Employer branding in practice Performing employer branding in a consulting company Alice Tennmark & Amilia Bliding Thesis: 30 HEC Program: Strategic Human resource Management and Labour Relations Level: Second Cycle Semester/year: St 2022 Supervisor: Ola Bergström Examiner: xx Abstract Thesis: 30 HEC Program: Strategic Human Resource Management and Labour Relations Level: Second Cycle Semester/year: St 2022 Supervisor: Ola Bergström Examiner: x Report No: Keywords: Employer branding, HR practises, HR activities, Consulting company, Goffman, Theatre metaphor, Performance, Frontstage, Backstage, Performativity perspective Purpose: There are many studies regarding employer branding, however many focus on its effects or how it should be implemented for optimal results. With some exceptions, few focus on how employer branding is practised. The aim is to investigate how employees in a consulting company are performing the company employer branding through their daily HR activities. Theory: This study has a new way of perceiving employer branding by applying a performativity perspective and Ervin Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor. The performativity perspective and Goffman's theatre metaphor is used to highlight how employer branding is practised, always and by everyone. Method: A qualitative case study based on a data collection strategy of 17 observations and 17 semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed through thematic analysis. Result: Doing specific employer branding activities is important, but employer branding is also inevitably practised and co-created all the time. Employer branding can neither be separated from material aspects thus when working with HR practices, this needs to be considered. Frontstage and backstage is not a physical place, it is situational and dependent on context. Performances are naturally continuously occurring and take energy and effort. 2 Foreword We want to thank all employees at Alpha for their patience and for allowing us to follow them around and observe them in their work, asking questions and participating in interviews. We also want to thank the consultants, the business groups’ HR manager and the communication and culture manager for taking time out of their days to take part in interviews. We want to direct a special thanks to our supervisor Ola Bergström for helping, supporting and challenging us in the process of writing this thesis. Lastly, we would like to thank our families and friends for their support and encouragement. 3 Table of content 1. Introduction 6 1.1 Objectives and research question 6 1.2 Disposition 9 2. Theory and Previous research 10 2.1 The Performativity perspective and employer branding 10 2.2 Goffman's theatre metaphor and employer branding 11 3. Setting 15 4. Method 17 4.1 Sampling strategy 17 4.2 Ethical considerations 19 4.3 Limitations 20 4.4 Data collection strategy 21 4.4.1 Interviews 21 4.4.2 Observations 21 4.5 Analytical strategy 23 5. Results 25 5.1 The main stage 26 5.2 Attracting and recruiting 28 5.2.1 Performances of the personal front 30 5.2.2 Performances of recruiting actors 32 5.3 Onboarding and retaining 35 5.3.1 Performances of inviting backstage 37 5.3.2 Performances of educating actors 38 5.3.2.1 Returning to backstage 44 4 5.4 Managing and supporting 44 6. Discussion 47 7. Conclusion 54 8. Bibliography 56 Appendix A 60 Interview guide 60 Appendix B 62 Consent form 62 Appendix C 64 Information letter 65 5 1. Introduction 1.1 Objectives and research question All organisations strive to attract and retain competent employees and thus share the challenge to stand out against other organisations in the labour market. It has been shown that firms with strong employer brands have a better chance to attract and retain skilled labour (Charbonnier‐ Voirin, Poujol & Vignolles, 2016; Chhabra & Sharma, 2014). Employer branding is defined as a firm’s efforts to positively influence people and employees' perception of the firm as a unique and attractive employer (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). It is the implemented activities that strive to affect the perception of the employer brand (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). Hence, having a strong employer brand increases people's want of being a member in the organisation, which in turn can lead to other organisational advantages such as the possibility to offer lower salaries compared to competitors (Chhabra & Sharma, 2014). In 1996, employer brand and Human Resource Development (HRD) were suggested to be integrated with each other (Kucherov & Zavyalova, 2012). As a result, the interest in employer branding increased simultaneously as the labour market became more competitive (Kucherov & Zavyalova, 2012). This led to managers implementing new HR practises with focus on employer branding (Kucherov & Zavyalova, 2012). The managerial work tasks have thus been affected to increasingly involve employer branding strategies and activities since back in early 2000 (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). Subsequently, working with employer branding has become one of the highest priorities in organisations (Itam, Misra & Anjum, 2020) which is not surprising considering the magnitude of its influence. Employer branding affects potential, existing and past employees as well as the relationship with other organisations (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004; Chhabra & Sharma, 2014; Itam et al., 2020). It can influence employees' choice of being recruited or to stay in a certain organisation (Boxall & Purcell, 2016; Itam et al., 2020). Thus, an attractive employer branding helps organisations in the war for talent (Charbonnier‐Voirin et al., 2016). The field and phenomenon of employer branding is vastly studied with research presenting different focuses and takes. In most studies employer branding is presented as a 6 strategy (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004) that is used to attract talented and qualified employees whilst also creating loyalty with their current ones (Hadi & Ahmed, 2018). Several studies focus on the effects of employer branding, how people receive and interpret the brand, or how it should be used for achieving best results (Cascio, 2014; Kumar, Jain & Singh, 2021). In these types of studies (Maheshwari, Gunesh, Lodorfos & Konstantopoulou, 2017; Hadi & Ahmed, 2018; Chhabra & Sharma, 2014; Reis, Sousa & Dionisio, 2021) employer branding is perceived as a tool to be implemented in the process of talent management. Although, it can be beneficial to investigate how employer branding exists and is practised in organisations before investigating what solutions e.g., tools that are best to implement in the efforts to strengthen the employer brand. Not many studies are investigating how employer branding is practised or challenge this perspective. This study argues that to view the perspective of employer branding as an external tool and strategy is too simplistic. In our definition, employer branding includes all organisational efforts and activities that affect people's perception of the brand and cannot be narrowed down to a single tool or practice separated from everyday HR activities. Thus, to explore how employer branding is practised in organisations it is necessary to consider how employer branding may be seen as a part of everyday HR activities. Hence, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of employer branding in practice, challenging the perspective of perceiving employer branding as a separate tool by providing a more inclusive and broadened use of the phenomenon. While there is clear agreement in the literature that employers need to engage in employer branding (Chhabra & Sharma, 2014), there is less agreement about how employer branding should be practised in organisations. Chhabra and Sharma (2014) argue that organisations need to focus on the organisational attributes and integrate them to their employer branding in order retain employees. A way of doing this is argued to be by making the employees “live the brand” (Ind, 2014; Itam et al., 2020). However, studies of employer branding often indicate a lack of integration of the work with employer branding throughout the whole organisation and emphasise the importance of leaders to work actively with it (Ind, 2014; Maxwell & Knox, 2009). Klein, Polin and Leigh Sutton (2015) argue that positive effects on employer branding can be achieved by carefully designing onboarding practices. Good onboarding practices should include both culture and firm specific knowledge as it simultaneously facilitates employees’ contribution to the knowledge (Klein, Polin & Leigh Sutton, 2015). Maxwell and Knox made a comparative study in 2009 in their efforts to shift 7 focus from previous studies who mainly focused on HR practices such as recruitment and attracting future employees. Instead, they argued that more focus needed to be put on what makes an organisation's brand attractive to current employees (Maxwell & Knox, 2009). Boxall and Purcell (2016) argue that a way of making organisations more attractive and improving employee retention is by working with training and development for current employees. Despite all previous studies regarding employer branding, few are investigating how it is integrated as a part of the organisation and how it is practised through the daily HR activities. Drawing upon a performative perspective (Diedrich, Eriksson-Zetterquist, Ewertsson, Hagberg, Hallin, Lavén, Lindberg, Raviola, Rindzeviciute and Walter, 2013; Callon, 2007; Czarniawska, 2007; Kornberger & Clegg, 2011; Gheman, Trevino & Garud, 2013) combined with Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor, we argue that to work with employer branding is an ongoing process integrated in an organisations everyday HR activities. Using a performativity perspective (Diedrich et al., 2013; Callon, 2007; Czarniawska, 2007; Kornberger & Clegg, 2011; Gheman et al., 2013) allows us to broaden the view regarding the practising of an employer branding to a given phenomenon. The perspective also enables perceiving actions and communication to lead to a creation of an act in itself (Diedrich et al., 2013; Callon, 2007; Czarniawska, 2007; Kornberger & Clegg, 2011; Gheman et al., 2013). To investigate how employer branding is practised, Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor and the performativity perspective are central. The framework illustrates how employees' daily HR activities and representation are a part of the employer branding process. In this perspective, all activities within an organisation are seen as contributing to employees' performances of the organisation's employer brand. Since employees are an organisation’s face outwards by being a representative from the organisation, they affect people's perception of the organisation in relation to whomever they meet, both internally to each other and to external individuals. Thus they are all creating and representing the company as an employer. In contrast to majorities of studies about employer branding, this study is not investigating the effects of how others perceive the case company as an employer. If applying Goffman’s (1959) theatre metaphor on studies who interpret employer branding as a tool (Maheshwari et al., 2017; Hadi & Ahmed, 2018; Chhabra & Sharma, 2014; Reis et al., 2021), it is studies that focus on effects of performances on frontstage. Employer branding is thus reduced to an action that is used when actors are on frontstage, performing and practising 8 employer branding. Since the aim is to investigate how the tool, that is employer branding activities, is best used to achieve optimal results, the focus is interpreted to be on how the audiences interpret actors’ performances on frontstage. In contrast to these studies it becomes relevant to also include backstage, where the actors prepare and practise the employer branding. Employer branding is central in organisations that operate in the consultant industry. In contrast to the typical organisation, consulting companies are argued to have an additional aspect of complexity due to its business structure (Coe, Jones & Ward, 2010). The employer brand needs to be communicated to client organisations, to consultants, to internal employees as well as to other consultant companies to be competitive. It includes HR practices such as attracting and retaining internal employees, consultants and client firms. Domsch and Hristozova (2006) argue that one of the most important aspects in any consulting company is the human resources since it is a personnel intensive service. Jochmann (2006) argues that to retain consultants, a consulting company has high requirements since they need to keep consultants motivated and make sure to meet client demands. When investigating how employer branding is practised, we find it interesting to investigate an organisation where employer branding is central and where such HR practices such as recruitment processes are practised on a daily basis. Therefore, a case study in a consulting company is found to be a favourable context. The study aim is to investigate how employees daily work with HR practices contribute to the performance of the company employer branding. To answer the study aim, we have the following research question: - How does employees' daily HR practices contribute to the performance of employer branding? 