Response to a crisis and applicant attraction: Signaling employer brand personality and organizational trust through warm and competent COVID‐19 responses

Abstract

This paper investigates how organizations' response to a crisis such as the COVID‐19 pandemic affects their employer attractiveness. Based on signaling theory, we argue that a COVID‐19 response can signal an organization's employer brand personality, positively affecting applicant attraction. We conducted two experimental studies with employed and unemployed UK participants through Prolific Academic. Both studies indicate that a warm COVID‐19 response leads to the highest employer attractiveness and job pursuit intentions, although a competent response was still more attractive than no response. Moreover, applicants use the warm and competent responses as signals of organizational warmth and competence respectively, building higher organizational trust. Limited support for the moderating role of applicants' personality was found. Implications during and beyond COVID‐19 are discussed.

Pengaruh Kepribadian, Etika Kerja, dan Lingkungan Kerja terhadap Kinerja Karyawan pada Konveksi UD. Nora Collection di Surabaya

“…Kepribadian karyawan dapat mempengaruhi kinerja mereka saat menyelesaikan pekerjaanya. Kepribadian merupakan pentujuk psikologis yang akan mampu mendeteksi adanya suatu perbedaan yang ada pada diri manusia (Azimi, 2023;Carpentier, 2019;Harrison, 2018;Kanwal, 2022;Robertson, 2019;Schätzle, 2022). Penilaian kinerja juga bisa didasari dari etika kerja yang ditunjukan oleh seorang karyawan.…”

Beyond employer brand content: The role of employer brand process attributes in understanding employees' reactions toward their employer

“…For example, Petry et al (2022) found that organizations that promote several instrumental attributes in their job ads such as high salary, fast advancement opportunities, challenging job content are more effective in attracting job seekers. Similarly, those that develop their recruitment materials (LinkedIn posts, crisis messages) in terms of the symbolic attributes warmth and competence are able to attract talented applicants (Kanwal et al, 2022; Zhu et al, 2021). A few studies have also examined content attributes in relation to employees' organizational identification and ambassadorship.…”