Sustainability-oriented Employer Branding: Identifying Real Estate-Related Requirements of Employees

In the current dynamic business environment, companies are faced with a wide range of economic and social changes. Through the ongoing war for talent, employer branding is becoming increasingly relevant for companies to attract and retain employees. Simultaneously, the change in social values leads to sustainability becoming a decisive criterion for many employees when choosing their employer. In response to these changes, many companies are focusing on a sustainability-oriented employer brand. Corporate real estate (CRE) can contribute to the employer branding success by meeting the employee’s sustainability requirements and communicating the sustainability-oriented employer brand. However, the increasing pluralisation of social values means that the sustainability orientations and employee requirements can differ greatly from one another. Therefore, companies and their corporate real estate management (CREM) must know their employer brand target group and which sustainability requirements they place on CRE. The aim of the present study is to analyse these real estate-related sustainability requirements of employees. By examining the relevance of the respective sustainability dimensions (ecological, economic, social) from the employees' perspective, a "fit" between employee requirements and CRE can be established in order to contribute to successful employer branding. This study analyses survey data from N = 937 German office workers. Hierarchical cluster analysis is applied to identify employee groups and their assessment of the relevance of the sustainability dimensions in the real estate context. The cluster analysis reveals a general importance of all three sustainability dimensions for the identified employee groups. However, user satisfaction and, thus, social sustainability are rated highest for all identified groups. The results suggest that the perception of sustainability-related impacts of office properties has a decisive influence on the employees' assessment. Thus, CREM can positively influence the perception of the company's real estate as well as the company itself through sustainable action.