1.2 Disposition Next coming chapter presents the performative perspective and Ervin Goffman’s (1959) theatre metaphor which will be the ground for this study and used as theory. This section also includes previous research which will be presented through Goffman’s metaphor. After this, the setting of the company that this study is based upon is presented. Chapter four is a method section where the methods of choice are described as well as ethical considerations. Further the results 9 and findings are presented and analysed before the discussion chapter with suggestions for coming research. The study ends with our final conclusions and research contributions. 2. Theory and Previous research The theory section is intertwined with previous research to illustrate how we interpret previous research through our theoretical framework. Neither the performativity perspective nor Goffman's theatre metaphor has been used on the phenomenon of employer branding before. By presenting previous research in the context of theory, it illustrates how the theory can be used and what the field has focused on before. Furthermore, this structuring highlights how this study differs from others. 2.1 The Performativity perspective and employer branding This study is conducted through a performativity perspective, which allows us to view the concept of employer branding as a given phenomenon that is constructed and practised repeatedly. The perspective stems from Austin’s (1962) definition that words in some senses are more than words, they “do” things e.g., give action. As Austin puts it “in which to say something is to do something; or in which by saying something we are doing something” (Austin, 1962, 12; italics in original). The perspective has since been used and further developed in multiple scientific disciplines such as philosophy, gender studies, sociology and economics (Gond, Cabantous, Harding & Learmonth, 2016). Although scholars have interpreted the use of the performativity perspective differently and thus there is no distinctive definition of how to use the perspective (Gond et al., 2016). Diedrich et al. (2013) addresses this risk by stating that the perspective can be too broad and too vague to be useful. In the economic field Callon (2007) used the performativity perspective to draw the conclusion that the economic market in itself shapes and forms the economy. Callon (2007) argues that this is also applicable to sociology and organisations, meaning that tools, skills, people, ideas and procedures are the bridge between theory and practice. Thus has organisational theory been able to use these arguments outside the economic field, for example regarding how organisational theory affects organisational practises (Czarniawska, 2007). 10 The performative perspective has also been used in Organisation and Management Theories and has challenged previous perspectives on concepts such as the constitution of managerial identities (Gond et al., 2016). Kornberger and Clegg (2011, 138) used Austin’s linguistic definition when writing their paper regarding the Sydney 2030 case, concluding that “strategizing is an activity that does something”. Diedrich et al. (2013) argues that a performative perspective can be used to illustrate the researchers ontological positioning. It emphasises the positioning of the principles of verbal and non-verbal actions (Diedrich et al., 2013). Phenomena such as culture, power and identity (and arguably employer branding) in organisation theory can be understood through a new view that the perspective provides through the focus of verbal and non-verbal actions in organisational practises (Diedrich et al., 2013). As exemplified by Latour (1986) when applying a performativity perspective, from understanding power as a cause of collective action, to be understood as a consequence of collective action. Gheman et al. (2013) used the perspective to draw the conclusion that organisations can be interpreted as being contexts where values are performed into being through actors’ activities and practises. The performativity perspective could also be used as an epistemological position (Diedrich et al., 2013). In doing so Diedrich et al. (2013) argue that organisational phenomenon can be treated as given. This is also our positioning when using the perspective. Using the performative perspective, the phenomenon of employer branding is charged, practised and embedded in multiple activities. The individual inevitably creates and thus represents the organisation through their micro-actions, communication and relations with both internal and external stakeholders, which in turn affects how the receiver interprets the organisation as employer. Thus, it could be argued that employer branding is practised both directly and indirectly in all decisions and interactions at all times. Instead of perceiving employer branding as an external tool to be implemented to strengthen the brands attractiveness (Cascio, 2014; Kumar et al., 2021; Maheshwari, Gunesh, Lodorfos and Konstantopoulou, 2017; Hadi & Ahmed, 2018; Reis, Sousa and Dionisio, 2021), we use employer branding as a given activity that the employees are inevitably performing in their everyday HR work and relationships. 11 2.2 Goffman's theatre metaphor and employer branding According to Diedrich et al. (2013) Erving Goffman's (1959) theory of impression management can be seen as an example of performativity. Goffman (1959) does not explicitly mention the concept of performativity. Diedriech et al. (2013) nevertheless argue that it is possible to interpret his theory in a performativity perspective. Goffman’s (1959) main contribution is the theatre metaphor where he describes the physical stage, the backstage and the audience. He also explains the mutual agreement involving different roles of the audience and the actors and means that the agreement allows the actors to act and thereby, produce reality (Diedrich et al., 2013). According to Goffman (1959), individuals engage in performances, something he calls “front”. The front is what individuals are showing to others and can to some extents have an influence on observers. The front is an expressive equipment standard type used when performing, either consciously or unconsciously, to others. Goffman (1959) divides the front’s standard types into different parts. The first is the setting, which involves furniture, decor and other things that are a part of the scene where the human activity takes place. The setting is indistinguishable from the specific location. The second part of the standard type is the personal front, which are the things that are strongly connected to the individual and expected to reflect the actions. Such things can be gender, age, ethnicity, clothes, speaking patterns and face expressions etc. The personal front is possible to divide into appearance and manners, where behaviour is connected to social status and manners to what role in the interaction the individual is planning to take. In a workplace environment, frontstage is defined as the area where employees meet the customers and clients and need to put on their front as their mask and work performance. Goffman (1959) provides an example of a restaurant with frontstage being the dining hall, where waitresses meet and serve guests. In contrast to the frontstage where the waitresses perform for the guests, the kitchen and the backroom is called backstage. Backstage provides a space where the waitresses can let go of their mask and stop their performance. The main function of backstage is to serve as a place where employees prepare the performances that are going to happen in the frontstage. Thus, backstage provides a different context where other rules and norms of interactions apply. The access of entering backstage is limited, not anyone is allowed to get included and see what happens or is discussed backstage. Thus, backstage can be perceived as a safe place where secrets can be shared and 12 create a form of solidarity and loyalty between the people who are allowed to enter. Thus, frontstage and backstage are two different aspects of understanding what is going on (Goffman, 1959). Goffman uses the term “team” or “performance team” to describe a set of individuals who co-operate in staging a single routine. However, a team can consist of only one individual, and he gives an example that an artist can be taken by their own performance and be both the performer and the audience at the same time. Nonetheless, a team can also be a formal relationship, automatically extended and received as soon as the individual is a part of the team. A teammate is therefore a person whose dramaturgical co-operation one is dependent upon in fostering a given definition of the situation. Goffman also uses the term “family” to describe the relationship with colleagues at a workplace. He argues that colleagues can see behind each other’s fronts (Goffman, 1959). The concept of frontstage and backstage is interesting to investigate in this study. Having Goffman's theory in mind when reading previous research on employer branding, it becomes clear that a lot of focus has been put on the frontstage, how the audience interprets the performance and what kind of effects it has for the success of the employer brand (Cascio, 2014; Kumar et al., 2021). For example, frontstage could be interpreted to be in focus in studies about evaluating specific strategies and activities, such as CSR, motivation, retention and its relation and effects on employer branding (Hadi & Ahmed, 2018; Maheshwari et al., 2017; Kuma et al., 2021). Also, how employees perceive a company employer branding and how that is associated with other factors such as employee engagement, turnover etc (Yadav, Kumar & Mishra, 2020). Less attention is paid to the backstage of employer branding, i.e., how organisational actors prepare themselves before performing the employer branding. Employer branding can also be perceived as a process of value creation where negotiation between companies, employees and stakeholders take place. It consists of multiple actions, efforts and processes, such as communication, the recruitment process, the psychological contract between employer and employee, expectations, messages from the management, employee identification and being able to differentiate the company from its competitors etc (Itam et al., 2020). This process, through Goffman's view, can be explained as the constant movement from front to backstage. Many studies like Itam et al. (2020) argue that 13 employer branding is being constructed continuously, however there are not many studying how the movement from backstage to frontstage actually happens. There are studies who argue that people should be living the brand to strengthen the brand attractiveness and coherency (Ind, 2014; Itam et al., 2020). With a performative perspective and Goffman’s theory, this could be interpreted as an argument that employer branding should be lived both backstage and at frontstage. This would mean that living the brand is part of the performance, on the frontstage. However, if it were to be internalised in the company culture it would mean that employer branding is more than the actions that take place on frontstage. Instead, it also includes the process and work of employer branding backstage and thus also covers the shift between front- and backstage. Goffman’s metaphor allows us to study what happens backstage, the preparations and the reflections before and after the performances. This is necessary in a performative perspective as the development and work with strategies regarding employer branding and retention are organised backstage. Thus, it is relevant in coming research to shift focus from the performance to also include what is happening backstage. By having this perspective, the perception of employer branding is something that is created and embedded in activities and relationships and can thus be affected and steered. With the help of Goffman and the performativity perspective, we can analyse the whole process and not only focus on the execution of the performance. Thus, employer branding is not perceived as an outside phenomenon and an external tool. Itam et al. (2020) argues that the value creation in employer branding has shifted from a communicative approach to a more dialogue co-creation approach where more focus is on what factors are important for the individual as a human being, instead of only having a focus on economic and organisational factors. A study made by Dean, Arroyo-Gamez, Punjaisri and Pich (2016) explores how employees co-create brand meaning depending on how they experience the brand and how their interactions with management, colleagues and customers are. Although Dean et al. (2016) investigates the internal brand and not employer branding specifically, the perspective of brands being co-created is of relevance to our study. The internal brand can arguably be connected to practising the employer brand since it describes its consequences as people's interpretation. Dean et al. (2016) conclude that how employees perceive the brand is related to their previous experiences and social interactions with the brand. The brand co-creation happens in dialogue between external and internal stakeholders. 