IMPACT OF HR FACTORS ON EMPLOYER BRANDING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY BY

In today's era of globalization and competition, the demand for qualified working capacity is increasing faster than the offering. As competition in the labor market has intensified, companies have shown an ever increasing interest in strategies to differentiate themselves and thus to establish them as a brand in the market. Strong demand for specific skills, in addition to ever tighter labor markets generally, is making it much more difficult both to retain current employees and to recruit new employees. The fact is that when well-educated and talented people are becoming hard to find, recruiting and retaining personnel becomes an important issue. This paper primarily aims at determining the important factors which lead to the creation of effective employer brand. Another objective of this paper is to find out the extent to which of these factors are affecting employer branding. Hypothesis have been formulated to explain the impact of factors on employer branding. Simple statistical tools like correlation coefficient are also used. Findings of this paper revealed that the identified factors are positively related to employer branding. Further it has also been found out that the employees wish to stay in those organizations which are distinguishable from their competitors and have established them as a brand. Employees tend to exhibit more commitment and loyalty towards such type of organizations.


Introduction
Business leaders everywhere face numerous challenges. At the forefront of those challenges is sustaining competitive advantage in today's aggressive business environment. Both corporate customers and individual consumers, with more providers to choose from than ever before, often perceive that what they are purchasing is, for ail practical purposes, a commodity that can easily be obtained elsewhere. Key to distinguish in a highly commoditized and competitive market lies within the top performers-those an organization can depend on to innovate and provide differentiating service. Many organizations are struggling to find and keep these valued employees. Changing work force demographics, such as the shrinking of the most desirable labour pool (25-to 34-year-olds), and downsizing's negative impact on employee loyalty, have organizations searching for answers to recruiting and retaining the strategic asset of the 21st century: talented people.
Corporate is facing a lot of problems in employee retention these days. Hiring knowledgeable people for the job is essential for an em ployer. But retention is even more important than hiring. There is no dearth of opportunities for a talented person. Employees stay and leave organizations for reasons which may be either personal or professional. The organizations are becoming aware of these reasons and adopting many strategies for employer branding.
It has been stated by the number of authors like Boone (2000) and Buss (2002), that the concept of the employer branding is gaining the popularity among corporate giants like Southwest, Sears, BASF, IBM, Ernst and Young. Internet searches for the term 'Employer Branding' over Google and Yahoo has been accounted to over 3,000 hits. (Tikoo, 2004) In words of Feldwick (1991), "Brand is defined as the recognizable and trustworthy badge of origin and also a promise of performance". The four attributes of the brand as pointed out by Keller (1993), are: the ability to differentiate, to create loyalty, to satisfy and to develop an emotional attachment. The factors which contribute to the brand knowledge include awareness, and image. (Moroko, 2005) Aaker (2003), states that differentiation is the essence of branding. Pechmann and Ratneshwar (1991), point out that the companies seek to establish their brand through market campaigns by positioning it as superior on the attributes which are more relevant to the customers. The concept of employer branding was introduced by Ambler and Barrow (1996) and Ewing etal. (2002). Thereafter attempts have been made by different researchers to define the term 'employer branding'. Ambler and Barrow (2004) defines employer brand as the "package of functional, economic and psychological benefits provided by the employment, and identified with the employing company" In words of Sullivan (2004), employer branding is defined as "a targeted, long term strategy to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees, and related stakeholders with regard to a particular firm." According to Minchington  This paper primarily aims at investigating the factors which enables a company to establish itself as a brand. Next the paper aims at finding out the extent to which these factors affect employer branding.
Further based on this study a model for effective employer branding is suggested.
Against this backdrop this paper is organised as follows: section II summarizes few studies dealing with similar issues. Section III focuses on the data and' methodology used in this paper. The main findings, supporting arguments and their implications are discussed in section IV, followed by the concluding remarks in section V.

