The influence of the employer image and reputation on Enemalta’s attractiveness for prospective engineering employees

Abstract

The attractiveness of an employer for potential recruits depends on the knowledge they possess about the particular employer. This knowledge can be divided into a three dimensional framework, made up of the familiarity of the potential employee with the employer and the perceptions of the potential recruit as regards the employer‟s reputation and image. This study seeks to investigate the perceptions of potential engineering recruits regarding Enemalta‟s attractiveness as a potential employer, through the three dimensions of knowledge. The scope of this „attractiveness audit‟ is to detect which of the organisation‟s attributes are perceived to be attractive, as an employer. In this way, the company can design an adequate employer branding strategy by which it can perhaps solve its problem to find high quality engineering recruits. The determination of the key attributes which constitute Enemalta‟s attractiveness, and also those of the Water Services Corporation (WSC), was achieved by conducting a quantitative study amongst the local engineering community, covering various age groups. In this way, models depicting the employer‟s attractiveness were created. Enemalta‟s attractiveness results to be perceived through „the prestige that an engineer achieves by being employed by the company‟, „the perceived honesty of the company‟, „the excitement that engineers associate with a job with Enemalta‟, „the perceived cheerful working environment‟ and „the remuneration package‟. Apart from the „remuneration package‟, which represents the employer image of Enemalta, the other four attributes are of an intangible nature and hence can be defined as symbolic benefits. Hence, Enemalta‟s employer reputation, which is composed of symbolic attributes, results to be the major contributor for the company‟s attractiveness, from the three knowledge dimensions. The familiarity of the potential employee with Enemalta, as an employer, results to be insignificant as regards the attractiveness. This study also seeks to find additional dimensions, which together with the dimensions of knowledge describe the company‟s attractiveness. The potential employee‟s „perceived chance to be employed with an employer‟, results to be another, previously undiscovered, dimension that describes attractiveness. Enemalta‟s employer attractiveness results to be superior then that of one of its main competitors, in the employment market, namely the WSC. Enemalta also reaches the expectations of engineers as regards their attractiveness expectations, regarding heavy-plant organisations, like Enemalta. On the other hand, Enemalta did not manage to reach the expectations of the general expectations of what constitutes the attractiveness of an employer in general. The findings of this study have strong implications about the way recruitment strategies should be carried out. They dismiss the traditional strategies of emphasizing tangible attributes to highlight a company‟s attractiveness, in favour of the emphasis of intangible attributes that a company may possess.