14 How internal employees perceive the brand will in turn affect how external stakeholders perceive it. Experiences of the brand will contribute to construction of brand meaning in everyone. It is a non-linear process that is affected by the context and has no time limit. The article states that for employees to construct a brand meaning they must interact with each other to live the brand experiences (Dean et al., 2016). The study concludes that brand meaning is an evolving process (Dean et al., 2016). Applying Goffman to the argument that employer branding is co-created goes in line with his term “performance team”, where the team co- operate in staging a routine. We argue that the phenomenon of employer branding is practised continuously all the time through everyday HR activities. It is practised in all actions and decisions, through communication and in relationships with internal employees as well as with partners and in relation to competitive companies. Thus, it would be impossible to find a tool, a one-way solution of practising the best employer branding strategy. Our perspective of practising employer branding is more nuanced and illustrates the inevitable effect actors and activities have on employer branding. 3. Setting The case study is conducted in a Swedish subsidiary of a Global IT consulting company. The company is named Alpha in this study; however, it is a pseudonym for what it is called in reality. Alpha is part of a business group with different divisions and companies within it. The different companies in the business group are relatively independent and have their own CEOs. However, they share the same values, vision and company brand. Alpha has about 150 consultants in Sweden and about 100 of them are employed in the studied subsidiary. The consultants are placed at different client organisations and the duration of the consultant assignment can vary. Some consultants are employed by Alpha for several years and some get recruited by the client organisation after a short time period or directly in some cases. At Alpha there are different working teams and roles where the biggest group are the IT consultants who are placed at client firms. There are twelve internal employees working at the office, consisting of consultant managers, recruiters, sellers and the CEO. Two additional interviews were also conducted in this study with one HR manager and one communication 15 and organisational manager. These two employees are not directly employed by Alpha, but work in the same business group. Below comes a short description of the different roles that have been in focus for this study which are consultant managers, sellers and recruiters. Recruiters work continuously with HR practices of finding and recruiting new consultants to Alpha. They mainly use outreach recruitment to contact possible candidates with the aim of presenting Alpha as an attractive employer. There is a constant need for new candidates and the recruiters consistently communicate Alpha’s employer branding and its attractiveness to potential new consultants. There are six recruiters, where two of them also are working as consultant managers. One of the recruiters also works as a recruiter leader and is responsible for the recruiting team. Consultant managers have the closest relationship with consultants. They have contact through emails, phone, meetings and lunches. They have regular meetings with consultants every sixth week. A full-time consultant manager is responsible for approximately 60 consultants, meaning that they have about ten scheduled meetings with consultants every week. They also have extra meetings if something would occur between the scheduled meetings. There are three consultant managers with two of them also working with recruitment and accordingly are responsible for approximately 30 consultants each. The other consultant manager has approximately 60 consultants and an extra responsibility over consultants’ employment experience. The consultant manager's daily activities consist of different HR activities in relation to consultants such as working with onboarding, retention, creating educational opportunities and providing everyday support for consultants. Sellers at Alpha are responsible for being in contact with clients. Different sellers are responsible for their own client firms. Their work involves maintaining a good relationship with clients beyond finding new clients. In collaboration with recruiters, they match consultants to an assignment at client firms. There are four sellers where one of them is a seller leader. The seller leader also has personnel responsibility over the other internal employees at Alpha. Thus, in many ways the context of a consultant company where HR professionals engage in HR practices represents an extreme case. Since HR practices such as aiming at recruiting consultants to be placed at clients occur continuously. This in turn seems to offer a suitable opportunity for analysing how employer branding takes place in practice. 16 4. Method 4.1 Sampling strategy To investigate what employees at Alpha were doing in their daily HR work to perform the employer branding, this master thesis used a qualitative method consisting of both observations and semi-structured interviews. Both methods were found suitable to complement each other to get an understanding of their actions and reflections. The method of choice aligned with our theoretical framework of Goffman and the performativity perspective since it allowed investigation of micro-actions and interactions in the context of front- and backstage. All employees of Alpha where relevant actors as the study investigates how employer branding is performed by everyone in everyday HR activities. Alpha is part of a larger business group with centralised roles and functions such as HR manager and culture and communication manager. These were found to complement the data as their work affects the company strategies and work regarding employer branding and retention. These actors were chosen to participate in complementary interviews but not for observations as they were not employed at Alpha. The case study has also been complemented with four interviews with consultants to investigate their experiences. Participants were selected by selective sampling strategy, which is based on the researchers’ assumptions regarding which people would be suitable to participate in the research (David & Sutton, 2016). Since the aim regards all employees and roles in Alpha and the company size was estimated as manageable, all internal employees were asked to participate. As one of us worked at Alpha and was a colleague with the employees, we had access to ask them to participate independently. However, the centralised HR manager was contacted to ask for formal permission. A meeting was held where the study aim and idea were presented, and the HR manager gave permission to reach out to Alpha and their CEO. An information letter, see Appendix C, was written to introduce us and with information about the study aim, method and ethical considerations. In the information letter it was emphasised that the study would not investigate or evaluate the employees as individuals or the organisation. Instead, it was clarified that focus would be on the practice of employer 17 branding in everyday activities, and not to judge whether them or the employer branding was “good” or “bad”. This information was first sent out to the CEO. When having their consent, the same information was emailed to the internal employees with an attached consent form (Appendix B). Thereafter a meeting was scheduled with the internal employees, to further introduce the aim as well as method and ethical considerations of the thesis. The meeting provided an opportunity for employees to ask questions and to give more detailed information. A short PowerPoint presentation was held at the office with some employees attending in person and others attending remotely. The presentation ended with the consent form being handed out and with instructions to read it through and come back at a later time with it signed if they found it interesting to participate. The ambition of these instructions was to reduce the risk of them feeling peer pressured to sign. All participants who were attending physically chose to sign the forms directly, even though it was emphasised again that it was not necessary. Although, with all information that was provided to the participants regarding what it meant for them to be a part of the study, and with repeated reminders that a signed form was not binding, it is interpreted as all participants chose to participate voluntarily and with giving informed consent. Participants who attended remotely were given the consent form at a later time when meeting at the office. The sampling of consultants was made by snowball selection, as they were asked to participate based on the CEO’s suggestions. They were suggested on the premise of having been employed at Alpha for several years. In discussions with consultant managers, they became secondary gatekeepers to the consultants. With the CEO’s suggestions in mind, they were asked to suggest consultants that had been employed for various periods of time. This resulted in a sample of four consultants ranging in employment time from approximately one month to approximately five years. An advantage of this method was that the consultant manager knew the consultants and could make the judgement if this was something they would want to participate in or not. For example, one of the candidates that the CEO suggested was not asked due to the consultant manager knowing that this person was going through a difficult time. The snowball sampling strategy of consultants has a risk of being biassed (cf. David & Sutton, 2016) due to asking the CEO for suggestions and consultant managers to choose suitable candidates. Gatekeepers can selectively suggest participants that they know are going to speak well about Alpha. Since the aim is not to rate “how well” Alpha’s employer branding was found to be, but “how it is performed”, this would not have made an extensive difference 18 in our results either way. The consultants did not give an impression of being biased but spoke freely of their experiences and reflections during their interviews. 4.2 Ethical considerations The Swedish research council (2019) has four ethical principles that should be considered when conducting research. Reliability, to secure research quality. Honesty, when developing, implementing and reviewing research. Respect, for colleagues, participants, society, ecosystems and environment. Lastly, accountability, for the research in all aspects. These principles were held in mind to make sure that the research was, and continues to be, ethical during the whole process. The study aim is not typically a sensitive subject and did not require the participants to be particularly personal. The individuals per se were not of interest, rather on the way individuals practise and communicate employer branding through their interactions and relations. The organisation is given the fictional name Alpha and the employees are referred to by their job title to anonymise and protect the organisation and the participants. Nor are gender identities or ages of the participants presented as it is not relevant in this study. The basis of deciding to anonymise the company was done to make us feel freer to be objective about our findings, reducing the feeling of portraying our findings in a certain way to protect the organisation's reputation. However, anonymising cannot eliminate the risk of readers finding the organisation’s true identity, but it will neither facilitate it. The one of us who did not work at Alpha signed a confidentiality agreement with Alpha regarding not to spread any company secrets and sensitive information. All participants gave informed consent to participate by filling in a consent form. However, during some observations we were allowed to take part in activities where other people were participating as well, like meetings between consultant managers and consultants and with sellers and clients. On those occasions, we got oral consent from the other participants. Furthermore, all field notes, raw recordings and transcriptions were deleted once the data had been processed and was no longer needed. Further ethical considerations are about our sampling strategy and regarding one of us working at Alpha when conducting the study. That could have affected participants to feel 19 uncomfortable or pressured to take part in the study. To reduce that risk, we ensured that all participants gave informed consent before participating and were repeatedly reminded that they were doing so voluntarily. They were also informed that they always could take back their participation, with no need for an explanation, during the whole process. Since we were present at the office for one and a half months during the data gathering and since one of us worked at the company, the employees had many opportunities to easily withdraw their participation. Thus, all participants were interpreted as having been given informed consent and participating in the study voluntarily. 