Chapter 1

Introduction
 Chapter 1: Introduction

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introduction

The concept of Employer Branding (EBR) has gained recognition worldwide in the last
few years. This attention was given by the organizations to use a new approach to
compete in the market as the approaches used earlier by the organizations have become
exhaustive and are commonly accepted and applied by all the organizations in the
market. Earlier, organizations used to compete with their competitors by enhancing its
sale through rigorous marketing, cost cutting, innovative techniques etc. But, recently
the focus of the organizations has shifted from product and cost to the human resource
as all the tasks related to sale, cost cutting, etc., is done by humans only and not by the
machines. People who think out of the box are given preference for the jobs of the
management because of their creative thinking. However, putting focus on the human
resource or giving attention to the talented people does not guarantee that such people
or potential employees would join the organizations. The organizations need to make
efforts in order to attract the talented employees to work for it.

Employer branding is an effort of the organization through which it portrays its good
image to the employees. Organizations advertise themselves as a ‘great place to work
for’ to the employees in order to fetch the best talent who would contribute to its
success. As there is high demand for talented people in the market, the ball always rests
in the court of talented employees. The employees have to decide for which company
they want to work for and while making such an important decision, the image of the
company plays a significant role. This image can be perceived by the employees based
on any factor; some employees consider high pay, some consider job security whereas
some consider the work environment while choosing the company to work for.
Organizations that are able to protect and enhance their image in the market are able to
get and keep the best talent. A recent study explained that 38% of respondents had
written negative reviews on the review sites or social media about the former
companies, after getting laid off. Also, it explained that around 52% employees, before

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

joining the organization, try to seek information about the organizations through its sites
or social media (CareerArc, 2015). Hence, the concept of employer branding has
become very crucial to get best of the talent as employees have become more aware and
use social media to give reviews about the organizations.

Generally, there is a confusion regarding terms like corporate branding, internal

branding, product branding, and employee branding. All the terms mentioned, however,
are different and carry distinctive approach. Corporate branding is the attempt of the
organization to build its image in the market as a corporate having financial value. The
products of such corporates enjoy the brand name of the corporate and get accepted
easily by the public. It is generally used by the organizations of service industry as the
products are of intangible nature and the image of the corporate is what helps in getting
the business. Product branding refers to the efforts of the organizations to create the
image of the product in the mind of the existing and potential customers through
various marketing techniques. Internal branding refers to the efforts of the organization
to change its working culture in order to make its employees more focused towards its
business and to enhance its performance in the market. Employee branding refers to the
image of the employees in the mind of the public. Through employee branding, the
employees portray their image as an employee of a particular organization. They also
portray the culture of the organization in which they work as if they are the brand
ambassador of the organization. Whereas, employer branding is process where the
organizations create the image in the mind of the employees that they are the best
employers to get associated with.

Apart from getting the best employees, organizations also try to resist their employees
to switch jobs and join their competitors. The strategies of the organizations are
focussed around getting the best talent from the market and the rival companies and
retain the existing talent as well. Organizations which are able to retain the employees
for longer term are able to earn the trust, loyalty, and commitment of the employees.

1.2. Rationale of the Study

Most of the available literature on employer branding revolves around theoretical

review of the literature. The researcher found paucity of empirical researches in the

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field of employer branding. Employer branding is an approach to get the best talent in
the organization which is being used globally by most of the organizations. In such a
scenario, the need of the time is to study the construct of employer branding and to
examine what contributes to it.

The researcher has observed few gaps in the literature and this study focuses on bridging
those gaps. First of all, the theoretical framework of the employer branding is required to
be tested for the practical world to examine how it works in the real life. Also, the theory
given by various researches needs to be tested and validated. Literature indicates that
employer branding has a positive influence on business as a whole. The focus of the
study is on how to make the employer attractive or the “employer of choice” in order to
lure the best possible talent to the company and retain them in the longer run.
Additionally, a lot of discussion has revolved around the ways of retaining the top talent
but the link of employer branding with retention has not been discussed much in the
literature. Retention management has gained much interest for decades now. Many
researchers have suggested envisaging the relationship of employer branding with
motivation and retention of employees. The study has considered this and further focuses
onto finding the relationship of employer branding with motivation and retention. The
study is based on primary data and thus, instead of retention of employees, the focus was
on to ascertain the intention of employees to stay in the organization.

