Purpose As the global war of talent is prevalent across different industries, universities are also facing an acute shortage of faculty members because of massification of higher education system in the past two decades. The tremendous increase in the number of higher education institutions has made attracting talented professors a challenging necessity for the university management as employers. The present study, therefore, carries out a scale development exercise and explores the attractive dimensions of Indian universities as employers. Design/methodology/approach With the help of principle component analysis, exploratory factor analysis was carried out to obtain five significant constructs of employer attractiveness in Indian universities. Findings The dimensions identified in the study includes fairness and work–life balance; teaching environment and compensation and benefits; research resources and career development; organizational integrity and commitment to quality; and organizational culture consisting of respect and recognition. Practical implications The finding provides valuable insights for the university management and government bodies and posits to assist them in formulating policies with regard to attracting competent teaching staff. Originality/value Although employer attractiveness has gained scholarly attention in the past two decades, study exploring the dimensionality of employer attractiveness in the context of academic institutions and universities has not been conducted so far. The present study, therefore, is one of the pioneers in this realm.