4.3 Limitations Observations from ethnographic studies are often analysed through a holistic perspective where the goal is to describe the actions that are taking place (Zickar & Carte, 2010). Ethnographic studies are often conducted over a long period of time, often during several months (Zickar & Carte, 2010). However, in this study we had a limited amount of time and therefore the observations took place for one and a half months. Even if the time for observations was limited, they gave a deeper understanding and complemented the interview data. A case study affects generalisability of results and thus is a limitation. To consider with all studies, our own perception, experiences and pre-knowledge are going to colour the study in all its steps, how it is constructed, interpreted and analysed. However, the advantage of conducting a case study can still contribute to a greater understanding of the topic and research within the field. Another limitation of the study can be that some information can be lost or interpreted differently when translating from Swedish to English. All interviews and observations were held in Swedish, affecting that some sayings can be difficult to translate correctly into another language. This has been considered when translating quotations and describing situations in the results, however, it cannot be guaranteed that nothing has been lost in translation. In the result of the study, three different HR practices were found to be central. However, a limitation is that no observations were conducted of consultants representing and practising employer branding to clients. Since the aim and focus of the study has evolved during the research process, this was not considered when planning the research. This limitation was 20 due to the given time limit and would have demanded access at client organisations if included. If observations were done of consultants' work at client firms, more time would be needed to make it fairly represented and comprehensive. Thus, observations were held with the focus kept on Alphas internal employees. Therefore, we were not able to observe how consultants behaved at clients after their meetings with the consultant managers. However, four interviews with consultants were conducted to ask questions about it. Therefore, it would be interesting if future studies could investigate how the HR practice of managing and supporting consultants’ behaviour, to make the understanding of employer branding in everyday HR activities even more comprehensive. 4.4 Data collection strategy Primary data was collected through individual semi-structured interviews and observations. 4.4.1 Interviews Semi-structured interviews were held with all internal employees at Alpha and with one HR manager and one communication and culture manager. To complement this, four consultant interviews were also done. In total 17 interviews were conducted. All interviews were semi- structured, meaning that an interview guide (Appendix A) was used as a base for the interviews but follow up questions were asked. Depending on the role of the respondent, different interview guides were used, however, they were quite similar, only adjusted to the role of the respondent. In Appendix A, a combined and translated interview guide is presented. 4.4.2 Observations Data collection strategy as conducting observations is aligned with doing an ethnographic study. It is not possible to be objective in an ethnographic study since it is based on a specific context (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018), which in this case is the context of Alpha. The line between what is fact and fiction become intertwined and creates room for alternative interpretations (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018). Thus, our interpretations and experiences cannot be perceived as objective facts, as the observations are affected by us. Fangen (2005) describes participant observations to exist on a scale from only observing from the side-lines, to only participating on the same terms as individuals in the group. The method demands the researcher 21 to do these two activities at once, to both be involved in the social setting with others and to observe what is happening. Nevertheless, participating does not mean that the researcher must conduct the same activities as the individuals, it means to engage in conversation and interplay with the subjects (Fangen, 2005). In relation to this, it differed both to what degree we participated and observed in different situations. Fangen (2005) makes a comparison to interviewing as a method and argues that when doing interviews, the gathered data describes the individual’s subjective experiences and interpretations. In doing observations it is instead the researcher’s interpretations of what is happening; thus, it is important as researcher to be reflexive of choices of material and their understanding of the situations (Fangen, 2005). As one of us was working at Alpha during the time the case study was conducted, she was already a participant in the social setting. This was an advantage to the method as the researcher had preunderstanding of the work as well as the social setting. As our framework takes the stand that all employees are part of performing employer branding in their daily work activities and relations, the method of doing observations suited well. It allowed us to observe the employees' interaction both when preparing backstage and when performing on frontstage. Most observations took place at the office, during both daily and more special activities such as meetings with consultants, potential employees and during internal meetings. Some observations were also conducted outside the office, such as when preparing for activities by shopping material or food, during travels and when accompanying them to schools when they did company presentations to students. In total 17 observation occasions were made. As the topic is to understand how the employees in the organisation perform employer branding, there were also informal conversations frequently held to understand their actions and their reflections about them. To make the observation occasions as natural as possible, field notes were taken in direct connection to the observations instead of during. The purpose of this was for us to affect the situation as little as possible and try not to make the employees feeling monitored. Although our presence and informal conversations did affect the situations and their work, we did not want to add to the feeling of being studied. The observation occasions did not have the aim of taking exact quotations from the participants but to investigate the interactions and what was happening in different situations. Since one of us was working at Alpha, the employees were perceived as relaxed as they were not unfamiliar to her presence. Although the situation was 22 affected due to the other researcher also being present combined with the employed researcher attending meetings and occasions that they usually did not attend. After some time the internal employees were interpreted as being more used to the format of being accompanied and observed. Nevertheless, the decision was taken to conduct field notes in direct connection to the occasion instead of during the observations, with one exception. During a company presentation at a school, the setting of students sitting in benches and listening to the presentation was interpreted to provide an occasion that did not affect or remind the employees of being observed. Thus, some notes were taken during and in direct connection to the presentation. After the presentation, the employees who were being observed were interpreted to be highly aware and curious of the observation and writing of field notes, asking if the writing was going well and if the occasion had provided interesting data. This strengthened the initial belief of affecting employees when taking notes during observations, making them want to be more “interesting” or to “please” the observers. After this occasion the decision was thus again to avoid taking field notes in direct presence with employees. 4.5 Analytical strategy The data was analysed through thematic analysis, allowing us to process the data by analysing field notes from observations, transcribing interviews, doing initial coding, cluster patterns and similarities/differences and identify and analyse emerging themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The data gathering started by meeting two consultant managers at the office with the aim to schedule observation occasions and to accompany them in their work. We decided to join them on several occasions and also asked to participate when they were supposed to plan and prepare their work. The same was done with the recruiter leader and the recruiters. To make data from the field notes as objective as possible we first wrote down objectively what had happened and then continued to write down our reflections regarding the situation. Knowing that we were to use a performativity perspective and Goffman’s theory to analyse the data, we knew from the beginning what to look for. This made it easier when we wrote reflections in our field notes since we continuously could analyse the data. By having a performativity perspective, we were able to broaden the view of what employer branding was and thus did not have any limitations in terms of analysing the concept of employer branding. 23 Early on when doing observations, we noticed that a lot of Alphas work involves trying to make a good impression for their potential and current consultants. Consultant managers were planning their work to make the consultants as satisfied as possible and recruiters were planning their work to make sure that potential candidates interpreted them as an attractive employer. These HR practices were part of their daily activities and mainly took place at the office. Consultant managers, recruiters and sellers were constantly moving from preparations in backstage to performances at frontstage as many of their meetings took place digitally. Since we knew that we wanted to investigate this process further, we made sure that the observation occasions included both preparations, the scheduled activity and time after the activity. We wanted to be part of their preparation to see how they were setting up the stage and how they prepared themselves before a performance. The possibility to also make observations after an event gave us the opportunity to see how they behaved after a performance. We analysed all the small details, how they dressed, how they prepared, did they seem nervous, did they become tired, did they breathe out etc. All these micro actions were written down and made it possible to analyse those performances and the move between front and backstage actually occurred. The informal conversations also contributed to the understanding of performances by asking what they did, why and how they felt before and after. The observation data was enriched with interviews that were conducted continuously during the data collecting process. Although, we started with six observations before starting with interviews. This decision was made since we wanted to have seen them in their daily work before asking questions about it. The interviews made it possible to hear the employees' own reflections of their work. They were continuously transcribed during the data gathering process. After all were transcribed, initial coding was done and different themes were created and used to be further analysed. During the data collection process we discovered that Alphas employees performed employer branding through three central groups of HR practices. We choose to differentiate the practices depending on how the HR work was structured. First, Alpha needed to attract and recruit new employees to Alpha. Second, internal employees needed to introduce and retain consultants and third, internal employees needed to make sure that consultants behaved representable at client firms. The HR practices consist of different everyday HR activities that were observed such as coaching, relationship building, mail correspondence, meetings, 24 planning and creating educational opportunities, company presentations etc. The three groups of HR practices became the basis of our result. The HR practices and all activities happening in them were then analysed with Goffman’s theory (1959), making it possible to analyse how their daily HR activities contributed to the practise of employer branding. 