II. Literature review
In the following section some of the important studies examining the importance of employer branding have been discussed. To begin with the study by Moroko and Uncles (2005), which is based on the studies done in the past and points out the internal and external effects of employer branding. This paper argues for the more systematic approach on the issues related at the centre of the investigation. The findings of the study reveal the positive outcomes of the employer branding as in the attraction and retention of the talented human capital of the organization. The negative outcomes of the employer branding may hamper the organizational growth as variation to the existing work practices introduced by employees is likely to be low.
In CIPD report (2008) the basic emphasis was on the commitment and engagement within the employer branding. It had reported that conrelations exist between the employer and customer responses simply implying that if the company cares for the people i.e. their employees, their employees will also care for the customers of the company.
Minchington, in his paper had made an attempt to measure the extent of fruitfulness of investing in the employer brand program and what parameters should be used to measure the progress rate. Findings of this paper suggest that employer brand strategies based on the desired outcomes should be established. Furthermore the most important thing is that the employer brand strategies and associated metrics must be aligned with overall business activity so that it can further lead to the sustainable profitable growth and shareholder value. Jones (2005), in his paper had stated that employer branding can be more beneficial than that of the product or service brand. If there exits the concept of employer branding then most of the challenges faced by the organizations today like retention, loyalty and engagement can be resolved. In this study it has been illustrated that the employer branding enables in the recruitment of the right kind of person at the right job. Further it was stated that the employer branding also leads in to the expansion of the company. The findings of the study also states that employer brand should be clearly reflected in the culture of the organization and the values being delivered across the organization. It is also found out that communication plays a twofold role in employer branding: one part includes the communication with the candidate market and the communication with the existing employees. The success rate of employer branding could be measured by observing the turnovers in the company and the staff surveys. One of the major loopholes found out is that employers underestimate the individuals' ability to think. Davis (2008), in his paper primarily aimed in exploring the role of the employer brand in influencing employees' perceived differentiation, affinity, satisfaction and loyalty. The findings of this paper suggest that satisfaction among them could be sensed by agreeableness, affinity by the combination of agreeableness and ruthlessness; perceived differentiation and loyalty by both the enterprise and chic.
Fourie and Holtzhausen (2009), in their paper had focused on the impact of corporate identity management on managing relationships within the organization. The paper is basically based on the literature review. The findings of this paper strongly recommend that company should brand itself through behavior, communication, and symbolism which are in the forms of expression externally as well as internally. Girod (2005), in his paper had made an attempt to test the relationship between the retail brand and its image as perceived by the customer. The findings of this study reveals that there exits the alignment between the vision of the company and its new customer oriented culture which further improved the customers perception of the brand. Punjaisri (2009), in his paper had explored the importance of the internal branding process from the employees perspectives and thus to establish the relationship between the internal branding and employees delivery of the brand promise and also to establish the relationship between their brand identification, brand commitment, and brand loyalty. The findings of this study reveals that there exists a positive relationship between the internal branding and the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of employees. This study also states that brand identification is a driver of brand commitment, which precedes brand loyalty of employees. Tikoo and Backhaus (2004), in their paper had aimed at determining the relationship between employer branding and organizational career management. Prepositions which have been put forward as the resultant of this study are: Employer brand associations affect the image of the firm as an employer. Employer brand image mediates the relationship between employer brand association and employer attraction. Employer brand associations enhance the process of personorganization value matching. The employer brand provides the information that contributes to formation of a psychological contract between the employer and the employee. Accurate information portrayed in the employer brand reduces employee perceptions of breach or violation of the psychological contract. Employer branding messages that fail to adequately provide a realistic job preview will contribute the intentions to quit and turn over. If the employer brand provides an incomplete picture of organizational culture, employees may be more likely to seek to leave the organization. Employer branding reinforces and changes the organizational culture. Organization culture mediates the relationship between the employer branding and employer loyalty. Employer branding strengthens organizational identification among employees. Organizational identity mediates the relationship between the employers branding and employer loyalty. Employer brand loyalty is positively related to employee productivity. Employer branding provides a framework and support for the organizational career management program.
Through the studies discussed above the following are the factors contributing to the employer branding: customer relationship, recruitment and induction, communication, work environment, compensation, performance management, strategic intent, innovation and re innovation, training and development.

