A Study on Using CSR as a tool for Employer Branding

Farhat Shahnawaz Khan, Student, AIAIMS

Farhat Jahan Abdulrauf Shaikh, Student, AIAIMS
Nayab Sharif Patel, Student, AIAIMS
Maryam Hanzala Tariq, Assistant Professor, AIAIMS

Abstract

CSR has for long time been defined and conceptualized in many ways by different writers,
nevertheless, the concepts are constantly emerging. This era’s growing environmental
awareness has strengthened the competition between the businesses, and a certain need to
develop marketable, innovative and legitimately sustainable brands. Therefore, it is essential
to integrate CSR into businesses to be able to compete with other companies.

Our research intends to understand the role of CSR in employer branding strategy. We argue
that company’s CSR initiatives and good human resources practices can retain highly-
qualified employees through positive reputation. Several companies have adopted CSR
activities which are helping them to strengthen their Employer Brand as well.

The purpose of this study is to investigate CSR’s effect on brand image and to explore the
importance of a well-known CSR; to find what attitudes employees have towards CSR.

A survey was conducted and sample was collected from 51 employees. Questionnaire was
based on employees’ awareness about CSR, how their organization is using CSR as a brand
image and their own perception about CSR.

Conclusion shows that according to the survey corporate social responsibility is an important
practice for employer branding, organizations are more concerned about their corporate social
responsibility CSR has a major impact on employer branding, employees perception shows
that corporate social responsibility has a positive impact on employer branding.

It shows that many employees have positive feeling and thoughts regarding Corporate Social
Responsibility and would like themselves and their organisations to be associated with issues
which impact the society.

Key Words: CSR, employer branding, employee perception

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Introduction

Whether it’s recognised or not, every business has an employer brand. From a conventional
marketing point of view, a brand is what differentiates a product or service from another. The
name of the business, design and reputation all form a brand’s image and the public
understanding of what the company offers. In a similar way, an employer brand is the look,
feel, and reputation of an employer and generally influences what current and prospective
employees use to assess whether or not the company is an attractive place to work. 

CSR for Employer Branding

“Creating a strong business and building a better world are not conflicting goals – they are
both essential ingredients for long-term success” – William Clay Ford Jr. Executive
Chairman, Ford Motor Company

CSR helps in reinforcing the positive image of an organization. There exists a strong
connection between these two concepts of CSR and Employer Banding. CSR sends out a
positive message about the company and thereby increases the Employer Brand value.

Employer branding can be understood as the identity based development and positioning of a
company as a credible and attractive employer, both for existing and potential employees
(Deutsche Employer Branding Akademie, 2007). It comprises the planning, steering,
coordination, and controlling of the employer brand as “the package of functional, economic
and psychological benefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing
company”. From a company perspective, the employer brand serves as an instrument to
differentiate a company from its competitors in the eyes of potential and current employees
either by providing functional benefits of the workplace or by creating sympathy and
affection for the company in question. From the perspective of (future) employees, it helps to
give orientation by conveying a clear image of functional and emotional workplace. Besides,
brands should transmit trust, hence reducing the perceived risk involved with a job
commitment.

Employer branding can be understood as the identity based development and positioning of a
company as a credible and attractive employer, both for existing and potential employees
(Deutsche Employer Branding Akademie, 2007). It comprises the planning, steering,
coordination, and controlling of the employer brand as “the package of functional, economic
and psychological benefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing

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company”. From a company perspective, the employer brand serves as an instrument to
differentiate a company from its competitors in the eyes of potential and current employees
either by providing functional benefits of the workplace or by creating sympathy and
affection for the company in question. From the perspective of (future) employees, it helps to
give orientation by conveying a clear image of functional and emotional workplace. Besides,
brands should transmit trust, hence reducing the perceived risk involved with a job
commitment. Finally, it supports social and personal identification if perceived company
values are in accordance with the self-concept and aspired value system of (potential)
employees.

The integration of CSR in the employer brand does not only support the communication of
CSR to relevant stakeholders, but at the same time potentially strengthens the employer brand
and its potential to attract and retain employees: If “responsible” workplace attributes play a
decisive role for job aspirants, CSR is an important attribute for differentiation from
competitors.

If ecological and social consciousness and fairness is part of the value system of the target
employees of a company, its communication enhances identification and perceived “added
value” of the employer in question. Finally, if CSR is taken as a signal for trustworthiness, its
integration in the positioning allows strengthening the image of the company as a trustful,
reliable and fair employer.