5. Results The analysis of data shows that employees working at Alpha perform employer branding through different HR practices e.g., the first consists of attracting and recruiting new employees. However, as the aim of the study is not to evaluate the efforts, whether Alpha succeeded with attracting and recruiting new employees was not investigated. The groups of HR practices illustrate what activities and efforts are put in place when doing different HR practices and how the actors act. The HR practices are situational and occur at several places (stages) by employees putting on multiple performances. Different HR practices can be performed at the same time, however for the audience e.g., consultants, they often take place in one sequence. A performance is the situation when employer branding is communicated by an actor, which in this study are Alphas employees. They act the employer branding in different performances, in their daily HR activities, by simply being a representative of the employer branding. The HR practices have different audiences and can consist of potential and current employees and consultants, colleagues, and/or clients. The audience can both be an actor and audience in itself during their own performance, as actors can be taken by the performance (Goffman, 1959). All employees at Alpha, both internal employees and consultants were found to be participating in the performances, depending on activity. The HR activities are the daily activities that create the HR practice and impact employer branding. In the table below some examples of daily HR activities are presented to illustrate what kind of activities that were done to contribute to the HR practices. Neither the HR practices nor the activities will be further investigated in itself, as the aim is not to evaluate the effects of Alphas employer branding. The result illustrates how employer branding is performed and practised through different HR practices. When practising different HR activities, different performances that are connected to Goffman’s (1959) theory are found. The different HR practices and performances will be presented after a description of the main stage i.e., the office. 25 The results will be presented by first reminding of Goffman's (1959) theory that is going to be used before our specific findings are presented and analysed with Goffman. Three groups of HR practices were found to be central for how employees at Alpha practise employer branding (see model 1). First, attracting and recruiting practices when trying to find new actors. Second, onboarding and retaining practices, when new actors are seemingly invited backstage. Third, managing and supporting practices and when managers are controlling and following up the performance of consultants. Model 1: An overview of the HR practices and performances 5.1 The main stage Alphas main setting is the office, where internal employees primarily work and thus becomes their main stage. It functions by default as the internal employee’s backstage, however it can change to become frontstage depending on visitors entering. The office building is shared with several other companies and is located close to the sea. The surrounding area houses many companies, especially other tech companies, where even some are clients to Alpha. Visitors enter the building in a large room with high ceilings and a wall made of windows, making the 26 entrance feel light and airy. There is a large reception desk to the left with some sofas and coffee tables nearby where visitors can sit down and take a cup of coffee. Straight ahead there are electronic gates which separate visitors from a large staircase and elevators, which lead to the different companies located in the building. Greeted by the receptionist, visitors are asked to sign in at a desk tablet and to kindly sit while waiting to be picked up for a scheduled meeting. At this time internal employees at Alpha get a notification and are in that way told to meet and invite visitors through the electronic gates, welcoming them to their physical backstage. Internal employees have a personal key tag allowing them freely to enter the electronic gates as they wish. Thus, electronic gates serve as a first demarcation line between frontstage and backstage in terms of being in or outside the physical sphere of Alpha. Alpha is located on the second floor together with another company. The second floor is different from other building floors, as it is newly renovated and more modern than the others. There, visitors are greeted by Alphas large company logo on a wall. First thing to come into view is the shared office kitchen with tables and chairs, microwaves, refrigerators, coffee machines, and on most days, a fruit bowl. The seating area is separated into two sections with green plants in the middle. On each side there are long sofas with tables and chairs. At the far end of the kitchen there is a large round table surrounded by a half moon sofa instead of chairs. The kitchen is used for multiple purposes. It is not only a place where internal employees bring and eat their lunch. It can also serve as a meeting place for visitors as well as a place to work for people working in the different companies. Sometimes it serves as a place for common gatherings such as celebrations. The kitchen area is associated with a home environment, a place to eat and socialise with others. However, it still has the trait of being a public place in a work environment. The kitchen separates the floor into two sides and thus provides two entrances to different office areas. However, only the office space to the right is of relevance since it is where Alpha is located. Due to the building layout, it is possible to stand in the kitchen and look in through some of the conference rooms. A key tag is needed to enter the office areas which have a floor to ceiling window wall, providing a lot of light and an ocean view. The whole floor is covered in a grey wall-to-wall carpet and is decorated with green plants. The style of the office gives a modern feeling and has a consistent theme throughout the whole floor. 27 When entering the office area, visitors first walk through a corridor surrounded by several small meeting rooms on either side. Walking through the corridor, there is a small open room to the right with a table, coffee machines and a water station, before entering the open office landscape. There are three different companies in the business group located in the open landscape, which are divided into four sections of tables and computers. Alpha is placed in the middle of the room at their own section. Where everyone is seated can vary, even though some seem to have favourite places. All desks are adjustable to raise and lower and are housing big computer screens and keyboards able to connect to laptops. There are enough desks for each employee and at the right side of the office there are three small rooms, which are used as phone-booths. These allow employees to have phone conversations without disturbing other colleagues. The noise level in the open landscape is otherwise talkative. Some are talking to each other or on their phone, while there are also some who sit more quietly wearing headphones. At the far end of the room, it is possible to sit down on a light grey couch, looking at the sea view through the large windows. The large windows make the office bright with natural light. There are several types of conference rooms. Some are large with the possibility to use for 10 to 15 people, and some are made for two or four people. It is possible to book rooms through a mailing system or by checking in on the room displays placed outside each room. On the displays it is visible to see if the room is free to use or who has booked it and for how long. In all rooms there is a screen, making it possible to connect to a video call or to share presentations. 5.2 Attracting and recruiting In Goffman's (1959) restaurant example, the actors i.e., the waiter or waitress, are on frontstage when they are visible to restaurant guests. Waitresses are restaurants faces outwards and in meeting their audience i.e., guests, they contribute to what kind of first impression the guests will have. Goffman (1959) argues that actors should give a good first impression and that a good start between actors and audiences is crucial, as the interaction sets the rules of the relationship. When the waitress greets the guest and asks if they can take their order, she also sets the roles for the relationship, her as an actor and waitress and the guest as the audience. However, in a consulting company, the audience are not guests in a restaurant, they are clients, 28 colleagues, consultants etc. The actors are not working in a restaurant, they are employed by the consulting company which in this case is Alpha. As soon as the actors become employed, they start performing and become representatives of the employer brand. According to internal employees of Alpha, it is crucial having the “right” kind of actors, internal employees as well as consultants. Internal employees, for example recruiters, are important since they play lead actors in finding and employing other actors, the consultants. In these performances’ recruiters act for the audience, which in this case are potential consultants. Consultants are important because they are representing and practising Alpha’s employer branding at assignments, with the audience being employees at client firms’ as well as consultants from other companies working at the same client. These performances are found crucial for being able to attract and retain clients. The company business will be undermined and outcompeted by other consulting firms or by the client choosing to recruit employees on their own if Alpha does not have good consultants. Beyond consultants it is also important and a challenge to find the “right” employees to work internally at Alpha. They want employees who are driven by results and who like to work under pressure. Internal employees are representing Alpha towards audiences such as colleagues, clients and consultants. If an internal employee does not cope with the circumstances, the person will not fit in. The CEO exemplify this: I believe that you won’t fit if you do not have a high energy level, or that you do not have the drive […]. Unfortunately you may not fit in among us if you just like to help other people. You need to be driven of, of making money, but that can be expressed in different things. But the driving forces, we are a profit-based company, we are a very high-performing. It is like eh, a certain culture, very individual bonuses and you have to be triggered by it otherwise you will not thrive here and that is very obvious with those we have hired. (CEO) The first HR practices are discovered to involve HR activities who aim to attract and recruit new employees. Meaning Alphas employees practices employer branding in their process of attracting and employing the right actors, which in turn are chosen on the bases of their ability to perform and practise employer branding. The recruiting of actors, as internal employees, is a crucial preparation and activity to be able to perform and thus practice the employer branding. Since the actors are the ones performing employer branding, it is important that they are aligned and motivated by the company values, vision and mission to make the acting easier and more trustworthy. 29 When internal actors of employer branding are in place, the HR practice to attract new consultants who represent Alpha follows. Even if internal employees' performances are crucial, the consultant's performances reflect upon Alpha and are highlighted as very important by all internal employees. A seller emphasises this: Extremely important, they are our faces outwards. It is our salespeople, that is, we are not the business opportunities, they are the ones who are at place and represent us. They're out there every day […] so it's extremely important, really. (Seller 1) The consultants who were interviewed were all aware of this representation and their role in practising the employer brand. One consultant said that due to how well they behaved at the client firm, Alpha got to recruit another consultant from a competitor. Beyond that, the consultants' work and practising of the employer brand provided Alpha the opportunity to assign more consultants to that client. A consultant reflects on how the individual performance and representation affects client’s perception of the company: […]the consultants who are performing at the client are essential for how you as a company are perceived. If you have a bad consultant in one place, they will not care about how good your other consultants are. In the same way, if you have great consultants out there, you will find it INCREDIBLY easy to get more people into that company. (Consultant 3) Thus, attracting and recruiting the “right” kind of employees, actors, are equally important in all roles when it comes to practising the company employer branding at a consulting company. 