Edinburgh Napier University

  Organisations are increasingly turning to employer branding to attract, recruit and engage employees. Yet, we do not fully understand how employees’ organisational experiences can shape employer branding. This study contributes to our theoretical and practical understanding of these issues by drawing on an extensive qualitative study of senior managers and employees from a global medical technology organisation. Using insights from identity construction theory, our data show how two different forms of identity work - individual and organisational - generate tensions during the employer branding process. These forms of identity work were heavily influenced by how employees interpreted the socially responsible nature of the industry. We explore the reasons for these differences and develop a process model showing how existing employees’ experiences can be integrated into employer brand development and the how the tensions can be managed.