| Abstract: |
Since tangible assets of companies are becoming increasingly insignificant,
emphasis should rather be placed on human capital as an essential source of
competitive edge. This paper, accordingly, pursues the purpose to shed light
on the major demands that the Millenials place on their prospective employers.
In consequence, the work aims to identify attractiveness factors that German
retailers should particularly promote in order to succeed in the war for
talents and attract the most promising candidates among the German GenY. This
work is based on a mixed-methods approach. First, interviews with German
retail experts as well as generational keynote speakers were conducted in
order to obtain a deep understanding and assessment of the German retail
landscape from a professional perspective. The insights gained were
subsequently used to design a questionnaire, which distribution led to a final
sample of 216 useable responses by Millenials. Furthermore, the data obtained
by interviewing experts and the survey was subsequently compared in order to
evaluate to what extent the expectations of the Millenials correspond to the
experts’ assessment. This study reveals Millenials to be driven by the need
for growth, such as wide offers of development opportunities or scope for
decision when choosing an employer. Among the relatedness needs, a harmonious
working environment is particularly important, whereas a weekend off ranks
first among the existential needs. Moreover, male Millenials consider Media
Markt is the most popular employer in the German retail sector, while dm is
preferred from a female perspective. Overall, employers of the German retail
sector provide the majority of factors required by the Millenials, yet are
only considered the 4th most popular industry behind the automotive, IT, art
and entertainment industries. Our findings provide valuable practical
implications as the research results might serve companies to build up a
target group-specific employer brand. Marketing strategies can be aligned with
the identified attractiveness factors to efficiently and cost-effectively
attract and bind Millenials to the company. Customized recruiting campaigns
enhance the appeal as well as the attractiveness of an employer driving the
likelihood of obtaining the strived status: Employer of Choice. To the best of
the author’s knowledge, no study has yet dealt specifically with the
attractiveness factors demanded by the Millenials in the context of the German
re- tail sector as well as their most aspired employers in this industry.
Furthermore, the attractiveness factors identified in the literature were
embedded in Aldefer’s ERG theory. This work also offers a bilateral
perspective through the widely conducted survey carried out among Millenials,
which was additionally expanded through the lens of experts. |