III. Data and methodology :
The study is basically empirical in nature. The methodology adopted for this study comprises of literature review, identification of the different factors contributing to employer branding, questionnaire formulation, testing the reliability of questionnaire after conducting the pilot study, making necessary amendments in the questionnaire and finalizing the questionnaire, data collection and finally the analysis of the collected data.

Sample:
A survey was conducted on 177 employees (response rate: 89%). The selected sample was administered through the structured questionnaire. Convenience sampling was used as the sampling procedure in this study. Data was collected from the manufacturing industries in the Roorkee and nearby regioris.

Measures/tools:
Data for this study was collected through the self developed questionnaire which consisted of 10 factors and a total of 35 items. All the questions were rated on the five point Likert scale ranging from: strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The employer branding survey primarily focused on the three key parameters: Attraction, Engagement, and Retention. On the basis of these key parameters ten sections were designed in the questionnaire comprising of: customer relationship, recruitment and induction, communication, work environment, compensation, performance management, strategic management, innovation and re-invention, training and development, overall impact of employer branding strategies on retention and attraction of employees. Reliability value for the questionnaire came out to be 0.86 which is a significant value.
The relationship between the different identified factors was found out using correlation analysis.
Further inter item analysis was been done to find out the relationship between the items and the factors.
The extent of contribution of the different traced out factors upon employer branding was established by formulating the following null hypothesis: H5: Organizations which communicate their strategies clearly to their employees are not able to establish them as the brand.
H6: Employees are less satisfied with the organization which welcomes the innovative ideas.

IV. Results and discussions:
In this section the results obtained from the analysis of the collected data which have been obtained from by applying various statistical tools on the data are discussed: Table 1 illustrates the internal consistency coefficient and the mean of the factors constituting employer branding.

9.
10. As the primary objective of this paper was to identify the different factors contributing to the employer branding and henceforth to identify the extent to which they are correlated with each other. For the fulfillment of this objective inter-factor analysis was performed on the collected data, (see table 2) Inter-factor analysis is done to find out the relationship among the factors considered in the study. It deals with finding out the correlation coefficients of each of the factor with respect to each of the other factor and then infers how significantly one factor influences other factors.

