EMPLOYER ATTRACTIVENESS FACTORS AND EMPLOYER BRANDING FROM THE GEN Z PERSPECTIVE

In today's knowledge-based economy, employees play an important role, especially in gaining competitive advantage. It is for this reason that companies strive to attract skilled, high quality, knowledgeable employees and at the same time to stimulate engagement and commitment among current employees. In this effort, companies increasingly use marketing techniques and approaches that rely on a deep understanding of employees' and potential employees' needs and wants. This study was conducted with the aim of assessing the importance of each employer attractiveness factor in the eyes of future employees (Generation Z), taking into account the specificity of the Croatian national culture. Moreover, the paper identifies the relationships and the links between the attractiveness factors, and the respondents' perceptions of job characteristics. The research was conducted on a sample of 72 respondents. The Pearson coefficient was calculated to assess the interdependence between individual variables. In addition, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to explain more in depth the perceptions of youth toward job characteristics. Based on the research results, the most and the least important attractiveness factors were identified, significant differences between genders were pointed out, and the links between the variables were highlighted. Moreover, three major attractiveness factors were identified - job content attractiveness, material working conditions and freedom in job performance. The contribution of this paper is based on the recognition of links between individual variables and also on the identification of job attractiveness factors in the specific context of the Republic of Croatia and in the eyes of the young generation ready to enter the job market. The findings may help professionals, especially marketing managers and human resources managers, in their efforts to develop an attractive job environment that provides an adequate answer to the needs of customers (i.e. employees and prospective employees).