Literature review

Companies are starting to engage in CSR activities in order to respond to an external demand,
and also taking into consideration the positive effects of CSR. On the other hand, their CSR
activities have an impact on current employees commitment towards their employer and on

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the attractiveness of an employer in the mind of prospective employees Also, it is highlighted
that employees have sufficient power, legitimacy, and urgency to become salient stakeholders
to management, therefore they are considered to be a relevant group of stakeholders for each
organization. The role of corporate social responsibility on employees is becoming more
present in the business world, one of the reasons being that successful companies should
attract, retain the best work force. By creating a good working environment and developing
the internal marketing strategies, companies can stimulate productivity and satisfaction
among employees. If employees are satisfied with the company, they will recommend to
friends and family as a good employee. In the classical approach, many companies consider
that the client is only interested in the final product that he buys, and not necessarily in how it
is produced. Currently, however, consumers begin to evaluate companies in terms of working
conditions of the company. Quality of products or services of a company depends to an extent
of the degree of motivation and training of its employees. That is why the company should
look at employees from the stakeholder theory perspective and consider their requests.
Marketing science developed the concept of internal marketing, which involves targeting the
marketing efforts within the company to its employees.

Recent studies showed that the social performance of the company influences also the
economic one, even though it is very difficult to measure it (Ali et al., 2010). One of the
directions analysed in the scientific literature is the influence of CSR on the internal
stakeholders, many of them focusing on the potential of CSR in attracting employees and
building an employer brand (Turker, 2008; Kim et al., 2010). Even so, little attention has
been given to the attitudes of the employees regarding CSR. Attitudes are judgments of value
regarding a certain aspect. The process of building an attitude is based on three components:
a cognitive one, an affective one and a conative one (Quester and Lim, 2003; van der Brink et
al. 2006). In this regard our study takes into account the evaluation of the level of
understanding of CSR activities, their importance and employees` level of involvement.

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of this study is to know the impact of CSR on employer branding and
how CSR is contributing for employer branding but specifically, the study sought to achieve
the following objectives:

 To know the employees’ perception about CSR and Employer branding

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  To understand the importance of CSR as a tool for employer branding

Research Methodology

Sample size: 51

Data sources

Primary data:

Primary data was collected through administering a questionnaire from employees working in
different sectors. The study population is very large, so 51 respondents were selected through
random sampling method. This research investigates the relationship between CSR and
Employer Branding.

Secondary data:

Secondary data is collected from various research papers, journals, books and magazines

Corporate Social Responsibility in Organizations

A comprehensive CSR policy needs engagement from employees and internal stakeholders,
rather than only the top management in order to be sustainable. Integration of CSR into a
company’s Employer Branding strategy is necessary to attract talent required for the
business.  While developing Employer Branding strategy principles of marketing are applied
to human resource activities with regards to current and potential employees. CSR being
included in the list of Employee Engagement activities of various organizations is now being
used as a tool to increase the Employer Brand value of organizations.

Several companies have adopted CSR activities which are helping them to strengthen their
Employer Brand as well. Some examples are as follows.

TCS- Their CSR activities include Water conservation across locations, Electricity

conservation across locations, Green area environment preservation and enhancement across
locations, bio-digesters of canteen waste etc. Apart from these initiatives TCS also has
several volunteering and fund raising initiatives which enable their employees to reach out to
the society.

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WIPRO: Wipro Cares is Wipro’s community initiative focused on certain key
developmental issues faced by underserved and underprivileged communities. It was formed
in the year 2003 and is committed to work with communities proximate to Wipro’s centre of
operations.

Thus in today’s competitive business world Employer Branding and Corporate Social
Responsibility goes hand-in-hand and since an HR has to strengthen the Employer Brand of a
firm he/she must be able to apply the marketing principles and incorporate CSR initiatives in
the company’s strategies in such a way so as to boost the Employer Brand.

Data Analysis and Interpretation:

What is your gender?

Interpretation: Around 64.7 respondents were male
and 35.3 were female
Femal
e

Male

WHAT INCOME GROUP DO YOU FALL INTO?

Interpretation: The income group of
More
than respondents ranged from 0 – 3 lakh
5-8 8
lakh having highest respondents with 52.
9% Followed by 3 – 5 lakh having
0-3 31.4 % 5 – 8 lakh having 9.8% and
lakh More than 8 lakh comprising of
3-5
lakh 5.9%. Many respondents were only
in the entry level job

Interpretation: The respondents

HOW MANY EARNING MEMBERS ARE THERE IN
YOUR FAMILY? had varied numbers in terms of
members who are earning.
More Earning members as 1 in the
than
3 family comprised of 39.2%,
3 earning members as 2 comprised
1

2
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of 43.1%, 3 earning members made 9.8%, more than 3 members who are earning were a mere
7.8%

Interpretation: The number of

What is the number of dependent members in your family?
dependent members were high
with at least 2 members who
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are dependent on the
More
than 5 respondents having 31.4%

3 Next is 3 members who are

0
dependent with 29.4%, around
1
11.8% of respondents had 5
members as dependent on them,
4 members who are dependent
2
on the respondents comprised
of 17.6% followed by 1
member as dependent – 5.9% and 0 members as dependent with only 3.9%.

