How to attract talented software developers : Developing a culturally differentiated employee value proposition

Abstract: In today‟s society, where knowledge workers within computer science and software development are becoming increasingly demanded by all types of companies, the competition for this kind of labour also becomes tougher. This report investigates the concept of extracting an employee value proposition that can help a company in need ofthis type of labour to become more attractive. To understand if culture has an impact onthe candidate‟s attraction, it is also investigated whether or not an employee value proposition can be adapted to fit different nationalities. Furthermore, it is explored ifdiscoveries from a company‟s organisational culture can help build a more accurateemployee value proposition.To extract an employee value proposition, the theories within the two fields of employer branding and culture are investigated and applied upon a case company. The case company is a fast-growing, multinational software company in the music business continuously in need of high qualitative knowledge workers. The attributes of a potential employee value proposition were obtained through 15 in-depth interviews with various employees within the case company. These attributes were then verified through asurvey, which also were to distinguish any cultural differences.The conclusions present an employee value proposition fitted for the case company andother companies within the same context, although without any cultural adoption. Some of the main attributes of the extracted employee value proposition were: great colleagues, challenging work tasks and good development possibilities. The two cultures identified within the case company were supposed to be different in many ways according to the theories found. Although in this case study, the two cultures did not seem to show any significant differences at an employee value proposition level. On theother hand, discrepancies were found between the internal and external employer brand and were one of the major recommendations for the case company.