Product and organizational branding has reached an accepted status among scholars and
practitioners in the contemporary marketing scenario. However, the concept of using
branding methods on personnel is still relatively new, making it a worthwhile research
topic. The concept of employer branding thus revolves around creating a brand or
image in the minds of the present and prospective employees. Few researchers have
mentioned that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities also contribute to the
brand image of the organizations. On the same pretext this study shall aim to find out
the dimensions of employer branding in organizations of India, its relationship with the
most glaring aspect of the corporate world today – Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR). Therefore the basic rationale of this study is to showcase through research study
the employer branding concept and its related dimensions in the organizations of India.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

Lastly, it was observed that most of the empirical work was conducted in other
countries of the world. The literature is based on the works which were conducted for
different countries. In Indian context very little empirical work is available. The
empirical works and their claims were needed to be tested for Indian context as the
cultural difference among various countries impact the perception of the employees.
Through this study, the perception of the employees was considered regarding
employer branding, motivation, CSR, and intention to stay. The perception of the
employees was analysed and interpreted to examine whether the study supports the
available literature or not. Also, the result of empirical analysis was used to support or
criticize the literature in the Indian context.

1.3. Research Objectives

• To study the construct of Employer Branding of the organizations in India.

• To study whether there exist any relationship among Employer Branding (EBR) and
Intention to Stay (ITS) in the organizations in India.
• To study if Employer Branding (EBR) has an effect on Motivation of employees of
the organizations in India.
• To study whether there exist any relationship among Employer Branding (EBR) and
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the organizations in India.
• To develop a model based on these four constructs, i.e., Employer Branding,
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Intention to Stay (ITS), and Motivation.
• To study if there exist any difference among the levels of motivation for factors of
motivation with reference to the motivators.
• To find out whether there is a significant difference among the groups of
demographic variables when comparing with Employer Branding, Corporate Social
Responsibility, Intention to Stay, and Motivation.

1.4. Research Hypotheses

H01: There would not be any relationship among Employer Branding and Intention to
Stay in the organizations in India.

HA1: There would be a relationship among Employer Branding and Intention to Stay in
the organizations in India.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

H02: There would be no effect of Employer Branding on Motivation of employees of

the organizations in India.

HA2: There would be no effect of Employer Branding on Motivation of employees of

the organizations in India.

H03: There would not be any relationship among Employer Branding and Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) in the organizations in India.

HA3: There would not be any relationship among Employer Branding and Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) in the organizations in India.

H04: There will be no difference among the levels of motivation for factors of
motivation with reference to the following motivators:

• Organization’s brand image.

• Interesting work.
• Good salary.
• Appreciation for job well done.
• Job security.
• Good working conditions.
• Promotions and growth in the organization.
• Feeling of being a part of the things.
• Personal loyalty to employees.
• Tactful discipline.
• Sympathetic help with personal problems.

H04: There will be a difference among the levels of motivation for factors of motivation
with reference to the following motivators:

• Organization’s brand image.

• Interesting work.
• Good salary.
• Appreciation for job well done.
• Job security.
• Good working conditions.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

• Promotions and growth in the organization.

• Feeling of being a part of the things.
• Personal loyalty to employees.
• Tactful discipline.
• Sympathetic help with personal problems.

1.5. Study Description

The study on employer branding is focused on finding out the perception of the
employees with respect to the employer. The study is conducted in two parts, first part
includes the survey of employer branding to measure the construct and second part
involves developing a model which explains the relationship of employer branding with
other constructs. Exploratory study has been conducted to find out the factors that
contribute to employer branding. The literature on employer branding has been referred
in order to explore the factors or antecedents which reflect on a strong employer brand.
The preliminary phase is qualitative in nature wherein the content validity of the factors
and constructs were established by referring to the literature available on employer
branding. The latter phase is quantitative in nature which includes the analysis of the
data collected in order to produce a valid assessment of employer branding and model
based on the hypothesis.

1.6. Questionnaire

To collect the primary data, researcher developed a questionnaire with an objective to

find the perception of the employees with respect to Employer Branding, Intention to
Stay, Motivation, and CSR. The questionnaire was developed keeping in mind the valid
requirements of the study. Questionnaire was developed for the following four
constructs:

• Employer Branding: All the possible and valid measures of employer branding
were explored in the literature and collected from different researches as per the
requirement of this study. The researcher has taken into consideration various
aspects of the employer branding and what contributes to it. After, considering the

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literature and the empirical work available on employer branding, the researcher
incorporated 44 items in the questionnaire based on the drivers of employer
branding i.e., ‘Perceived Organizational prestige and fit’, ‘Employer brand and its
competitors’, ‘Customer brand as perceived by employees’, and ‘Employer brand as
experienced by employees’. The items used in the questionnaire were adopted from
the study of Nigel Wright Recruitment (2008), Kimpakorn and Tocquer (2008), and
Borgohain (2010).
• Intention to Stay: 5 items were included with an intention to find out about the
intention of the employees to stay or leave the organization. The statements for the
questionnaire were adopted from the study of Masroor and Fakir (2009).
• Motivation: Motivation was measured through a questionnaire set consisting of 53
items, which were adapted from the study of Lin (2007). Lin (2007) developed the
questionnaire on the basis of 10 ways given by Economy & Nelson (2003) to
motivate the employees. Besides, these 53 items, 11 motivators were also taken
from the study of Lin (2007) with an objective to analyse to what extent employees
get motivated by the motivators.
• CSR: CSR was measured through a questionnaire set consisting 9 items, which
were adapted from the study of Andersen (2008). Anderson used these items to
analyse the influence of CSR on the attractiveness of employer.

