Employer branding in european online job days virtual recruitment events : a case study

Abstract

As Finland suffers from a lack of work force, new ways to conduct international recruitment are implemented. The Finnish government’s plan includes drastically increasing the amount international talent recruited to Finnish companies. Companies themselves also increasingly conduct international recruitment. There are projects and services available to help the process. One such service is EURES.

EURES organizes online recruitment events called European Online Job Days to help companies access the European labor market as well as enable the free movement of European workers. As more and more companies start attracting foreign talent, the competition for the attention of these professionals increases. Through employer branding companies can differentiate and create attractive opportunities.

The thesis introduces employer branding based on previous research and theories and applies that to investigate how Finnish companies attending the European Online Job Days events conduct employer branding and how effectively they are able to utilize the platform. Some important topics recognized were online brand communities that are formed, for example, on social media platforms. The recruitment event platform could be considered a social media platform as it includes a social aspect. Another important topic is eWOM or electronic word of mouth. Organizational culture and employee ambassadors were found to be effective in employer branding and some companies observed utilized these theories in their recruitment efforts.

The thesis examines four Finnish companies attending three different online events. Another type of event attendance introduced is an info point which is a local municipality or regional development organization, with the purpose of attracting jobseekers. The thesis discovered four different engagement levels of attendance. This was based on the many of the available tools the companies used during the event day and assessing how invested the company was. There could be seen a lack of understanding how to efficiently maximize the effectiveness of the tools and how to utilize the platform effectively to conduct international recruitment.

As international recruitment will become increasingly important, hiring managers, HR professionals and CEOs should utilize all available tools to maximize the reach of their recruitment efforts. Tools such as the European Online Job Days are good at reaching thousands of jobseekers and a clear trend towards increasing interest from the jobseekers’ side shows that the now is the time start using the platform. The events are free and thus they are a low-bar first step in international recruitment.