ABSTRACT
In the wake of a tight and increasingly mobile global labour market, employer branding is now a widely used HR, communications and marketing tool in countries around the world to attract, retain and engage talented individuals. Organizations develop their employer brand around a combination of symbolic (e.g. caring, innovative) and/or instrumental (pay, benefits) employer attributes to establish the identity of the organization as a ‘great place to work’ above and beyond other organizations by promoting a clear view of what makes the organization different and desirable as an employer. However despite its growing popularity very little is known about how or if these activities shape expectations about the employment relationship in the minds of those employees employer branding messages are designed to reach. The psychological contract concept provides a useful lens to examine the making and keeping of employer brand promises and the corresponding antecedents and consequences of psychological contract breach or fulfilment. This chapter will use the psychological contract concept to explore (1) how employer branding activities promote the organization’s unique employee value proposition and how this promotion makes explicit/implicit promises and forms expectations in the minds of current and prospective employees; (2) the antecedents and consequences of psychological contract breach or fulfilment as they relate to employer branding; (3) the implications for employer branding practitioners.