All the items taken in from the studies were modified by the researcher as per the need
of the study. The questionnaire comprised of 122 items in all, among which there were
11 motivators and 111 statements based on 5-point likert scale. Out of these 122 items
used in the questionnaire, there were 9 items which were reversed coded to check
whether the respondents read the questions carefully or not, viz., ‘People from other
organizations look down at this organization’, ‘When other organizations are recruiting
new staff, they would not want staff from this organization’, ‘This organization does
not have a good reputation in my community’, ‘Presently, I am actively searching for
other job’, ‘In the last few months, I have seriously thought about looking for a new
job’, ‘I intend to leave the organization in the near future’, ‘I often think of quitting this
job’, ‘There isn’t much to be gained by staying in this job’, and ‘Money is my only
motivator at work’.

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1.7. Respondents

Once the questionnaire was finalized, the researcher selected the target respondents to
get it filled. Data were collected from the time period of April, 2013 to May, 2015. Five
sectors were considered for the study, namely, Energy Sector, Information Technology
Sector, Hospitality Sector, Banking Sector, and Consulting Sector. These sectors were
chosen on the basis of the Randstad Award of ‘Most Attractive Employer of the
country-India’ conducted in the year 2011 (Randstad Award, 2011). Randstad is an
international HR service provider company, which has been conducting the award
research programs since 2000. It conducted the research program for ‘Best Employer’
in India for the first time in 2011. For this, it conducted the survey of 10,000 people
(both job-seekers and working) and presented a report based on the survey. It included
three criteria for selecting the most attractive company of the country, namely, Name
awareness, Absolute attractiveness, and Relative attractiveness. ‘Name awareness’
criterion was measured through specific questions and it intended to measure if the
respondent identify about the company in a manner to have opinion about the same.
‘Relative attractiveness’ criterion included questions to find out if the respondent want
to work for the company irrespective of the fact that he/she knows about the company.
For ‘Absolute attractiveness’ criterion, the respondents were asked whether they want
to work for the company provided they have the name awareness for the same
(Randstad Award, 2011). The “Top 20 Most attractive employers in India” awards were
given to top 20 companies selected on the basis of relative attractiveness. This research
program reported that the top three sectors in terms of the criterion mentioned above
were Information Technology, Energy, and Consulting. Information Technology gained
the top position because as per the respondents it offers good environment, job
satisfaction, training and salary, and brighter future prospects, to the employees. Energy
and consulting sectors, on the other hand, gained popularity as they offered greater job
security and interesting job with high salary.

Among each of the five sectors, two top organizations were chosen as per the ranking of
the survey of Randstad in India in 2011 (Randstad Award, 2011). On the basis of the
ranking given by Randstad in India, the researcher has taken ONGC, IOCL, Microsoft
Corporation, Google Inc., Taj Group of Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, State Bank of India (SBI),

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Punjab National Bank (PNB), Ernst & Young (EY), and Goldman Sachs, in account for
the study. The list of the selected organizations is given in the Table No. 1.1 along with
the sectors:

Table No. 1.1: List of Sectors along with the Organizations

Name of the Sector Name of the Organization Ranking (Sector-wise)

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited
(ONGC) 1st
Energy Sector (11th rank- Relative attractiveness)
Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) 2nd
Microsoft Corporation
1st
Information Technology (1st rank- Relative attractiveness)
Sector Google Inc.
2nd
(2nd rank- Relative attractiveness)
Taj Group of Hotels
1st
Hospitality Sector (15th rank- Relative attractiveness)
Hyatt Hotels 2nd
State Bank of India (SBI)
1st
Banking Sector (1st rank- Absolute attractiveness)
Punjab National Bank (PNB) 2nd
Ernst & Young (EY)
1st
(17th rank- Relative attractiveness)
Consulting Sector
Goldman Sachs
2nd
(19th rank- Relative attractiveness)
Source: Randstad Award (2011)

1.7.1. Energy Sector

Energy is considered to be supportive in the overall growth of the country’s economy and
its development. It has acted as the vital contributor for the infrastructure, construction,
and agriculture related activities. Oil and gas industry, which is a part of it, plays a crucial
role by influencing the decision making of other industries of the economy.

In 2014, India was the fourth-largest energy consumer in the world with oil and gas
accounting for 37 per cent of its total energy consumption. Annual consumption stood
at 3.85 million barrels per day (MBPD) of oil and 50.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of

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Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). By fiscal year 2016, India’s energy consumption is
estimated to reach 4.0 MBPD of oil and 119.05 bcm of LNG. (IBEF-Energy, 2015)

It is estimated that the oil and gas industry to be worth of nearly 140 billion by 2015-16.
The economic growth of India is linked to the demand for energy. Hence, to make the
sector favourable for investments, the need for oil and gas is likely to grow (IBEF-
Energy, 2015). The government of India has come up with numerous policies to
improve the sector, one of which is to allow 100% foreign direct investment in various
divisions of the sector i.e., natural gas, petroleum products, refineries, etc. Among this
sector, two companies were targeted; Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited
(ONGC) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).

