From Promise to Practice
Abstract
Employer branding is no longer a signaling practice which is more of a recruitment-based practice but an ethical organizational pledge that defines employee anticipation and experience. This chapter examines the gap between the moral employer brand stories and the normal practice in human-oriented organizations. The chapter theorizes the employer branding as a lived organization phenomenon based on the faculty insights of employer branding, organizational ethics, psychological contract theory and employee experience research using the mediators of authenticity, fairness, transparency and trust. It offers by presenting by illustrative case studies how alignment leads to meaningful work, engagement, and retention and misalignment leads to cynicism, disengagement and reputational risk, particularly when working digitally.