Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to investigate processes of subjective employer
brand interpretations. We draw on the first-person perspectives of sought-after ap plicants who articulated their thoughts while being exposed to employer brand ma terial and on subsequent in-depth interviews with the study participants about their
assessments of the various employers’ attractiveness. Sensemaking as a theoreti cal framework to understand meaning-making in processes of actors’ engagement
with artifacts is employed to analyze this qualitative data. Based on our empirical
findings, we present a process model that illustrates how potential applicants make
sense of employer brands. This dominant sensemaking journey includes three differ ent stages: exploring the employer brand material, constructing a plausible employer
image and assessing employer attractiveness. However, this trajectory is neither the
only possible way nor completely linear and predictable since deviations, partic ularly the complete breakdown of making sense of employer brand material, are
possible.