1.7.1.1. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC)

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU)
of the Government of India having 33,560 employees (on 1st august, 2013) (ONGC,
2013). Its headquarters is located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. Ministry of Petroleum
and Natural Gas controls the working of ONGC. At present, it has the reputation of the
country’s biggest oil and gas exploration and production organization. It is known for
producing nearly 70% of India’s crude oil (which is equal to approximately 25% of the
country’s total demand) and 60% of the country’s natural gas. It has become the country’s
second largest organization having market capitalisation of INR 2.6 trillion
(US$48.98 billion) on 31st March, 2013 (The Hindu, 2013). It has been ranked as highest
profit making organization of the country in a study conducted by government in 2011-12
(Indian Express, 2013). In 2012, as per ‘Fortune Global 500‘ list of world’s leading
organizations, it has bagged the ranking of 357th (Fortune, 2012). Platts has given ONGC
ranking of 22nd in Top 250 Global Energy Organizations (Platts, 2013).

In 2013, as per Randstad Award of ‘Most Attractive Employer of the country’, ONGC
gained the top position (Times of India, 2013).

1.7.1.2. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL)

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is a biggest profit-making organization of India,

which is having around 34,000 employees (March, 2013). Its headquarters is located in

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

Delhi. In the year 2014-15, it had sales turnover of INR 4,50,756 crore (US$ 73.7
billion) and profits of INR 5,273 crore (IOCL, 2015).

IOCL is seeking for business prospects in Asian and African markets, after setting up
its branches in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and UAE. To follow the varied business interests,
it had come up with nearly twenty joint ventures renowned corporate partners in India
and overseas (IOCL, 2015). In 2015, according to ‘Fortune Global 500‘ list of world’s
leading organizations, IOCL has gained the ranking of 119th and 1st position amongst
Indian companies (New Indian Express, 2015).

In India, IOCL and its subsidiaries have stake of 49% in petroleum products market,
31% in refining capacity and 67% in pipelines. It possesses 10 out of 22 refineries of
India having a collective capacity of around 66 mm tonnes per year (IOCL, 2015).

It was included in the list of Forbes Global 2000 at the rank of 243 in 2011. As per the
study conducted by Brand Finance and Economic Times, IOCL was considered to be
5th most esteemed brand in India during 2010 (Rediff.com, 2010).

1.7.2. Information Technology Sector

Globally, India is the most preferred destination for the IT industry. Information
Technology Sector contributes to the country’s economy at around 9%. Approximately
10 million people have got employment in this industry. The cost effectiveness in
providing the IT services has helped the country to become popular source destination
of the world. United states of America has outsourced its IT services to India due to this
cost effectiveness. Due to this significant growth of IT sector, there is an increase in
demand of engineering and computer science courses in the education sector of India.
The researcher considered Google Inc. and Microsoft Corporation for the study among
this sector, as these two companies have been gaining lots of attention since 2010 for
being the best employers of the sector.

1.7.2.1. Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft corporation, a multinational company with approximately 1,20,000 employees

all over the world, has its headquarter located in Washington. It is involved in the

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business of developing, licensing, supporting and selling computer software, electronics,

and personal computers. It is quite popular for its software, i.e., operating systems, MS-
office, Internet explorer, etc. In hardware, it has gained popularity through the
Xbox game and Microsoft Surface tablet group. In terms of revenue, Microsoft is
considered to be the world’s major software manufacturer and most treasured
organization (Kooten, 2011). In 2014, the company acquired Nokia and came up with a
subsidiary known as Microsoft Mobile Oy.

In India, it has Microsoft India (subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation) having nearly

7,000 employees. Its headquarters is located in Hyderabad, India. It has won the award
of ‘Most Attractive Employer’ in India given by Randstad in 2011 and 2014 (Randstad
award, 2011 and Randstad award, 2014).

1.7.2.2. Google Inc.

Google Inc., a multinational company with nearly 57,000 employees (around 2000 in
India), is specialized in providing products and services related to the Internet. Many
popular services like online advertising, searching, cloud-computing are provided by
Google to its users. The major part of its profits is earned by the online advertising
service which is known as AdWords (Vise, 2005). Through AdWords, it shows the
advertisements of the clients nearby the search outcomes list. It has offices located in
more than 40 countries of the world. (Google, 2013)

In India, it has office in areas like Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.
Outside the silicon valley of the United States, its first Research and Development
centre is situated in Bangalore. Gurgaon and Mumbai office are responsible to
contribute by fetching online advertisement and local business prospects for the
company, whereas Hyderabad office is responsible to handle human resources and
further business related tasks.

