The effect of company guest speakers on perceived employer attractiveness

Employer branding plays a vital role in attracting and retaining skilled and motivated employees for the organization. Here, a significant amount of companies addresses students as one of their focal target groups when conducting employer branding activities. In this context a wide variety of methods is applied to communicate the employer brand, such as company career websites, social media or job fairs. In Germany, another common method is to send guest speakers to universities and business schools. Here, they have the chance to give a company presentation and to talk about practical aspects of their business as part of lectures or seminars. By doing so, they also try to positively affect the perceived employer attractiveness of business students. Despite the popularity of this method, little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of guest speakers on employer attractiveness. This exploratory study is based on data collected from 416 business students who participated in eight guest lecture sessions. The results show that guest speakers’ performance significantly affects perceived employer attractiveness, and that the magnitude of this effect is moderated by the degree of students’ company awareness. In addition, it was analyzed to what extent guest speakers’ enthusiasm, communication and presentations skills, and expertise affect the overall rating of the guest speakers’ performance. It can be shown that enthusiasm has the greatest influence, while expertise has virtually none. Overall, the results contribute to research on the effectiveness of company guest speakers as an employer branding method among the target group of business students. Practical implications are also discussed which can support companies in utilizing their employees or managers as guest speakers more efficiently.