Organizational reputation: does it mediate the effect of employer brand attractiveness on intention to apply in Indonesia?

This study aims to examine the role of organizational reputation in mediating the influence of employer brand attractiveness on intention to apply. Organizational reputation has an essential role in attracting potential talent to apply for an organization, as organizational reputation is an intangible and valuable resource to gain the competitive advantage that shows the working atmosphere in the organization. The study investigated organizational reputation as a mediating variable on the relationship between employer brand attractiveness as an independent variable and intention to apply as a dependent variable. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to 425 respondents. Respondents for this study were final-grade students from public universities in Indonesia. The path analysis technique was used to analyse the data. The result shows that employer attractiveness significantly influences the intention to apply. The result also reveals that employer brand attractiveness significantly affects the organizational reputation. Meanwhile, organizational reputation does not influence the intention to apply. Therefore, organizational reputation does not mediate the influence of employer brand attractiveness on the intention to apply. From this study, organizations can learn how to design programs that can improve employer brand attractiveness, particularly among gen millennials.