Spain

Abstract

Employer branding is a growing phenomenon in Spain that is becoming a necessary competitive weapon. According to rankings such as the Best Workplaces ranking, most of the best firms in Spain have a flexible timetable, a new teleworking model, and offer a private health insurance for their employees, among other benefits. Furthermore, according to Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimensions classification, uncertainty avoidance would be the dimension that best defines Spain, so having a stable job is something that Spaniards also value. Based on 25 attributes, we distinguish three CSR dimensions—responsibility towards employees, socio-ecological responsibility and governance and ethics—and two non-CSR dimensions—company and workplace. Drawing on a sample of 622 students at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, we analyze how Spanish job seekers assess the aforementioned dimensions. The most valued dimension is responsibility towards employees, being job security and social services the variable that shows the highest relative utility within this dimension. Nevertheless, Spanish students show a relatively low interest in the other two CSR dimensions, i.e. socio-ecological responsibility and Governance and Ethics, especially in the former one. Work atmosphere is by far the attribute that shows the highest relative utility to Spanish participants.