5.2.1 Performances of the personal front Before actors start to perform on frontstage they go into their character and thus, the personal front becomes central. The personal front is described as how actors dress, speak and act etc (Goffman, 1959). This is prepared in backstage where actors can adjust and scrutinise the personal front for flaws, so when performing they can fully be in character. This also serves as a way for actors to show the audience which role they are planning to take in coming interaction (Goffman, 1959). The personal front of employees can thus be connected to how people interpret them. Thus, it is related to the audience's first impressions of the organisation. Hence, it is important for organisations to have employees wearing a personal front that is adjusted to the company employer brand. Since it is impossible to separate the employees from the employer brand because all of them are representatives of the company. The personal front indicates what kind of company it is and what they stand for. Take an example in the banking industry, a customer i.e., the audience expects that the banks as an organisation are serious as 30 they are going to handle the customers' money and investments. Thus, there are certain expectations on organisation settings and employees to look and act a certain way. At different organisations there are different dress codes where some may have specific costumes from their employer while others are allowed to wear their own clothes. However, some sectors can be argued to have an implied dress code, where employees are expected to dress a certain way. The importance of the personal front and how it was adjusted was also something illustrated at Alpha. At Alpha, all internal employees had an implied dress code of business fashion. Since they are the face outwards of Alpha, how they dress are of importance for how they are perceived as an employer both in meetings with others and to each other. How employees are perceived by others is important since they are the ones doing the employer branding and once they are being employed, they are continuously representatives and actors of the employer brand. We have seen that the personal front is significant for Alpha in several situations. One example is in the recruiters' work to find good consultants to represent Alpha. Recruiters work continuously with outreach recruitment i.e., they actively seek out potential new consultants to persuade them to perceive Alpha as an attractive employer they want to be employed by. This is done in HR activities such as via LinkedIn, via company presentations and their personal network. The internal employees seemed to care about their personal front when meeting their audiences. They cared about how they dressed and how they acted in the performance. A recruiter gave an example that before a meeting they try to get in the right mindset and have high energy when entering the meeting. Thus, they are trying to adjust their personal front by preparing in backstage before going on stage to perform. Another example when the personal front was notable was when we observed how internal employees wore their company keychains. When internal employees are at the office, they often wear their keychain with the company logo on. Addition to that, in an interview with a recruiter they said that they put it on in preparation before doing interviews, especially when working from home. “I don’t know why I do it, it feels better so the candidate knows that I am serious, how would they know where I come from otherwise?”. The recruiter further said that they had not been encouraged to do this and reflects that many of the internal employees wear their keychains. Internal employees also wore their keychain when they did company presentations at schools to attract new consultants. In conversation with a teacher at one of the 31 schools, one employee told an anecdote about when they had been in a kiosk earlier that week. The cashier had seen the keychain and asked about Alpha. It was discovered whilst talking that the cashier had an IT background. In connection to this anecdote the employee joked and said that you never know when you meet potential candidates i.e., when you unexpectedly get to perform to an audience. Thus, putting on the keychain is a part of the employees' preparations to go on frontstage, part of a performance that is found to be included in the HR practice of attracting and recruiting consultants. It can be compared to wearing a “costume” when performing which is part of the employee's appearance in the personal front (c.f Goffman, 1959). Further, the action of putting on the keychain is connected to manners, since it strengthens the interpretation of what role in the interaction the employee wants to take (c.f Goffman 1959). The internal employees want it to be clear for the audience i.e., the candidates, that they are performing their work and are in working mode. Nevertheless, we have also heard how the personal front can be misused and have a negative impact. The CEO of Alpha told an anecdote of when a consultant wore an old jacket from a client firm. It was a jacket printed with the firm's logo that the client had decided to throw away due to it being an old model. The consultant had thought it was unnecessary to throw away a well-functioning jacket and decided to wear it to a festival. Although, the client had seen this and became upset by it. This illustrates the importance to adjust the expected personal front, as it in this case was not preferred of the client to wear the jacket. This is another example of how strongly connected clothes can be to how people perceive an organisation. The personal front is connected to what kind of performance that is supposed to be acted out and wearing the wrong costume to a performance can have a negative impact even outside work. Internal employees at Alpha also exemplified the setting as an important factor in the personal front in a performance. The recruiters gave examples that they found their surroundings being important as where they were sitting when having meetings with potential employees. For example, one said that they could be stressed if they for some reason did not have a quiet meeting room booked for the scheduled meeting. They also said that they paid attention to their surroundings being representable when having meetings from home. 32 5.2.2 Performances of recruiting actors According to Goffman (1959), being on stage takes energy and effort. Backstage is the actors' space to drop their mask, breathe out and adjust to coming performances. Thus, backstage is an exclusive place where not everyone is invited. It is the place behind the curtains that audiences are not supposed to see. Goffman (1959) also argues that audiences can be others but also oneself. He means that the setting on frontstage is indistinguishable from the specific location (Goffman, 1959). Employer branding is done through several different HR activities where actors have performances with the aim to be interpreted as attractive to their audiences. One example of this can be when organisations have company presentations, at job fairs, on their websites or when interacting on platforms such as LinkedIn. When doing these certain activities, it is important for organisations to show why they are being attractive as well as stay true, since what is being played out needs to go in line with what is actually happening behind the stage. Otherwise, this kind of activity can backfire and instead reflect badly on the organisation. At Alpha these types of active employer branding activities are done continuously and we were present at two main events. What we noticed was that the frontstage was then moved from the office to the place where these performances were supposed to be held, which means that the stage can be moved from the specific location. For example, when Alpha did company presentations to meet the graduates at two different schools. Two recruiters went as representatives to meet one class at an upper secondary school and one at a higher vocational education. The choice of audiences, the classes and the planning of the performance was carefully thought out. Internal employees at Alpha knew that the students in the chosen classes were educated with skills that Alpha seeks. Thus, to get access to this kind of employer branding activities is something Alpha has actively put time and effort into. The recruiter leader had established relationships with the teachers and scheduled these exclusive occasions for Alpha to do employer branding. The relationships allowed them to tailor the performances to the audiences. The relationship that has been built with the teachers is as an example of where employer branding is practised, as a part of the specific HR activity of the presentations. The relationship allowed Alpha access and by that it can be interpreted that the teachers indicate that Alpha is trustworthy as a reliable employer. Although, it resulted in more than just access. 33 When arriving at one of the schools the employee representatives had some time to make small talk with the teacher in the school expedition whilst doing final preparations to their power point. More preparation or practice was not done, as this kind of presentation is part of their daily work when recruiting consultants. In this sense the internal employees seemed comfortable and relaxed about the content of the presentation. When they were preparing the presentation power point in front of the teacher, the teacher may have gotten an impression of being invited backstage. This may have provided the teacher with a feeling of being selected and welcomed behind the scenes, and by seeing their professional but relaxed way of work giving a good impression of themselves as employers, practising the employer branding by doing their daily tasks in front of and in co-creation with the teacher as the audience. The conversation with the teacher was regarding the students’ acquired competences as well as the teacher’s IT experience. The teacher asked questions about the internal employees' work, about Alpha and how they were different from temporary agencies. This provided the employees with an opportunity to perform employer branding and what differentiated Alpha from others. They did this by giving examples on what clients they were collaborating with and used IT terms in their language when talking and asking questions. They adjusted and tailored their personal front as their language and manners and thus their performance to their audience. The teacher seemed impressed by both their expertise and the clients they were collaborating with. The employees were thus on frontstage even before the presentation by practising the employer branding and networking with teacher as their audience. In their way of talking in IT terms and what clients they were working with; their personal front became pronounced as they presented themselves as serious and knowledgeable. They performed the company employer branding as being well connected and to provide exciting assignments for their consultants. After the presentation the internal employees were networking with students, performing and practising the employer branding. The impression to have been invited backstage and in conjunction with the relationship to the teacher, resulted in the teacher accompanying one of the internal employees when talking with the students. The teacher was engaged in Alpha as an employer, emphasising to the students’ things they thought was good about Alpha that the internal employee was saying. This is an example of how the relationship 34 with the teacher helps to co-create the employer branding. When the teacher was engaged in discussions about Alpha, with and in front of the students, it contributed to the practising of an attractive employer branding for Alpha. Thus, this is an example of how employer branding is practised outside, both before, during and after the activity in itself, in relationships and in conversations. It is also an example of how the teacher simultaneously was the audience and almost engaged in their performance on stage. Even though these kinds of presentations are part of internal employees' daily work activities, it is exhausting to be on stage and perform. Directly when the presentation ended, one of the employees made a quick but deep exhale, which indicates exhaustion. It is tiring, demanding and takes energy to be on frontstage. The employee dropped their mask for a second to regroup, before continuing the performance and networking with students. On the way back to the office the internal employees were yawning and stated that it would be tough to go back and continue their daily working tasks. Another example of this is when talking with a consultant manager after they had an onboarding meeting with a consultant. They said that these types of events, even though it is part of their daily work assignments, make them very tired, both of their own voice but also in general. This saying shows that performing and being on frontstage, takes energy and requires more effort compared to when being backstage. It does not matter that the content is part of their daily work, to be on stage and perform is still demanding. 