It has got 2nd rank in ‘Most Attractive Employer’ in India given by Randstad in 2011
(Randstad award, 2011). Later, in 2015, it has won various awards of being the best
employer i.e., ‘Forbes List of 500 Employers’ in America, ‘Most Attractive Employer’
in India by Randstad, ‘Employees Choice Award’ by Glassdoor in 2015 (Business
Standard, 2015 and The Economic Times, 2015).

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1.7.3. Hospitality Sector

The tourism and hospitality sector in India has become the major factor of progress in
the service sector of the country, recently. The tourism and hospitality sector
contributes around 7% in the GDP of India. With the increase in interest of youth to
travel, the hospitality sector has gained popularity. Earlier, there used to be mainly
two brands in hotels industry, namely, Taj group and Oberoi group of hotels. Later in
2012, other foreign hotel brands (Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, Starwoods, etc.) gave
competition to Taj and Oberoi by signing contracts with developers and investors to
start their venture in other areas of the country (Business Standard, 2012). Businesses
know that they have to give their best service to the clients to make their brand value
in the market. According to ICRA, the rating agency, the revenue growth of hotels
industry in India is likely to get strengthened to 9-11% during 2015-16 (Live mint,
2015). ‘Taj Group of Hotels’ and ‘Hyatt hotels’ have been taken up by the researcher
for the further study.

1.7.3.1. Taj Group of Hotels

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces is the combined group of The Indian Hotels Company
Limited (IHCL) and its holdings. It has gained the popularity of Asia’s largest and
premium hotel establishment. Headquartered in Mumbai, its first hotel, ‘The Taj Mahal
Palace Hotel’, was opened in 1903 in Bombay (Mumbai now), India (Taj hotels, 2012).

In India, it has 108 hotels and abroad it has 17 hotels at present having nearly 15,000
employees. Taj Group was given the 15th ranking for being the ‘Most Attractive
Employer-2011’ in India, by Randstad (Randstad award, 2011). In 2013, Conde Nast
Traveler, ranked two of its hotels of Jaipur and Mumbai in the ‘Top 100 Hotels and
Resorts in the World’ list. (CNTraveler, 2015). Later in the same year, ‘Taj Lake
Palace, Udaipur’ and ‘Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Maldives’ were given the ranking of
24 & 98, respectively by a magazine named as ‘International Traveller’ in ‘100 Best
Hotels & Resorts’ list (International Traveller, 2013). World Branding Awards
felicitated Taj Luxury Hotels by ‘The Best Brand of the year Award’ (IHCL, 2015).

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1.7.3.2. Hyatt Hotels

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, whose headquarter is located in Chicago, United States, is an

American global corporation and operator of hotels. Hyatt hotels, having number of
employees around 45,000 (globally) and 7,000 (India), started its business by buying
Hyatt House, at Los Angeles International Airport, in 1957 (Hyatt, 2013). In India, it
has opened the first hotel in Delhi in 1983 with the name of ‘Hyatt Regency’. In 2004,
‘Grand Hyatt hotel’ was opened in Mumbai, which was designed by ‘Chicago’s Lohan
Associates’.

‘The Hyatt Regency, Chennai’ was selected for organizing the ‘World Chess
Championship 2013‘, which was conducted for the first time in India in November,
2013 (Times of India, 2013). In 2015, Fortune magazine ranked Hyatt hotels at 78th
position in ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list. (Fortune, 2015)

1.7.4. Banking Sector

The banking Sector contributes around 10% in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the
country. In the Indian banking system, there exist public sector banks, private sector
banks, foreign banks, regional rural banks, urban cooperative banks, and rural cooperative
banks. 93 commercial banks are there in the country. Almost 80% of the market is
controlled by the public sector banks. It has been observed that the Indian banks are
strong as they have survived the global recession very well. The developments of
technology in banking sector has brought the revolution in the service of banks through
mobile and internet banking services from past 5-6 years. To gain the competitive edge
over the competitors, many banks are now focusing on providing better service facilities
to its clients. The focus of the industry is on improving the technology infrastructure and
adapting the technological environment fully in their workings.

According to IBEF-Banking (2015), Government’s actions towards elevating the growth

of the banking sector may benefit the sector with better growth opportunities. State Bank
of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, and ICICI Bank are the ’Big Four
banks of India’(Dun and Breadstreet, 2012). For the study, researcher has taken the SBI
and PNB to study the construct of employer branding in the banking sector.

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1.7.4.1. State Bank of India (SBI)

State Bank of India (SBI) is a government owned Public Sector banking and financial
services corporation which is having the staff of around 2,22,000 employees (in 2013). It
has its headquarters’ located in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SBI is one of the largest banks of
India, with almost 16,000 branches and 8,500 ATMs across the country (IB Times, 2013).
‘State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur’, ‘State Bank of Patiala’, ‘State Bank of Travancore’,
‘State Bank of Mysore’, and ‘State Bank of Hyderabad’, are the five associate banks of SBI
now, which has been reduced from eight acquired initially in 1959. All these associate
banks use the blue colour logo of SBI.

