The Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility in Recruitment: Between Saying and Doing

Abstract

This paper represents a study on the relation between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and recruitment. A survey was conducted among HRM staff investigating attitude and practices in recruitment for middle and higher management, in relation to CSR. Concomitantly, texts of job advertisements for middle and higher management positions were analyzed for mentions of CSR-related terms in the job description, job requirements and company self-description. The survey results show that HRM staff considers CSR important in all aspects of job recruitment. However, the analysis of job advertisements shows very little attention for CSR, except in the company self-description related to equal opportunities and diversity. The HRM staff survey shows that HRM staff finds CSR more relevant for higher than for middle management positions. However, in the job advertisements, there was little difference between middle and higher management in this respect.