Well-being policies and applicant attraction: The mediating role of employer brand personality

Abstract

Increasingly, (potential) employees take their well-being into account when choosing or quitting jobs. However, we do not yet know whether and how organizations can influence applicant attraction by communicating their well-being policy within recruitment materials. Based on signaling theory, we hypothesize that a well-being policy functions as a signal through which potential applicants make inferences about employer brand personality (organizational warmth and competence), ultimately increasing organizational attractiveness and application intentions. Moreover, we examine whether the content of the well-being policy matters and compare (a) prevention versus promotion policies and (b) individual-level versus organizational-level policies. Two experimental studies among samples of Belgian employed potential applicants showed that a well-being policy increased organizational attractiveness and application intentions, while organizational warmth served as an explaining mechanism. Organizational-level well-being policies elicited higher application intentions compared to individual-level well-being policies, which was mediated by organizational warmth and competence. Moreover, we found that even in the presence of another strong signal (salary information), a well-being policy is still linked to increased applicant attraction. Lastly, a well-being policy increases organizational attractiveness especially when salary is average in comparison to when salary is above average.