SBI got 29th position among the ‘Most reputed company in the world’ as per the
rankings of Forbes (Forbes, 2009). The Economic Times conducted a survey in 2012 on
‘Top 10 Brands of India’ and it was given 2nd rank in the results (Economic Times,
2012). According to the study of D&B, India, it won the award of ‘Best Public Sector
Bank’ in ‘India’s Top Banks 2013’ (Dun and Breadstreet, 2013). It secured the top
position in the list of ‘Top Five Banks in India’ in 2014 (The Banker, 2014). It was
recognized as the 19th ‘Most Trusted Brand in India’ according to the ‘Brand Trust
Report 2014’ (Trust Advisory, 2014). In 2015, it was also placed at 260th position in
the Fortune ‘Global 500’ rankings of the world’s biggest corporations (Fortune, 2015).

1.7.4.2. Punjab National Bank (PNB)

Punjab National Bank (PNB) is a Public Sector bank with nearly 69000 employees,
which was established in 1894. PNB has more than 37 million customers, which are
served through 5,000 branches across 700 cities (IB Times, 2013). Its head office is
situated in Delhi. During fiscal year 2012-13, it spent approximately INR 3.24 cr. on
CSR activities (PNB, 2013).

PNB has its subsidiaries, named as ‘PNB International Bank’, in United Kingdom,
Hong Kong, Dubai, Kabul, Bhutan, and Nepal. Its representative offices are located in
Kazakhstan, Dubai, China, Norway, and Australia.

PNB was placed at 26th position in ’Fortune India 500‘ list of 2011 (SiliconIndia, 2012).
Also, in the same year, it was felicitated with ‘Golden Peacock Award for Excellence in

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

Corporate Social Responsibility’ (PNB, 2015). In 2012, It was given the award for
‘Best Public Sector Bank’ by CNBC TV18 (Money Control, 2012). Later, in the year it
got recognition of the ‘Most Socially Responsive Bank’ by Businessworld and Price
Waterhouse Cooper (PNB, 2015). Also, it got 896th rank in the Forbes ‘Global 2000’ in
2013 (Forbes, 2013).

1.7.5. Consulting Sector

According to Consultant-news (2013), there was a slowdown in the economy of the

country during 2012 and despite this slowdown the consulting market of the country
has shown a growth of 4%. This growth in the consulting sector, despite having slow
economy, shows the importance of the consulting sector. While economy becomes
slow, many businesses rush to consulting firms in order to seek their services related to
management, performance and finance related aspects. Also, it has been observed that
the young generation people, who overtake their family business, tend to avail the
services of consulting firms more as they want to take their business to a new level and
are interested in taking their business in global market (Consultant-news, 2013). The
association of consulting firms with many institutions gives them the idea of on-going
best practices in the market, using which these firms give the services to the clients. The
Management Consulting industry is having the worth of INR 22,000 cr. in India, which
grows at compound annual growth rate of around 30% (Mancer, 2012). The researcher
has focused on Goldman Sachs and Ernst & Young, as both the companies were listed
in the ‘Most Attractive Employer-2011’ in India, by Randstad (Randstad Award, 2011).

1.7.5.1. Ernst & Young (EY)

Ernst & Young (EY) is an international professional services firm, with around
2,15,000 employees, whose headquarter is situated in London, United Kingdom. It has
more than 700 offices in almost 150 countries of the world. EY comes under the ‘Big
Four‘ audit firms. It has expertise in providing services related to tax, audit and
assurance, consulting etc. It has nearly 20,000 employees (March, 2013), in India and
its headquarters is located in Gurgaon, Haryana. (EY, 2015)

EY was given number 1 rank in the list of ‘Best Places to Launch a Career’ by Business
Week annual in 2008 (Bloomberg business, 2008). Fortune magazine ranked EY at 44th

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

and 79th position in ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list in year 2009 and 2015,
respectively. Also, it gave the highest ranking to the firm among ‘Big Four’ audit firms
(Fortune, 2015).

It was given the 4th ranking in ‘America‘s Ideal Employers’ list and 3rd ranking in
‘Global Top 50 Business Ranking’ list by Universum (Universum, 2013).

EY bagged number 1 position in Forbes magazine’s ‘The Best Accounting Firms to

Work For’ list in 2012. It was also ranked at position because in the survey it was found
that the firm treats the employees in a better way comparing to other firms of the same
industry (Forbes, 2012).