Variables
Table 2 brings to our notice that Customer Relationship has a noticeable con-elation value with each of the factor this leads to a conclusion that to have a good relationship with customers it is of utmost importance that a company needs to have an amiable relationship with their employees. Customers can be satisfied only when right kind of product is introduced in the marl<et at the right time in proper quantity and with a standard quality. This is only possible when companies have efficient worl< force for which proper recruitment and induction policies are fairly important (Correlation coefficient is 0.167). After recruitment if the management wants their people to be their capital then the company policies as well as the worl< expectations must be effectively as well as efficiently communicated throughout the organization (Correlation coefficient is 0.577). Along with effective communication the company needs to have a safe and healthy worl< environment (Correlation coefficient is 0.419), which includes all the physical safety of the employees as well as a progressive yet friendly work culture. This talks about the work culture that gives enough opportunities to the employees for self development and career' enhancement. Compensation (Correlation coefficient is 0.398), infact fair and justified salary is one of the sought most point of satisfaction which makes the employees value their work in terms of monetary benefits. Only if they think the salaries and the benefits they are getting are exactly what they deserve for their work, they remain both contented and motivated. Performance management (Correlation coefficient is 0.235), includes the evaluation of the performance in the company. It is very obvious that if the employees in the company are fairly evaluated with all transparency in the appraisal system and each employee is awarded in an unbiased manner their morale will be higher and they can work better to lead to customer satisfaction.
If the company and the management is clear about its strategic intent (Correlation coefficient is 0.433), and clearly communicates at times what is expected out of the employees and define their jobs properly and if each employee is aware of overall strategy and goal of the organization they'll surely be able to contribute more towards it. How innovative and inventive (Correlation coefficient is 0.483) a company is and with how much warmth it supports innovations inside its periphery is again a point of stress. Any organization that supports innovation rather encourages innovation in the product, process or in the may be mere works of daily routine in the organization always accommodates any kind changes in the environment and successfully combats them. So only if the company is having this perspective towards change and innovation it can satisfy its customer in the best possible way and maintain a long lasting relationship with them. Of course for this purpose the employees are required to be updated time to time. This is done by providing them necessary training and development (Con-elation coefficient is 0.350) so as to make them the best warriors of their field. Now the overall impact (Con-elation coefficient is 0.305) of the organization will surely influence its bonding with its customers or vice-versa as all these factors are inter-related, ignorance of any factor can be a drastic threat to the organization and is bonding with its stake-holders.
Recruitment and induction plays a major role in determining the providence of work efficiency of tfie employee because we very well know that a person can gives his hundred percent only if he is placed at the job he is really interested in. Recruitment and induction function is also related to every other function or factor. If a deserving candidate is placed at a level he will be aware of all his job responsibilities as well as duties.
He will know what exactly should be communicated to his superiors, subordinates, management etc and at what point of time so that it can be fruitful for the organization. So communication (Correlation coefficient is 0.087) in the organization will be effective as well as efficient only when necessary care is taken at the time of recruitment of the employees. Even the work environment (Correlation coefficient is 0.198) will be healthy and safe when people with desired skill and qualifications are sitting at all levels in the organization. The compensation (Correlation coefficient is 0.156) will be according to the job and will be satisfactory for the employee only when he is satisfied with what he is doing in the organization and when he is well assured that his skills are being optimally used in the organization for which he is honestly compensated. Obviously placement at the right post will help in just and unbiased performance evaluation (Correlation coefficient is 0.041) of the employee and only then he can be awarded for his good work as well as motivated for the coming future challenges. Only if a person is recruited according to his qualification, skills and talent he can very well understand the overall strategic intent (Correlation coefficient is 0.152) of the organization and understand his role in the success of the organization. Innovation (Correlation coefficient is 0.304) regarding to the anything in the organization can only be thought of by the employees who know their work the best and know what aH'possibilities of improvement are there and how they can contribute to the organization's well being. Any kind of training and development (Correlation coefficient is 0.110) programme can help only those enrrployees who really know the basics of the field and now need to brush up their skills and touch new horizons of expertise in their field. Overall impact (Congelation coefficient is 0.038) of the organization largely depends upon right recruitment because only then an employee can get satisfied with his work, his salary, he will be getting what he expecteid with regard to everything in the organization.
Communication, moreover effective communkation can change the entire scenario of business in an organization. Effective communication among the employees and the management can lead to a very successful entity whereas ineffective communication gives birth to a team of losers. The essence of organizational success is in team work and each individual can maintain his own and groups identity only if he communicates clearly with others in the organization. Only good communication can lead to a healthy and desired work environment (Correlation coefficient is 0.539). People who can communicate well can complement each other effectively and can develop a rich work culture in the organization. If the communication in the organization is effective enough so that the management as well as the employees interact frequently and each one is aware of what the other expects even in terms of compensation (Conrelation coefficient is 0.557). Good communication system in the organization can help the management to evaluate (Congelation coefficient is 0.502) its people in best manner and tell them all their positives which they can multiply and all the negatives on which they can work upon for their benefits. Even biasness in evaluation can be removed by communication. Work environment of the organization is the sum total of the physical environment and the work culture provided to an employee in that organization. The compensation (Correlation coefficient is 0.468) that the company is providing to its employee will help build a motivating work environment in the organization as everybody will get what he deserves and thus they will try to work as a team and jointly lead the organization to success. A healthy and progressive work environment will always choose for effective performance management (Correlation coefficient is 0.337) policies as this will help maintain the dignity of its environment. If the employees are aware of the strategic intent (Correlation coefficient is 0.2448) of the organization they work to create a culture in the organization which will help achieve the ultimate goal of the organization most effectively as well as efTiciently. Even the situation of disputes can be avoided by having a value based work culture. The dynamic work environment can gear up innovation and re-invention (Correlation coefficient is 0.482) in the organization. The work environment of the company determines its emphasis on training and development strategies (Correlation coefficient is 0.479) of the company. Overall impact (Correlation coefficient is 0.294) of the company on its employees is very much influenced by the kind of work environment and culture it creates within the organization.
