| Summary: | As the society we live in today is moving towards being more technology-driven, the competition in the labor market of attracting people within the IT industry is increasing. To attract people within the IT industry, firms must understand what attracts these people to then be able to form a proposition that suits these individuals. The case company of this study, DAF (Digital ASIC and FPGA), an internal organization within Ericsson AB, wants to get a better understanding of what people within the IT industry value in an employer and what actions they should take to be more attractive in the labor market. Therefore, the purpose of this report has been to explain how and to what extent different value-driving factors affect employer attractiveness for employees holding a specific technical competence needed at DAF. Based on a pre-study consisting of six interviews with working professionals within the field of employer branding and industrial marketing, as well as a comprehensive literature review, a model of analysis is established consisting of six value-driving factors; interest-, social-, management-, application-, development-, and economic value, that is expected to affect the overall attractiveness of an employer. These factors are further operationalized into 30 different codes that are set to explain the value factors more in detail. The main study is a multiple case study of employees working at DAF, as well as four competitor firms to DAF. The study is based on interviews with 21 employees spread out on the five case companies, all holding the targeted competence needed at DAF. During the interviews, the respondents spoke freely about what they value in their current and previous position so underlying value factors could be identified. Additionally, the respondents were asked to elaborate on their perception of the most important factors of an employer, as well as their perception of Ericsson as an employer to deepen the analysis and get an understanding of how the respondents perceive Ericsson. The interviews were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. In the analysis, the respondents were grouped based on what company they work for and the case companies were firstly analyzed separately. Secondly, the cases were compared to each other to answer how and to what extent the value-driving factors in the model of analysis affect employer attractiveness. Third, a series of inductive analyses where cross-case patterns between different groups of individuals were analyzed. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the most important factors of employer attractiveness for employees holding the target competence needed at DAF are social value, mostly in terms of organizational culture, teamwork, and collegial relationship, as well as application value, mostly in terms of challenging work tasks, task diversity, and the work tasks to be meaningful for the employee. Moreover, management-, development-, economic-, and interest value are all considered important drivers of employer attractiveness. For DAF to improve their employer brand and attractivity, they should craft a proposition that aligns with their unique selling points of first of all being a leader in telecommunication, technology, and innovation. Secondly, having supportive management that empowers employees to make decisions by themselves and shape their position based on personal preferences. Thirdly, offering challenging, diverse, and creative work tasks to enable opportunities for developing new skills. Furthermore, DAF is recommended to promote life at DAF and create a unified organizational culture within the organization, clarify opportunities for development, and provide more social- and team-building activities.
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