IMPACT OF EMPLOYER BRANDING AND SERVANT LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEE RETENTION

Abstract

The study aimed at investigating the impact of employer branding and servant leadership on employee retention. Specifically the study investigated that how the perception of an employer brand and perceived servant leadership style helps in influencing employees‘ satisfaction with retention practices and reducing their turnover intentions. An effort has been made to investigate that how the dimensions of employer branding (interest value, social value, economic value, application value and development value) and servant leadership (empowerment, standing back, humility, accountability, stewardship, forgiveness, courage and authenticity) influences employees‘ overall satisfaction with retention practices and reducing employees‘ turnover intentions. Additionally, the study proposed and tested a model of employee turnover by examining the sequential mediation effects of employer branding and employees‘ satisfaction with retention practices while establishing the relationships between servant leadership and employee turnover intentions. The present study also investigated the role of demographics (age, gender, organization type and hierarchical level) in influencing the independent and dependent variables of the study. To achieve the objectives of the study the data were gathered from 460 Indian employees. The organizations chosen for this study were from Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Noida and SIDCUL (Uttarakhand) in India. The research selected organizations with annual turnover of over INR 100 crore and at least 1000 employees. The organizations so selected belonged to power, IT, banking, insurance and automobile sectors. For administering survey, the organizations and sample has been chosen following a convenient sampling technique. The various statistical techniques used to test the hypotheses developed includes correlational analysis, multiple hierarchical regression, conditional process analysis (PROCESS) using regression based approach, t-test and one-way ANOVA. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. Before analyzing the data the data were subject to normality tests. After the preliminary data screening, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to test the factor structure of the variables under study in Indian context. Further in analysis hypotheses were tested. In the first section, the role of demographics has been tested using independent t- test and one-way ANOVA. Following this, multiple hierarchical regressions were utilized to determine the impact of employer branding and servant leadership on iii employees‘ satisfaction with retention practices and employees‘ turnover intentions. In the final section of analysis, conditional PROCESS analysis was deployed to test the sequential mediating effects of employer branding and employees‘ satisfaction with retention practices while establishing the relationships between servant leadership and turnover intentions. The results of the study indicated that some of the dimensions of employer branding and servant leadership were found to be significant predictors of employees‘ satisfaction with retention practices and employees‘ turnover intentions. More specifically, while testing the overall impact of employer branding and servant leadership on employee retention outcomes it was found that employer branding and employees‘ satisfaction with retention practices sequentially mediated the relationship between servant leadership and employee turnover intentions. The results further indicated that demographic variables have a very little influence on the dimensions of employer branding, servant leadership and employee retention practices. The study has many key implications: First, the study suggested that creation of employer brand image is not limited to the process of recruitment. The organizations need to continuously build and maintain their employer brand throughout the employment life cycle as lack of brand promise fulfillment at any stage of employment cycle, will likely to affect employee‘s satisfaction which ultimately results in severe behavioral outcomes such as low performance, morale, high turnover intentions. Second, the results provide insights on the role of leadership in enhancing the relationships between employer brand perception and employee retention. Organizational can make use of and can train their leaders to enhance and communicate the employer brand message consistently to all the stakeholders. Further, the results of the study effectively contribute to existing literature on servant leadership, employer branding, satisfaction with retention practices and employee turnover intentions in following ways: First, the results of the study empirically demonstrated for the first time that servant leadership style with internal branding concept i.e. employer brand perception, influenced employee perception regarding their leaders and this perception in turn, influenced the level of satisfaction with retention practices, which in turn, reduced their intent to turnover. Second, drawing on the social identity theory, the researcher found that employer brand perception was a strong factor that mediated the servant leadership-turnover intentions relationship significantly and was a factor that may enhance the self-esteem of the employees. iv Theory of social identity states that it is more likely that individuals seek membership of organizations that help in enhancing their self-esteem. This study contributes to existing literature on servant leadership, employer branding, satisfaction with retention practices and turnover intentions by investigating and reporting employer brand perception and employees‘ overall satisfaction with retention practices as important underlying mechanisms influencing servant leadership-turnover intentions relationship.