Assessing the strength of an employer brand: Developing an employer brand measurement tool

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to form a basis for a holistic measurement tool to measure the strength of an employer brand. For that purpose, this research focuses on identifying which employer brand factors can be considered important to employees. The employer brand value chain model and the brandr Index in combination with employer branding specific literature, were used as a foundation of the measurement tool items. The research introduced four independent variables – instrumental perception, symbolic perception, reputation, and differentiation, which were theorized to affect the three dependent variables – word-of-mouth, trust, and loyalty. A 43-item questionnaire was sent out to employees of four Icelandic companies from three different sectors – IT, retail, and finance. The findings suggest that most of the tested models explain a large portion of the variance in the dependent variables. Instrumental perception was found to influence all three dependent variables and the dependent variable trust was affected by all independent variables except differentiation. Differentiation was the only independent variable which did not significantly affect any of the three dependent variables.