Attracting Top Talent with the Use of Employer Branding: Do Diversity Statements in Job Vacancies Make a Difference?

Abstract

In order to attract the top talent that will help the company fulfil its business objectives, hiring managers worldwide engage in employer branding. In highly globalised countries such as the Netherlands, it is common practice to mention Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) statements both on career pages and in job vacancies themselves. The current study is designed to test how these statements affect applicants’ P-O fit and subsequent job application behaviour and how this differs for minority (non-Dutch) and majority (Dutch) participants. The results of the study indicate that the relationship between the inclusion of D&I statements in job vacancies and subsequent job application behaviour is fully mediated by P-O fit and that the direct relationship between the independent and dependent variables is not moderated by participants’ nationality minority status. With these findings, the study contributes to previous research by confirming that P-O fit does lead to application behaviour and that the inclusion of D&I statements in job vacancies may not be as fruitful as previously believed, at least for younger generations in the highly internationalised context of the Netherlands. These findings can contribute to both research and practice by directing efforts further away from D&I statements themselves but rather towards P-O fit and its antecedents.