Compensation is what an employee gets in exchange of the work done for the organization. If an employee is fairly compensated for his work he will surely be performing at his level best and thus can be appraised (Correlation coefficient is 0.235) correctly. It can be compared that whether he is fulfilling the requirements of the place and the salary he is getting and thus he can be appraised properly. Good compensation shows the strategic intent (Correlation coefficient is 0.235) of the organization i.e. if the organization have some long term goals it will always pay its employees in a manner so as to retain all of them as they are the asset to the organization and will serve its purpose. If the employees in the organization are satisfied with what they are getting in lieu of their hard work they will always think off excelling in their field and will keep on innovating things (Correlation coefficient is 0.235) and only then the employees would be enthusiastic enough to participate in all new training and development programme (Correlation coefficient is 0.235) so that this can help to hone up their talent and get benefitted in all terms. The salary and wages provided by the organization decides a lot about the satisfaction level of the employees and thus the overall impact (Correlation coefficient is 0.235) of the organization.
Performance management the way in which the organization keep its people motivated and helps them to improve on their back locks. If a company follows a transparent evaluation system it will lead to contentment as well as work as a driving force for the employees which will in turn help them to understand the strategic intent (Correlation coefficient is 0.388) of the organization in better way. Fair and unbiased appraisal is also important with regards to the innovative zeal (Correlation coefficient is 0.557) of the employees, only if their work is fairly rewarded or recognition in that case only they will have the enthusiasm to innovate something new at regular basis. Effective appraisal system helps to identify the weal^ness of each employee correctly and thus training needs (Correlation coefficient is 0.400) are better assessed and good training can be provided to the employees. Performance management creates an overall impact (Correlation coefficient is 0.433) of the company being fair and transparent to all its employees which is a major source of satisfaction while working in a company.
Strategic intent of a company emphasizes on what the company exactly want to do and expect from its employees only when this point is clear in the minds of the employees. They will be better utilizing their sicills to innovate (Correlation coefficient is 0.520) something that can solve the purpose of the organization and lead it to the path of sustainable grovAh. Only a company with a clear strategic intent know that when to provide training (Correlation coefficient is 0.475) to its employees and for what purpose so as to achieve the goal of the organization effectively in the given time. The strategic intent of the company poses grpat influence on the overall impact (Correlation coefficient is 0.349) of the organization as company with clear and defined strategic intent will most clearly communicate what is expected out of its employees.
Innovation and re-invention can many times decide the destiny of the products the company is making which in turn decides about the company itself. So any firm that is good in innovation will obviously require good and frequent trainings (Correlation coefficient is 0.597) so as to keep the workforce updated with the external changes. And this creates the overall impact (Correlation coefficient is 0.342) of the organization on the stake holders.
Training and development has a significant role in creating an overall impact (Correlation coefficient is 0.235) of the organization as good training and development programme is the heart of any organizations achievement strategies.
Next inter-item analysis (see table 3) was done. Inter-item analysis is the statistical tool which is used to state the relationship between the different items and their relationship with the factor. From the Table 3(a), it is clear that the factor customer relationship comprises of four items. Among these items, emphasis on customer relationship has the shown the highest correlation i.e. 0.80 with the factor. The figure speaks that the company puts greater emphasis on maintaining a relationship with their customers so as to make them loyal to their brand. This is followed by the next item i.e. product modification which has a correlation of 0.73 with the factor. So we get to know that the company works a big deal to satisfy its customers and go on for product modification whenever it sense any change in needs and taste of the customers. Next in the series comes good service with the correlation of 0.72 with the factors emphasizing that the company provides good service to its customers and thus aid in retaining the present customers. Then is the next item i.e. customer centric which has the correlation of 0.71 with the factor. It speaks of the company being customer centric but highlights the large scope of improvement in this area.
From table 3(b) it is clear that the item getting promised work opportunities is having highest correlation i.e. 0.67 with the factor recruitment and induction which shows that the company gives the employees whatever it promises at the time of recruitment. Next comes effective induction programme of the company which shows the correlation of 0.57 with the factor, reflecting a satisfactory induction programme. Next in the sequence is the fairness of the recruitment policy which has a correlation of 0.44 with the factors. This shows that this item contributes least to the main factor considered. Table 3 (c)). It is very clear from the table that the management effectively communicates its policies to the employees which is depicted by the correlation of the item to the factor i.e. 0.89.Next comes the other item with 0.82 con-elation coefficient which speaks of the work communication being very effective in the company that is the superior is efficient enough to communicate about the work among the subordinates clearly.    Table 3 (e), it can be said that factor compensation is most contributed by justified benefits given to the employees of the firm which has a correlation coefficient of 0.83 with the factor. Next it is contributed by the justified salary of the employees with correlation coefficient 0.77. Lucrative package has a correlation of 0.74 which has the lowest contribution to the factor.  Table 3(f) clearly shows that good reward system prevailing in the company has highest correlation with the factor performance management i.e. 0.83. Second highest contribution is made by fair award system with correlation 0.77, which shows that the employees are fairly and justly awarded for their performance and hard work with no bias. Last in the ladder falls the transparent evaluation which contributes with the conrelation of 0.74 to the factor. Table 3(h) shows that the factor innovation and reinvention is highly contributed by the item encourage achievement with correlatton coefficient of 0.78 which shows that the management encourages the employees to take risk and achieve new heights in their career. Next comes the item with con-elation 0.74 which reflects the basic nature of the management people who welcomes the new ideas from the employees and implements them whenever they are feasible enough. Last in this sequence is the item with correlation 0.60 that says that at maximum time the suggestfons from the employees are involved in the process.

