The Evolution of Internal Employer Branding and Employee Engagement: The Temporal Role of Internal Social Media Usage

Abstract

In recent times, Indian IT companies have been facing high attrition rates, especially with young employees having three to seven years of experience. Therefore, this study develops and tests a dynamic model of brand-endorsed employee engagement (EE) and employee retention (ER). Particularly, the carryover and temporal effects of the relationships and constructs are studied to understand how employee behaviour evolves over time. Using two waves of longitudinal data gathered from young employees ([Formula: see text]) of Indian IT companies, the proposed conceptual model is investigated to test the temporal differences in the relationships between internal employer branding (IEB), organisational commitment, EE and ER. Additionally, the impact of employer internal social media usage on the relationships is also examined as an effective human resources (HR) intervention in the evolution process. The findings show that excluding the organisational commitment to EE relationship, the other two relationships between IEB to organisational commitment and EE to ER become stronger over time. Interestingly, while internal social media usage does not exhibit direct effect on organisational commitment or ER, it is instrumental in influencing IEB perception and EE during subsequent periods. Overall, this study offers directions to HR managers in the services sector on how to effectively use social media to engender engagement in employees and ultimately, enhance their intention to stay.

Examining the Temporal Effects of Employer Branding on Employee Engagement and Employee Retention: A Longitudinal Study in the Indian IT Sector

“…This research presents a viewpoint to elucidate the evolution of employer branding alongside employee assessments across subsequent periods. This is attributed to the fact that the passage of time, whether directly or indirectly, impacts the shift in employee attitudes or behaviors (Agarwal et al, 2021). Hence, our study yields two significant theoretical contributions to the fields of human resource management (HRM) and organizational behaviour.…”

“…This surge is a response to the ever-evolving business landscape and the heightened global competition, prompting employers to shift their focus towards nurturing their human capital. Numerous scholars have established a strong correlation between employer branding and financial performance, substantiating this link both theoretically and through empirical evidence (Agarwal et al, 2021). In contemporary times, an organization's business strategy harmoniously intertwines with its people strategy, as the aspiration to be the preferred "employer of choice" or the ultimate "best place to work" becomes ubiquitous.…”

“…Hence, to enhance the enduring efficacy of employer branding, employers should continuously explore innovative avenues to reinforce their employer branding initiatives. For instance, a recent survey unveiled that over sixty six percent of participants perceived that companies' integration of social media contributed to the enhancement of their internal communication (Agarwal et al, 2021).…”

Common methods and outcomes of employee engagement: a systematic literature review towards identifying gaps in research

“…Organisational commitment is also a determinant of employee engagement. It refers to employees' commitment to their job (Aktar & Pangil, 2018;Nienaber & Martins, 2020;Agarwal et al, 2021). Notably, two commitment types, affective commitment (Shuck et al, 2011;Ibrahim & Al Falasi, 2014;Gyensare et al, 2015;Kaur et al, 2020;Einwiller et al, 2021), an employee's emotional attachment to the organisation (Meyer & Allen, 1991), and continuance commitments (Ibrahim & Al Falasi, 2014), an employee's strong desire to retain as a member of the organisation (Turkyilmaz et al, 2011), are the determinants of employee engagement.…”

Veinticinco años de investigación en redes sociales: evolución de temas entre 1997 y 2021 empleando el algoritmo Asignación Latente de Dirichlet

“…En consecuencia, se afronta el estudio del área de conocimiento de las redes sociales en su integridad, no solo el de las plataformas de redes sociales en línea como Twitter o Facebook, temática no abordada previamente -hasta donde conocemos-. Se han localizado escasos estudios generales sobre la historia de las redes sociales en línea (Boyd y Ellison 2008), así como diversos análisis de la evolución del empleo de las redes sociales en línea en ámbitos concretos como el sanitario (Cho et al 2020), el histórico (Bunnenberg et al 2021), el económico (Agarwal et al 2021) o el educativo (Yu et al 2023), pero ningún análisis comparable al que se realiza aquí.…”