1.7.5.2. Goldman Sachs

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is one of the top international investment banking firm,
which provides an extensive range of services i.e., securities and investment
management, consultancy services, underwriting services etc. to its clients. The clients
of Goldman Sachs are companies, financial establishments, governments and high-net-
worth persons. Its headquarter is located in New York. The company, having nearly
35,000 employees globally, was established in 1869. Also, it acts as a main trader in
United States Treasury security market. (Goldman Sachs, 2014). In India, it has offices
in two location only, i.e., Bangalore and Mumbai with nearly 7,500 employees.
Bangalore office is considered to be the largest office with around 5500 employees
outside its New York Headquarter.

Goldman Sachs secured 4th position among the list of ‘10 Companies that Gave the
Most Cash’ by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, in 2013. In 2014, it got listed in
‘LinkedIn: The World’s 100 Most In Demand Employers’, and ‘Working Mother: 2014
List of 100 Best Companies’. (Goldman Sachs, 2014)

During 2015, it got 2nd rank in ‘Vault: Top 50 Banking Employers’, 4th rank in
‘Universum: World’s Most Attractive Employers’, 9th rank in ‘Universum: 10 Top
MBA Employers’, 7th rank in ‘Universum: Most Attractive Employers – United States’,
23rd rank in ‘Fortune: World’s Most Admired Companies’, 50th rank in ‘Fortune: 100
Best Companies to Work For’ list (Goldman Sachs, 2015).

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

1.8. Population
The study has focused on the above mentioned ten organizations in India. Thus, the
population for the study were the employees working in these organizations in India.
Nearly 4,17,000 was the population size. The bi-furcation of which is represented in the
Table No. 1.2. The population estimate is given for the year 2013, as the data collection
process was started in that year only. On the basis of this population size, the researcher
has calculated the sample size. The calculation of sample size is discussed under the
section of sample size.

Table No. 1.2: Population

Name of Organization No. of Employees- Source

2013 (Approx.)
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) 33,560 ONGC, 2013
Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) 34,000 IOCL, 2015
Microsoft Corporation 7,000 Randstad Award, 2014
Google Inc. 2,000 Google, 2013
Taj Group of Hotels 15,000 IHCL, 2015
Hyatt Hotels 7,000 Hyatt, 2013
State Bank of India (SBI) 2,22,000 IB Times, 2013
Punjab National Bank (PNB) 69,000 IB Times, 2013
Ernst & Young (EY) 20,000 EY, 2015
Goldman Sachs 7,500 Goldman Sachs, 2014
Total 4,17,060

1.9. Sample Size

From the above mentioned ten organizations, the researcher has collected 300 responses
in all. 30 responses from each of the organization were collected for the study
(calculation is shown below) or it can be said that 60 responses from each sector were
collected (as shown in Table No. 1.3). The researcher has collected the data from the
organizations on the basis of the pre-defined groups. These groups were created on the
basis of the three levels of employees in the organization, i.e., Top Level Management,
Middle Level Management, and Junior Level Management. The 30 responses to be
collected from an organization were bifurcated into the levels of the management. It
was decided to collect 2, 8, and 20 responses from the Top Level Management, Middle
Level Management, and Junior Level Management, respectively.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

The sample size was calculated on the basis of the following formula which was
adapted from Survey Monkey (Survey Monkey, 2012):

z 2 × p(1-p)
Sample Size = e2
[z 2 × p(1 − p)]
1+
e2 N

Here,
N = Population size,
z = z-score,
e = margin of error,
p = Population response distribution

The population for the study was near to 4,17,000. Z- score is calculated on the basis of
the confidence interval which can be 90% or 95% or 99%, the researcher has taken 90%
confidence level because of approx. population and 5% margin of error to calculate the
sample size. Population response distribution refers to the expected results for each
question. Generally, it is assumed to have the response distribution to 50%. On the basis
of the formula given above, the ideal sample size came out to be 269, whereas the study
has focused for 300 responses by rounding it off.

Table No. 1.3: Organization-wise Responses

Name of Sector No. of Name of Organization No. of

Respondents Respondents
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited
30
Energy 60 (ONGC)
Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) 30
Microsoft Corporation 30
Information Technology 60
Google Inc. 30
Taj Group of Hotels 30
Hospitality 60
Hyatt Hotels 30
State Bank of India (SBI) 30
Banking 60
Punjab National Bank (PNB) 30
Ernst & Young (EY) 30
Consulting 60
Goldman Sachs 30
Total 300 Total 300

