Winning the war for talent: Does CSR matter in the recruitment process?

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThe prevailing "war for talent" induced this research which aims to find out if CSR can be a competitive advantage in the recruitment process. The results of two studies conducted in the scope of this research demonstrate that applicants highly value CSR in the job-seeking process; especially employee-related CSR. Further, they prefer companies engaging in CSR over those that do not. For businesses this implies that they have to invest in employee-related CSR and advertize it to prospective applicants. Organizations should realize that CSR can be a recruitment specific competitive advantage helping to attract a bigger applicant pool