Enhancing social sustainability at a business level: Organizational attractiveness is higher when organizations show responsibility towards employees

Abstract

AbstractSelecting employees considering their fit with organizations' values for sustainable development can be an effective way of enhancing sustainable development at a business level. Employers' commitment with sustainable development will be stronger if sustainable development initiatives help them to achieve organizational objectives as attracting talented employees.This study discusses if recruitment messages including information on the social dimension of sustainable development are valued by prospective employees. In particular, we are interested in finding out if five actions showing employer responsibility towards employees influence prospective job applicants' perceptions of organizational attraction.Results from a policy‐capturing study that combines nomothetic and ideographic designs confirm that organizational attractiveness is higher when organizations show responsibility towards employees. Our findings also show the relevance of each of the studied actions to explain organizational attractiveness and differences among participants' perceptions. Results from ideographic analysis underline differences on attractiveness perceptions among participants.