Employer branding and its influence on employee retention: A literature review

Abstract

The subject of employer branding and its impact on employee perceptions is attracting great interest from researchers and practitioners. The main aim of this research is to explore the influence that employer branding has on employee retention. A detailed literature review of core and contemporary academic contributions on the subject areas was carried out and there were seven key themes identified within employer branding literature, which were: brand values, induction and training, internal brand communication, organisational culture, rewards and benefits, brand commitment, and employer brand management. Overall analysis of the literature review indicates that employer branding is integrated into the organisation and the various employer brand attributes, and along with the organisation’s culture, holds value for employees and contributes to them staying employed within the company. These findings, along with previous research, allow the conclusion that employer branding does have a clear influence on employee retention. Scope for future research could include undertaking quantitative research testing the devised conceptual framework, in addition to looking in more depth at the seven key themes identified within retail employer branding to find out which brand attributes are valued the most by employees. Moreover, other service organisation set-ups could be researched in a similar way to see if results are similar between services organisations, and the results can then be generalised across the service sector