Are you aware of the use of socially responsible

activities in branding? Interpretation: A good amount of
respondents were aware of socially
responsible activities in branding
0 compared to 19.6% of respondents
who were not.

Do you think your company is competitive

enough?

Interpretation: Around 86.3% respondents feel their No

company is competitive enough while 13.7% do not. A
huge number of people feel their company is competitive
enough with respect to competition from competitors.

Yes
Does your company engage in csr activities?

No
Interpretation: Around 76.5%
respondents responded positively
stating that their company does engages
in CSR activities as compared to 23.5%
respondents whose company do not

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Yes
engage in CSR activities. Companies that are engaging in CSR activities is on the rise with
76.5% but still need to go a long way as 23.5% organisations are still not engaging
themselves with CSR activities.

Interpretation: Respondents
Does your company care about employer branding?
who mentioned in the positive –
62.7%, with negative – 11.8%
Not
No Aware while 25.5% were not aware.
Around 25.5% employees are
still not aware whether their
companies care about employer
branding or not. Clear objectives
of organisations should thus be
transferred to all employees
Yes from time to time.

Does your company care about social issues?

Interpretation: A good 78.4%
No
respondents affirmed that their
company does care about social
issues while 21.6% do not feel their
company cares about social issues.
While the number of organisations
who care about social issues is good
but it won’t do any harm if the
Yes number increases further. A lot
many organisations still need to
adapt to and care about issues which
are socially prevalent.

Does your company undertake issues which might

benefit the society? Interpretation: Around 78.4%
responded saying that their company
No
undertakes issues which might
benefit the society, 21.6% responded
Not
Aware saying their company does not
undertake social issues and 2% are

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Yes
not aware if their company undertakes any issues which might benefit the society. More
number of companies should come forward for the betterment of the society.

Do you think your company combines csr and

employer barnding as a win win situation? Interpretation: 77.6% responded
saying that their company combines
No
CSR and Employer branding as a
WIN – WIN situation while 22.4%
responded in the negative

Companies should combine CSR and

Employer Branding to get maximum
Yes
rewards and thus create a WIN –
WIN situation for all.

How important do you think is it to include csr

activities in an organisation?
Fairly Interpretation: 62.7% respondents
Importa
nt mentioned that it is very important to
include CSR activities in an
organisation while 35.5% feel it’s
Not
Importa fairly important and 2% feel it’s not
nt
important. A large chunk of
respondents still feels it’s not very
important to include CSR activities in
Very an organisation which is quite
Importa alarming in a country like India.
nt

Does it impact your decision to work in a specific

company which is active in csr activities? Interpretation: While 66.7%
No respondents mentioned it does impact
their decision to work in a specific
company which engages in CSR,
around 33.3% mentioned in the
negative stating that it does not
impact their decision to work in a
specific company. In a country like

Yes
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India where the number of dependents is high, many people overlook whether a company is
engaging in CSR activities or not.

Interpretation: Around 66.7%

Would you like to work in a company which is
great but is not active with csr activities or one
mentioned they would like to work in a
which is not great but good with csr activities? company which is not great but active
with CSR activities while 33.3%
Active mentioned vice versa. People who have
with CSR
more dependent members in their
family would still prefer to work in an
organisation which pays well but is not
socially active in CSR.

Not
active
with CSR
Do you think CSR helps to attract talented
individuals?

No
Interpretation: A large number of respondents
responded saying CSR does help to attract the right
talent and 21.6% feel CSR has no impact on
attracting talented individuals.

CSR helps attract talented individuals. The youth

are more concerned and focused today than ever Yes
before and hence would pick up organisations which
are more responsible towards the society.

Interpretation: 74.5% responded that they

Are you aware of organisations actively
are aware of their organisation being
involved with csr activities?
involved with CSR activities and 25.5
No mentioned they aren’t aware.

All employees should be aware whether

their organisations are involved with CSR
activities or not.

Yes

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Conclusion

The study shows that according to the survey corporate social responsibility is an important
practice for employer branding, organizations are more concerned about their corporate social
responsibility CSR has a major impact on employer branding.

The study shows that many employees have positive feeling and thoughts regarding
Corporate Social Responsibility and would like themselves and their organisations to be
associated with issues which impact the society. We also found that a considerable amount of
individuals are either not aware or do not feel CSR is important.

References:

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