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

1.10. Data Collection Method

• The data was collected via survey method. The techniques used for the survey was
probability based Stratified Random Sampling. Although, the most common method
to collect the data is random sampling only, but the researcher has used stratified
random sampling. In random sampling, every unit is selected from the population and
the chance of selecting each item is equal in the population. Whereas in stratified
random sampling, the unit is selected from the strata and the chances of it getting
selected is equal in the strata. Also, in this method, the population is divided into
groups, which is known as strata. The three strata were created in the study, which
have been discussed above, i.e., Top Level Management, Middle Level Management,
and Junior Level Management. The responses have been collected using these strata
only. While comparing to simple random sampling method, stratified random
sampling gives the result in more precise way. Since, this method offers more
precision, it comparatively requires smaller sample than simple random sampling.
• The researcher had visited the offices of the organization after taking appointments
from the HR managers of the organizations. After giving the presentation for the
requirement of the study and convincing the managers, researcher had asked for the
list of all the employees working in that particular office and asked the manager to
spread the questionnaire randomly on the basis of the three strata, which were Top
Level Management, Middle Level Management, and Junior Level Management.
Also, the manager was requested to get the questionnaire filled as per the requirement
of the study and 2, 8, and 20 responses were collected from Top Level Management,
Middle Level Management, and Junior Level Management, respectively.
• In order to collect the data, the researcher had personally visited the offices of the
organizations. For ONGC, Connaught Place, Delhi, office was visited, whereas for
IOCL the researcher had visited the Indian Oil Bhawan, sector 1, Noida, Uttar
Pradesh. To get the responses filled from Google and Microsoft, the researcher visited
the DLF phase II, Gurgaon and DLF phase III, Gurgaon, Haryana, respectively. For
Taj hotels and Hyatt hotels, Taj Mahal hotel located at Mansingh Road, Delhi and
Hyatt Regency located at Ring Road, Delhi, were visited. To collect the data from
PNB, the researcher had visited to its Bhikaji cama Place, Delhi office, whereas for
SBI, office located at Sansad Marg, Janpath, Delhi was visited. For getting the
questionnaire filled from EY, Sector 42, Gurgaon office was visited. The researcher

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

could not visit the office of Goldman Sachs as its offices are located in Mumbai and
Bangalore, but the HR Manager of the organization was contacted via LinkedIn. After
convincing and requesting the manager, the researcher was added to the Goldman
Sachs employees group in LinkedIn and got the questionnaire filled up.

1.11. Study Outline

The researcher, after collecting the data, has gone through it in order to check if there
exist some missing data. For missing data, respondents were contacted via E-mails or
phone calls to complete the data and the values which remained missing were treated
through data imputation method. To understand the construct of employer branding,
first of all, factors of employer branding were determined through factor analysis. The
factors determined through factor analysis were later on confirmed by applying
Confirmatory Factor Analysis, which has been discussed in the forthcoming chapters.
Once the construct was found, the researcher found out the relationship of employer
branding with other variables, i.e., Motivation, Intention to Stay, and CSR, with the
help of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Through SEM, researcher has developed
a model and also investigated about the mediation effect of any variable in the model.
In the next chapters, researcher has explained the analysis part along with the
conclusion, as shown in the figure no. 1.1.

Figure No. 1.1: Study Outline

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

To understand the construct of employer branding, factors of employer branding were

determined through factor analysis. The factors so determined were later on confirmed
by applying Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Once the construct was established, the
researcher found out the relationship of employer branding with other constructs, i.e.,
Motivation, Intention to Stay, and CSR, with the help of Structural Equation Modelling
(SEM). Through SEM, researcher has developed a model and also investigated about
the mediation effect of any variable in the model. The relationship of EBR with ITS and
motivation was examined and it was found that both motivation and ITS share a
significant relationship with EBR. Also, the effect of CSR was tested on EBR and it
was found that CSR is having an effect on EBR. For the four factors of motivation,
which were confirmed through CFA, the difference among the levels of motivation was
analysed with reference to eleven motives. A significant difference was found among
these categories of ‘Not motivated’, ‘Motivated’, and ‘Highly Motivated’ employees in
respect of ‘Interesting work’, ‘Good salary’, ‘Appreciation for job well done’, ‘Job
security’, ‘Good working conditions’, ‘Promotions and growth in the organization’,
‘Feeling of being a part of things’, ‘Personal loyalty to employees’, ‘Tactful discipline’,
and ‘Sympathetic help with personal problems’. However, for SWTO, no significant
difference was found among the levels of motivation with reference to organization’s
brand image. The influence of EBR on demographic variables was also tested with the
help of various tests.

For organizations, EBR offers many positive benefits in form of the recommendations.
The benefits cannot be ignored by the organizations as these benefits would be very
helpful in attracting and retaining the best talent in it. The recommendations provided
would be helpful for the organizations in order to compete with the competitors. The
linkage of EBR with motivation, ITS, and CSR would give better understanding of the
construct, which would be further helpful in retaining the employees via following the
approaches of other related constructs. The better understanding of the construct of
employer branding would be helpful for the organizations as they will be able to focus
only on key points of employer branding to boost up their image.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

1.12. Limitations of the Study

• Primary data were used to conduct the study, thus, the accuracy of this study
depends on how accurately respondents have given their responses.
• The study has considered the working of the organizations in Indian context. Thus,
generalizations for the organizations may not be made at the global level.
• The research investigation has been carried out for five sectors viz., Energy,
Information Technology (IT), Hospitality, Banking, and Consulting, hence,
generalizations across all the sectors may not be made.

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