The Influence of Employer Awards on the Decision Making Process of Prospective Applicants in Medium-Sized Companies: An Empirical Analysis with Special Emphasis on the Food Industry

Abstract

In recent years, the evaluation of the organizational attractiveness by external parties has become an important tool to attract new personnel. This can be clearly observed by the rapid increase of employer awards as part of the external image of many companies. Whilst previous research has described the role of employer in general, this paper provides empirical data on the influence of employer awards on the decision-making process of prospective applicants within the food industry. This has been achieved by conducting a survey based on a choice experiment in which participants were confronted with different job advertisements. The results demonstrate that employer awards significantly influence applicants’ decisions, but their importance is lower compared to other company-specific criteria. This finding, however, remains significant only when the participants are not familiar with the employer award in question. The authors argue in favour of a critical, yet economically sensible usage of employer awards.