Employer brand ambassadors as part of employer branding

The “war for talent” has led to that companies nowadays have seek new sustainable strategies for retaining and attracting more and better employees. Due to that, the employer branding has emerged to be the hot topic in both practice and academic field. One of the ways in which the organization can attempt to communicate its benefits as an employer, is to empower the current employees to act as employer brand ambassadors and spread positive WOM in their own networks or utilize them in company’s channels. However, despite the emerging popularity of employer brand ambassadors, the academic research on employer brand ambassadors as part of employer branding is very limited. The purpose of this thesis is to gain and deepen the understanding on the current employees as employer brand ambassadors could potentially be utilized in external employer branding. This primary research question is approached through exploring the perceptions on employer brand ambassadors, experiences on different employer branding activities and what kind of things are associated with attractive employers. These aspects are studied in the context of millennials that are now moving to work-life and form an increasing percentage of the employees. Following the exploratory nature of this research, the qualitative research method is chosen for this study. The empirical research data was collected through semi-structured interviews, that were analysed with qualitative content analysis. For the empirical research, ten interviews with millennials, and four interviews with company representatives were conducted. As the purpose is to study and interpret shared meanings and subjective experiences and perceptions, the study is guided by the interpretivism as its philosophical background. The findings of this research introduce different perceptions and experiences that the millennials have on employer brand ambassadors as part of external employer brand communication, and what kind of things they associate with employer attractiveness. The study indicates that current employees have important role in the formation of employer image and employer attractiveness. The findings and interpretations lead to discussion of the role of current employees in the employer attractiveness in terms of indirectly affecting to it by being a credible information source for potential job seekers as employer brand ambassadors, as well as directly potentially increasing the employer attractiveness as one of the perceived benefits related to the employer