Employer branding in the ICT-sector : Aligning external prejudices with internal experiences

Abstract

This thesis by nature is a study of one ICT-conglomerate’s employer brand and a roadmap for strategically developing it. The thesis first introduces the reader to the topic through latest trends and reasons behind the chosen topic. The theoretical section seeks to establish a good base, on top of which it’s easy to build the empirical section on. Following the theory, one can find the research methodology, which thoroughly explains the used tools and methods for reaching conclusions. The empirical section is divided into three major parts: ideal employer characteristics, employer brand (perceived and experienced) and alignment / conflict of the two. The conclusions answer to the established research questions and hypotheses, also offering a roadmap for future development of the ICT-conglomerate’s employer brand. The research is completed only within the Finnish marketplace, although the conglomerate is multinational. The perceived employer brand data is gathered from university students of three major subjects: information technology, industrial engineering & management and economic sciences. This, because these three groups in particular are potential and desired future employees of the conglomerate. The experienced employer brand was collected from employees of the eight subsidiaries that operate in the Finnish marketplace. Seven of these eight participated in this research. In the research it was found out, that the way the company’s employees experience the company as an employer don’t align at all with the students’ perceptions. The perceptions vary by gender, field of study, length of study and industry knowledge. It’s apparent, that the external communication of what’s it like to be employed in the company hasn’t generated the desired results. In general, students perceive the company as a worse employer in all 32 studied characteristics, than it actually is according to the experiences of the employees. In the study, a significant internal problem also emerged. As the conglomerate has eight subsidiaries across Finland, the experienced employment varies greatly between them. Because of this, the company can’t utilize a unified conglomerate employer value proposition, but rather is forced to control eight unique ones. Moving forward from this research, a roadmap was generated for improving the employer brand both internally and externally. The next step for the studied company is to study the best practices across subsidiaries and duplicate them in the hopes of aligning experiences, before exporting them as marketing to alter perceptions.