Table 3(h): Innovation and Reinvention
The overall impact of the company is considered and the  Next null hypothesis states that organizations which focus less on the recruitment, induction and on training program can be recognized as the brand name for the employees. This hypothesis was strongly rejected at 0.01 confidence interval level implying that organizations adopting fair recruitment policies, conduct the induction program to make employees adapt with the organization and give sufficient opportunities to their employees to improve their skills are the recognized as the better employer brand.
Next hypothesis was used to test that work culture plays a less significant role in recognizing employer as the brand. !t was observed that this hypothesis was also rejected at 0.01 confidence interval level which implies that if the organization provides the healthy working environment and provides opportunity to enrich your job profile then it can establish itself as a good brand.
Further hypothesis was formulated to find out that monetary incentives offered by the employer are of least importance for the employees in attracting and retaining the employees. This hypothesis was rejected at confidence interval level of 0.01 stating that if the organization offers lucrative monetary benefits along with the several fringe benefits that it helps the organization in establishing it elf a brand.
Next null hypothesis stated that Organizations which communicate their strategies clearly to their employees are not able to establish them as the brand. This hypothesis was also strongly rejected at the confidence interval level of 0.01 stating that organizations which clearly communicate their policies to the employees and make them clearly informs them of what is expected out of them is able to attract more employees and the attrition rate is also low in such organizations.
So from the above discussion it could be clearly said that factors ti-aced out are positively co-related with the employer branding which further leads to the decrease in turnover rate in in the organization.

V. Conclusion
This paper aimed at determining the relationship between the identified factors and thus to find out that whether these factors affect employer branding or not. The results reveal that if the identified factors are properly managed then it leads to the effective employer branding.
It is been very clearly observed from this study that employees want to be associated with the organization which is a well known brand. Similar observation was made by Dutton et al. (1994).
Further the results indicate that organization should first develop a strong relationship with their customer. This is the basic step to build an image in the minds of the prospective employees. This result was supported by the findings of Heskett etal., (1994) and Yeung etal, 2002.
Another important finding of this study is that employer branding is positively correlated with the satisfaction of the employees ultimately resulting into the retention of employees leading into the decreased turnover rate. Mittal and Kamakura (2001), in their study have also indicated the simitar finding.
It has also been observed that the job expectation of the employees should be clearly communicated to them by the employers. This will result in to the increased loyalty of the employees which further reduces the employer turnover. This finding is supported by Locke (1976).
This work could be further extended to identify how appropriate improvements in the employee-employer relationship could be managed.
On the basis of the results obtained in this study the following model could be suggested for effective employer branding in the organization.