Employer brand communication in job advertisements

Abstract

The concept of the employer brand has been developing intensively and it is the subject of interest and research of scholars and practitioners in the field of both marketing and human resource management. The aim of the research presented in the paper is to examine the content of job advertisements of the most desirable employers in Serbia, as well as to examine the extent to which they communicate the elements that potential candidates value when assessing the attractiveness of employers. By employing content analysis, the content of job advertisements of Serbian most attractive employers is determined and classified. In total, 291 job advertisements of 18 most desirable employers published on the Infostud platform in the period March-June 2021 were analyzed. In the exploratory research, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of published job advertisements was performed. The results of the research indicate that the content of job advertisements of the most desirable employers in Serbia most often communicates about the work environment and opportunities for acquiring knowledge. In addition, instrumental aspects of the workplace, ie information related to earnings, bonuses and rewards, are communicated more often for lower positions. Although not all elements describing the desired employer were part of the content of the advertisements, it was determined that the most desirable employers in the advertisements pay attention to visual solutions, topics shown in photos, engaging employees in communicating the employer's brand, and communication of product brands.