Talent Attraction in Knowledge Intensive Organizations

Abstract: Background: The forthcoming shortage of labor, due amongst other things to demographical issues and the increasing mobility of people on the labor market, will affect the possibilities to attract and retain employees with valuable key competencies. To win the talent war employer branding has arisen to become a strategy to overcome this threat. Purpose: To investigate and analyze the outside perspective of employer branding – the employer image – of a knowledge intensive organization through a study of AstraZeneca. Course of action: An approach based on critical theory has been used to generate results, including both quantitative and qualitative methods. Results: The workforce is at risk of becoming a scarce resource and the situation seems to be most alarming in areas related to natural sciences, and the pharmaceutical industry in particular. The employer image of AstraZeneca has been found to be very positive, showing high ratings of brand recognition and employer of choice, but the underlying reasons for these results have not been proven. Attraction between employer and employee could occur if the individual is able to see how to reach self-fulfillment through contributing to the company purpose.