Background
Many studies suggest that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) increases the attractiveness of companies in the eyes of job seekers and helps to retain and motivate their existing workforce. In a world where talent and human resources are important drivers of competitiveness, this observation might push companies to invest in CSR and integrate it into their employer branding strategies. The knowledge about which CSR aspects are really important for employer choice and how CSR performance of companies is linked to commitment and retention is still limited. Besides, a global perspective is missing.
Objectives
The project aims at understanding in more detail CSR and non-CSR related employer preferences of young job seekers around the world and how CSR is related to employer attractiveness and commitment.
Within two subsequent studies a different perspective was taken. In the first study “MitCSR – Mitarbeiter finden und binden” the focus was on Germany and on the role of CSR for recruiting, commitment and retention. We cooperated with 6 German companies in order to investigate in detail their CSR performance and CSR communication and related this to the commitment of employees. By surveying more than 1000 employees and students we sought to understand the role of CSR and non CSR attributes for their employer choice and retention.
In the second study “GEP – Global employee preferences” we followed a global approach and concentrated on the perspective of students as future job-seekers. By cooperating with research partners all over the world we were able to collect more than 5000 questionnaires from 25 countries which allow us to explore national differences and the influence of socio-economic variables on employer-related preferences of young job seekers.
Understanding of CSR
Corporate Social Responsibility refers to the notion that organizations should be made responsible for the impacts of their decisions and activities on society and the environment. It is commonly understood as a multidimensional stakeholder-related concept, where issues and strategic priorities are defined by the expectations and claims of a company’s legitimate stakeholders. Dimensions of CSR include environmental and societal concerns as well as employment practices, human rights, and ethical behavior in the marketplace and organizational governance.
CSR and Company Attractiveness
Theoretical models and empirical work suggest that CSR increases the attractiveness of an employer. Different concepts are leveraged to explain the positive influence of CSR on employer attractiveness. For example, it is assumed that CSR might be taken as a signal for employee fairness when information about workplace characteristics is incomplete (Signaling theory). Also, the membership to an organization that is highly reputed because of their CSR activities might increase self-esteem as organizational membership is considered an important factor for individual identity (Social identity). Finally, it is suggested that jobseekers are attracted by organizations that fit their needs and values. CSR would therefore positively affect employer choice if responsibility is an important aspect of the value system of jobseekers and/or if it contributes to fulfilling the needs of the jobseeker.