The interacting content and process of the employer brand: person-organization fit and employer brand clarity

In their striving to be an attractive employer, organizations aspire to create effective employer brands. Building on HRM system strength theory, we posit that the effectiveness of an employer brand is determined by the integration of its content and process. This paper investigates whether person-organization fit (i.e., employer brand content) is positively linked to employer attractiveness and whether employer brand clarity (i.e., process) strengthens this relationship. Using a secondary dataset containing 24,317 responses from 2123 individuals reporting on 235 Belgian organizations, a cross-classified multilevel model was tested. Findings reveal that person-organization fit relates to employer attractiveness above and beyond universally appealing features of the employer (e.g., career progression opportunities). Unexpectedly, a negative moderation effect of employer brand clarity was found, indicating that clarity might be useful in case of low person-organization fit, but is not when person-organization fit is optimal. Replication studies yielded similar results, which confirms our findings and highlights the relevance of both the employer brand content and the employer branding process as determinants of employer attractiveness.