Employer Brand Loyalty Revisited - Adapting to a Changing Reality - A qualitative article on how companies, engaging in Employer Branding efforts, need to adapt to a constantly changing context

Abstract

This qualitative case study aims at critically analyse how businesses today, actively working on their Employer Brand, engage in this work in a changing context, focusing on Employer Brand Loyalty. This was done by investigating six case companies using interviews and document analysis. The case companies chosen are all actively working with their Employer Brand with the goal to be attractive employers and can be found on Universum Global’s list over the most attractive employers. The article shows that the concept of Employer Brand Loyalty needs to be revisited and redefined. We have found that a loyalty towards the Employer Brand values is more valuable than loyalty in terms of employee retention. Instead of speaking about exclusive Employer Brand Loyalty we propose the terminology Employer Brand relationships. Our research points to the fact that employees can have multiple Employer Brand relations, although they are normally employed by one employer at a time. Further, this article criticizes what previous theory argues regarding the costs associated with recruitment. Although the recruitment costs might be as high as suggested, one may ask if the possible monetary gains from former employees speaking highly of an employer have been considered? If a business is able to handle different employee relations in such a positive way that an employee continues to feel loyal towards the Employer Brand values, we argue that there are probably indirect profits to gain.