5.3 Onboarding and retaining According to Goffman (1956) colleagues can be seen as a family. Family members are often closely linked and connected to each other and by that they create the unit that is a family. Thus, the actions of a family member reflect on the family unit and how others perceive them. It can be argued in the same way that if a colleague were to behave badly it would reflect badly upon the other colleagues as well. Thus, just like family members educate each other on how to act and what norms that are applying for them in different settings, colleagues educate each other. As previously stated, it is important to employ the right kind of actors, as actors need to both perform the employer branding as well as educate new actors in how to act and perform. Hence, retaining actors who possess these competences is also considered important. Goffman (1959) argues that colleagues can prepare and see behind each other's fronts as an example of 35 being backstage. Backstage is described as a safe place where secrets can be shared and the actors create a form of solidarity and loyalty towards each other. When applying Goffman's (1959) metaphor to being employed by any company, it would mean that newly recruited employees were to be invited backstage and to be included in the team as part of the family. Taking an example with a store, employees are on frontstage when being out with the customers and backstage in the backroom where customers do not have access. Here, front and backstage are described as a specific physical place as Goffman (1959) states that it is. Generally when being employed, actors are welcomed backstage and able to see behind their colleagues' fronts. They will be given other information than audiences who are not employed, e.g., getting introduced to the company values, development possibilities and CSR activities. This was only partly seen as Alpha as well. Consultants do not work at the main stage (the office) but only come to visit or to participate in specific activities. Hence it was discovered that when they visit, the stage shifts from being internal employees backstage to frontstage. Consultants are closer to “the genuine backstage” compared to other external visitors by being employed at Alpha, however the internal employees are still in a performance when meeting them and they continue being the audience. Thus in contrast to Goffman (1956) it was shown that the stage is not indistinguishable to the specific location but is able to shift. The same stage can be both backstage and frontstage for actors depending on the situation and audience. It was visible that consultants were invited to the physical place of backstage at the electrical gates, but once they entered the setting became frontstage for internal employees. However, an invitation to the office might provide consultants with a feeling of being selected to enter this exclusiveness, to be welcomed in the family. The performance of HR activities such as onboarding meetings, getting exclusive company information and by being invited to the exclusive space is a performance of internal employees providing an illusion to the consultants of being invited backstage. In reality the consultant still had the role of being the audience, but also the role of being an actor in training, before they themselves perform employer branding. During an observation of an onboarding meeting, a consultant manager both highlighted Alpha's HR activities regarding retention practices beyond strictly onboarding practices. Thus, the two HR practices of onboarding and retention are grouped together as they have shown to be connected and intertwined. Internal employees are already at the beginning of the consultant’s employment, performing and trying to convey a feeling of belonging to the consultant. They also are laying the ground for the work with retention by for example 36 presenting the chances of long-term development in Alpha. The HR practices of onboarding and retaining employees is exemplified more detailed with different performances presented below. 5.3.1 Performances of inviting backstage Consultant managers' daily HR activities include introducing and inviting consultants to Alpha as part of welcoming and educating consultants in how to become actors of employer branding. Sometimes these onboarding meetings are done digitally but often consultant managers strive to have them at the office. When being held at the office, the consultant manager usually shows them around and introduces the consultant to all internal employees in the office landscape. All actions and interactions contribute to the consultant manager's performance of employer branding and other colleagues at the stage join the performance for the consultant as an audience and actor in training. In an observation from one of these occasions at the office, a consultant manager prepared their performance before the consultant arrived by having a room booked and by checking the consultant’s resume to be reminded about the person. Other preparations were done such as checking the content of the onboarding PowerPoint presentation, to make sure that the slides were updated. After this they prepared the stage, the meeting room and its decor by tidying it up, fluffing pillows etc. to make the setting as good as possible. Following the consultant manager went to a café close by and bought smoothies and bars to set the table with and offer to the consultant. When arriving back at the office, the meeting room was even more prepared by taking away some withering flowers and setting the table. After this the consultant manager went back working with other tasks whilst waiting for the consultant to arrive. This is an illustration of how preparations before a performance are being done in the consultant managers backstage to prepare the stage shifting to frontstage. After a while, the consultant manager got a notification that the consultant had arrived at the reception. The consultant manager went down and started their performance, greeted and welcomed the consultant through the electronic gates. Entering the second floor, they started the office tour by going to the left side of the building, in the office landscape where Alpha does not have their places. The consultant manager commented on the sea view but also stated that the consultant probably will have an even better view from the client’s office, which is 37 located beside Alphas building. Continuing the tour, they went into the office area where Alpha is located. The consultant manager introduced the consultant to a colleague, who was the person who had recruited the consultant. They talked casually and shortly and it was visible that the colleague joined the performance by adjusting their personal front, starting to act and practising the employer branding. After this the consultant manager and the consultant entered the room where the introduction took place. The consultant manager showed the presentation on the screen and emphasised Alphas CSR activities and on the possibility to grow and develop in the company. Further they discussed that it is important that they have a close relationship, something that the consultant appreciated. This event is part of the consultant manager's performance when they are representing and practising the employer brand to a new employee through their daily HR activities. Consultants may feel invited to Alpha’s backstage and part of the team on these occasions, contributing to the consultant manager's performance of inviting backstage and conveying belongingness. Meaning that consultants are in this performance both co-creating and under training as an actor of employer branding and being the audience to the consultant managers performance. The consultant may think they are invited to an “everyday” occasion at the office and are unaware of the preparations the consultant managers have done before their arrival. This event shows how the office, the setting, that usually is internal employees backstage, turns into frontstage as an audience enters. The consultant manager performs and introduces the consultant to the employer brand and what components it consists of in the presentation. When presenting the company values such as the CSR activities and information about development opportunities at Alpha and in the expectation of having a close relationship. This is important to educate consultants in, as they are supposed to represent and perform the employer branding to other colleagues and to client firms as actors themselves. Arguably this is important to do already in the onboarding process, since the consultants are the main resource to Alpha and affect how they are being perceived by others. Thus, it is important that consultants agree and know what the company stands for to make it easier for them to be a part of Alpha and perform employer branding for Alpha's clients. 38 5.3.2 Performances of educating actors As mentioned, Goffman (1959) means that when being employed and having colleagues, it makes the individual part of a working group and he even uses the term family to describe the relationship between colleagues. Therefore, when consultants have been recruited and introduced to Alpha as actors of employer branding, coming performances of working with retaining and educating consultants becomes central. Consultants are still both actors in training and the audience of this HR practice as internal employees are acting and performing to retain the consultants at Alpha. Being a consulting company can arguably come with an added complexity and to work with employer branding is of extra importance to make sure that consultants stay with the consulting company. During an interview with the communication and culture manager the importance of a coherence throughout the vision, values, activities and the behaviours of the employees were said to be very important to be able to be trustworthy as an employer. Therefore, it is important that internal employees of Alpha educate their consultants so they can become actors of Alphas employer branding in a sufficient way. It was said that retaining consultants was a challenge and the CEO states that they are happy if a consultant chooses to stay with Alpha for a period of two years. It was further mentioned that educating and investing in consultants is expensive. Efforts in doing so affect the price for the client firms as well as Alpha’s business focus shift from IT consulting to more of an education and certificate institute. It is a balance of investing in a consultant’s career and education and being able to match them to future clients with consultants leaving Alpha to be employed by another company, resulting in Alpha not getting their invested money and time worth. At the same time, it was emphasised how important it is to have these specialist and highly competent consultants. It is part of their branding and business offer to client firms. A seller said that it is one of the things that differentiates them from other consulting firms and staffing agencies within the industry. The price of hiring a consultant through them is already higher but the consultants are also better educated, competent and are going to stay at the assignment, “they are not going to leave you after three months.”. It is also a large part of the employer branding as an incentive towards both potential consultants and new clients. As part of being a consultant company, it is difficult to make consultants feel belonging to the employer, as they do not work in the vicinity. They do not work in the office and their 39 consultant managers are managers at a distance. They also have another manager at the client firm. This is something that the consultant managers found to be difficult and challenging. They all believed that it is important that consultants feel a connection to Alpha and that the consultants should be able to get in contact with the consultant managers every now and then for anything. The consultant managers have regular meetings with the consultants and the contact between those occasions depend on the consultant. To remember everything about their consultants, the consultant managers need to be organised. Therefore, they have written down notes about their consultants so they can remind themselves of their previous conversations and to have follow up meetings. This is an example of what actions consultant managers are doing in backstage to be prepared to quickly be able to go on frontstage and perform when in conversation with consultants. It is important due to their wish of performing to have a close relationship with their consultants and to differ from other staffing agencies and consulting companies, where the experience often is said to be that the consultants are “a number on a piece of paper”. It is an example of how their daily work contributes to practising employer branding and feeling a belonging and part of “the company family”. One characteristic that consultant managers believed was the most important when being a good manager at a distance was the ability to be present even though it is not a physical presence. To achieve this, actions such as sending flowers are done to the consultants at occasions such as birthdays or if something special happens in their life e.g., if they get married. When doing so they try to write something personal to the consultant, which they said that consultants seem to appreciate. The consultant managers also emphasised the importance of being present in their conversations and showing that they really care about the consultants. They emphasised the importance of responding quickly if