How Benefit Information and Demographics Influence Employee Recruiting in Mexico Marı ´a Fernanda Garcı ´a • Richard A. Posthuma • Manuel Quin ˜ ones Published online: 14 March 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract Purpose To examine the impact of benefit information in recruitment advertisements on job pursuit intentions. Design/Methodology/Approach We collected data from maquiladora workers in Mexico (N = 186). Findings We found that ads offering detailed descriptions of benefits increased applicants’ job pursuit intentions more than ads that simply offered fringe benefits better than those required by law. In turn, ads that offered benefits better than those required by law increased job pursuit intentions more than ads that offered benefits only equal to the law. Benefit information was especially attractive to married employees. Implications Since applicants are differentially receptive to varied benefit information provided in recruiting advertisements, the content of the advertisement should be carefully analyzed. The return on investment in using this recruiting source may show that advertising specific ben- efits may significantly increase the pool of applicants when compared to other recruiting sources. In addition, this study offers human resources professionals empirical evidence that the content of the advertisements related to fringe benefits can influence the job pursuit intentions of appli- cants. Also, by including specific messages, the job pursuit intentions of married applicants can be increased. Originality/Value This study shows that benefit infor- mation in recruitment advertisements is important in a context where benefits represent a high percentage of total employee compensation. Keywords Benefits Á Job pursuit intentions Á Recruitment ads Á Maquiladora Á Mexico Introduction Job pursuit intentions (i.e., the intentions to apply and remain in the applicant pool) are important to employers because they ultimately impact hiring and job acceptance (Chapman et al. 2005). According to the model proposed by Rynes (1991), employers use signals and information manipulation to increase applicants’ job pursuit intentions. Employers signal information through different organiza- tional practices (e.g., recruitment, selection, evaluations). Moreover, individual characteristics of applicants also impact job pursuit intentions (Rynes 1991). In this study, we focus on both employers’ signals to applicants and applicants’ characteristics to understand job pursuit inten- tions in a maquiladora plant in Mexico. A maquiladora is defined as a labor intensive plant that assembles imported materials to produce goods for export, primarily to the United States (MacLachlan and Aguilar 1998). As explained by signaling theory, applicants interpret information received from the organization as cues that enable them to form judgments about a job, and these judgments impact job pursuit intentions (Rynes 1991; Spence 1973, 1974). Empirical evidence suggests that applicants’ job pursuit intentions may be influenced by the information they receive in recruiting advertisements (Highhouse et al. 2002; Schwab et al. 1987). Recruiting Received and reviewed by former editor, George Neuman. M. F. Garcı ´a (&) Á R. A. Posthuma Department of Marketing and Management, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968-0539, USA e-mail: fgarcia6@utep.edu M. Quin ˜ones Delphi Corporation, Ciudad Jua ´rez, Mexico 123 J Bus Psychol (2010) 25:523–531 DOI 10.1007/s10869-010-9175-4