Fair of Attraction? A quantitative study of the effect of recruiter friendliness and unfriendliness on perceived employer and organizational attractiveness among university students

Sammanfattning: Devoting effort to being an attractive employer has become crucial for organizations and it has gained focus both in the industry as well as in research. Thus, employer branding processes such as early recruitment activities present a critical opportunity to attract future talent. One such activity is career fairs for university students, in which organizations have the chance to build an attractive employer brand among students. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the potential role recruiter behavior plays in the employer branding process of creating employer attractiveness. Additionally, secondary motive were to investigate if recruiter behavior also influences organizational attractiveness and pursuit and if individuals' cynicism relates to achieved outcomes. This quantitative study was conducted using an online questionnaire, including a written scenario, and distributed to Swedish university students. Results revealed that the level of recruiter friendliness matters and may have an impact on the level of attractiveness towards the organization. Notably, unfriendly recruiter behavior harms the employer and organizational attractiveness. However, individuals' cynicism traits appear to weakly relate to observed outcomes.