Corporate Social Responsibility and Its role in attracting talents: A millennial perspective

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has increased in importance among companies as an opportunity to improve their reputation and their Employer Attractiveness (EA), especially among Millennials candidates who are highly socially and ecologically aware. Despite several researchers have suggested an interplay between CSR and EA the literature remains inconclusive about the effectiveness of CSR as a strategy to attract talents. Although it is argued that job seekers may be more attracted to socially responsible companies, the literature reveals evidence that suggests that employer economic attributes such as salary, compensation package and career development still having the major impact on the employer-choice process. Thus, it seems necessary to enlighten the relationship between CSR and EA, especially among millennials who will represent the majority of candidates on the market but have been little investigated in previous research. The aim of this paper lies in examining millennials’ attitudes toward CSR and employer economic attributes in order to investigate how CSR compares with an employer’s economic values in terms of EA. The final findings of the survey conducted with 127 millennials show that in fact, that generation considers CSR when choosing their employer and are likely to rate socially responsible companies as more attractive. However, a key finding of this study lies in the fact that despite millennials are highly socially responsible, companies with low CSR may still consider attractive as an employer when representing a high level of economic attributes. Finally, the research also reveals that candidates are more attracted to companies with high levels of social responsibility and economic attributes. Taken together, these findings suggest that companies can enhance their EA by combining both attributes to improve their level of talent attraction. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility (CSR); Employer Attractiveness (EA); Millennials; Talent attractio