Employer Value Propositions for Different Target Groups and Organizational Types in the Public Sector: Theory and Evidence From Field Experiments

Abstract

Public employers struggle with recruiting talents and labor market competition. Research on the understudied topic of employer branding can help address this challenge. This study presents five large-scale, pre-registered field experiments ( n = 155,634) aimed at increasing the number of individuals initially interested in a job at a public employer. In social media ads, public sector values served as signaled employer value propositions (EVPs). The results show the importance of target groups and points of difference related to public employers’ organizational type. Significantly fewer women show interest in a job, and for a municipal administration, a fair pay EVP has a negative effect. This study enhances the understanding of potential recruits’ environment- and self-processing, bridges EVPs with public values theory, and provides a missing theoretical link between publicness and recruitment. It shows the importance of testing common assumptions about what works in recruitment in field studies with high external validity.