinctive images of a prospective employer, which is manifest in the minds of the target people – potential employees (Meffert, Barmann, &Koers, 2002; Petkovic, 2004). It has also been recognized that as strong consumer brands influence growth and bring profits to companies, the same way strong employer brand has an influence on business outcomes(Sasser&Arbeit, 1976). In fact a strong corporate brand umbrella, hosting the employer brand as well as the customer brand is beneficial to the organization. To create a unified as well as truthful brand image, this brand needs to represent the current company culture. While the customer brand and employer brand compete in two different markets - one for products and services; the other for talent and commitment - they are closely interrelated. The employer brand, in attracting the right employees and maintaining their commitment to high performance, plays a critical role in building and supporting the customer brand. Likewise, the strength of the customer brand plays an important role in attracting the right people to come and work for the company. When a firm reaches a higher level of external recognition by developing an employer brand, it becomes much easier for it to attract new talent (Bouchikhi and Kimberly, 2008). Thus employer branding can be regarded as an application of branding principles to human resource management. It is an interesting concept because it incorporates the two organizational fields: Branding and Human Resources. The combination provides a holistic view on attracting and retaining organizational appropriate employees. In fact branding in the field of Human Resource Management (HRM) has recently received a lot of attention and is generally explained as improving the image of an employer (Backhaus &Tikoo, 2004). The employer brand philosophy is generally concerned with building a distinctive image in the minds of recruits and existing employees that a company, above all others, is a "great place to work" (Ewing, Pitt, Debussy, &Berthorn, 2002). Employer brand represents a unique value