consultants have any questions. One consultant manager said that it is important that the distance between consultant managers and consultants is as small as possible. Responding quickly and efforts of trying to create a close relationship with consultants are examples of performances that contribute to employer branding. A consultant manager argues how these activities are aligned with the company values: I want them to feel, is it something I need to do or follow up, they will always have a response as quickly as possible. I think that goes in line with our values, that you are supposed to trust each other. (Consultant manager 1) 40 There is also a monthly newsletter sent out to the consultants by the consultant managers, where they share news, informing about new colleagues and if someone has changed assignments. However, the letter is often personal with tips and tricks of movies to watch or a reminder to use the wellness allowance. When asking about the idea behind this way of communicating they said that it is to show and remind consultants that the consultant managers are humans and that they together are a team. They are not just “random people” somewhere in the world correcting their time reports. They said that it is important that the consultants feel that they know the consultant managers and therefore they are trying to be personal in their communication. According to a consultant that has worked at Alpha for several years, one of the advantages of being a consultant at Alpha was that it is a familiar company where all internal employees at Alpha know the consultants and which client they are at. We saw efforts to try to achieve this during their performance at a consultant event at the office. The internal employees acted familiar to their audience, the consultants, and showed that they knew who they were and where they were working. Even the consultants acted in the same performance to internal employees as co-creators and the audience by knowing who the internal employees were. One consultant for example asked “where is x?” (Name of one internal employee who was not present), which shows that the consultants seem to know more internal employees than just their consultant manager. The ambition of being familiar and the consultant managers endeavour to make consultants feel as they together are a team goes in line with Goffman’s (1959) theory of being colleagues, as a part of being a family. Alpha is trying to make consultants feel that they are a part of Alpha, that they are invited backstage, to strengthen the feeling of belonging and as a way of trying to retain their consultants. All consultant managers said that it is important that the consultants feel a connection to Alpha. However, one said that salary and work tasks are the main reasons why people decide to change employers. […]to be a little frank, they do not see us every day, they do not see their belonging to us every day, so as long as, it is almost a small hygiene factor, everything should flow. They should get answers when they need us, but it is still what they do out on the assignment, what managers they have there and what they get in their wallets, it's usually those things that make people move and move on and we probably still have some limitations there[…]. (Consultant manager 3) 41 The consultants agree, meaning that salary and benefits are something that motivates them when choosing an employer. Although it is not the only factor. According to a consultant, to work as a consultant is not for everyone, it demands being a person who likes flexibility and wishes to change assignments. They said that this way of working is desirable to them as they easily get bored if being at one place for too long. Changing assignments and clients is argued to help them to be updated in the latest trends and shifts in the IT industry. A seller agrees and emphasises that being a consultant is not for everyone, it attracts a certain type of people. During interviews with consultant managers a question was what activities they work with to be an attractive employer. An answer from one consultant manager was that it is important that consultants feel that there are a lot of things going on and that the activities are lavish. Activities can be parties, dinners, lectures and going to amusement parks. For example, we were present at a consultant event at the office where the new educational package was presented, followed by pizza and game night. This event had been planned for weeks and was both informative and an occasion to socialise with the consultants. There was a lot of food, beverages and snacks. One consultant manager had bought board games that consultants had wished for as well as internal employees and consultants bringing their own games to the event. This could be an effort of trying to include the consultants and making them feel invited backstage, by being invited to prepare and contribute to the event. The consultant managers were preparing the office several hours before the event started, setting up the main stage, that usually is the backstage, as a presentable frontstage. Notes with a message that people should clean after themselves due to Alpha’s event later in the day were posted in the kitchen. During the afternoon we were sitting in the kitchen and were asked to help clean the tables. Different glasses were placed at the tables and beverages were put in a temporary refrigerator with Alpha’s logo on it. At the first floor where the presentation of the educational package should take place, a table was placed with snacks to welcome the consultants. This event is a further example of how the setting of the office went from the everyday backstage to distinctly shift to frontstage as the audience of the consultants were to arrive. Weeks before and most part of the day was dedicated to preparing the performance and the stage. Alphas strive to retain and invest in consultants by being lavish and prioritising their consultants was now put into practice and performed. 42 Both consultants and internal employees started mingling on the first floor and some of the internal employees were sporadically gathered at the gates at the reception. This was mainly to let consultants in through the gates. However, it also became a place where the internal employees could relax before the presentation started. This situation became a short time period and physical area of backstage for the internal employees, as they could relax and support each other, preparing before performances of employer branding in conversations with consultants. When asking if the consultant manager who was responsible for the educational package presentation was nervous, they said they were. This statement was met with joking responses from other internal employees, who for example said that they were to sit in the first row of the audience and ask difficult questions. This was met with laughter and further banter. This is part of the internal employees’ backstage, being a safe space where they can have conversations and banter i.e., conversations and manners they would not have done on frontstage. The feeling of being nervous is a sign of the employees being aware of them leaving backstage to go on stage, as they were about to perform. When most consultants had arrived, all internal employees entered the room where the presentation was held. The consultant manager who held the presentation was now on the frontstage, on an actual stage, in front of the audience of consultants and colleagues, including colleagues joining digitally from different cities. The consultant manager had their keychain on during the whole event including the presentation of the educational package. The educational package was presented as a benefit that goes in line with the company vision and mission. After the presentation the event continued upstairs. A lot of family sized pizzas were ordered and people sat down in the kitchen to socialise with each other. A consultant manager lit some candles and placed them on the dining tables while several of the employees set up the kitchen table with pizzas as a buffet. Some seemed to know each other from before or from working at the same client. After the food, the event continued with board games, snacks and drinks. The internal employees who were present, were participating just as much as the consultants. According to the internal employees, this type of event was seen as a way to strengthen the feeling of belonging to Alpha and when being there it felt like it was appreciated by the audience, the consultants. One consultant said before leaving “it is always a pleasure to be here at the office and to meet you guys”. The importance of building a personal and genuine relationship with consultants, clients and internal employees is something that is found to be valued and emphasised as important by all roles in Alpha. It is the cohesion in how they work 43 in their daily tasks to retain consultants. It can be perceived as an opportunity for internal employees to teach consultants how to act and perform as actors of employer branding. By the process of socialising and internal employees setting an example of what norms that exist in ways to behave in this family. It is also educating consultants in more concrete HR activities, such as them knowing they can further educate themselves in their IT competence. This type of event is something that Alpha arranges continuously as a HR activity working with retention for consultants. However, it is difficult to know if it gives the intended effects. 5.3.2.1 Returning to backstage When all consultants had left, the two consultant managers who were left took a deep breath and started to clean. This is an example of internal employees moving from performance at frontstage to backstage. In backstage they were talking about how successful the event was. The cleaning of the office space took a long time with only some bowls of candy and chips left in the kitchen, due to it “will probably only be appreciated tomorrow”. The cleaning activity is part of making sure that the setting of the stage gets back to “normal”, so when employees come back the next day, they feel that the setting is back to being their regular workplace. This is an example of practising employer branding towards colleagues as both being the actors and the audience regarding the physical setting. It sets a type of standard, a tone and a direction of how to behave and what Alpha represents to each other and to their audiences. The office environment is modern and carefully styled. Having employees like it are things that contribute to the perception of the company as an attractive employer since the office is part of the employer's offer and brand. Thus, it is important to clean and put everything in place again. There is no guarantee that the office is backstage for all employees the following day, it might as well be frontstage for someone and then it is important that the office keeps its standards. Thus, it is of equal importance to practise employer branding to their colleagues as audiences, to themselves, as well as when having other audiences. 5.4 Managing and supporting Managing and supporting consultants were found to be the last HR practice with performances of further educating and coaching actors e.g., consultants. The personal front and the fact that actors are simultaneously able to be an audience and actor (Goffman, 1956) are also central in 44 these performances. As illustrated previously, employees acting reflects on organisations employer branding. Thus, it is important for organisations to have employees that work according to the firm's expectations. The main work task of managers is to manage and coach the workforce and by this, affect and steer the employer brand. Managers are educating and directing other actors in the team in further how to act and perform their roles. In many organisations managers work directly in contact with their employees and can quickly be updated on how their employees perform and correct their behaviour if necessary. When using Goffman (1959) it can be argued that most organisations have distinct places for performances at one stage, as in the restaurant example where the waitresses perform their work as waitresses on the stage as being the restaurant's dining hall. Often a restaurant manager working at the restaurant is the leader of the employees. This is not the case for Alpha, as it is a consulting company with consultants placed at client firms. Therefore, Alpha wants to educate and coach their consultants to act properly at the client firms. They want their consultants to have a representative personal front and to perform Alpha’s employer brand in a sufficient way. The last HR practice of managing and supporting consultants therefore consists of internal employees' performances of HR activities to ensure the consultants behaviour at the client firms. Consultants are in this HR practice further educated and taught how to be actors of employer branding. Consultants are audiences to internal employees' performances of trying to ensure the consultants behaviour at clients and clients are audiences when consultants are actors on assignments, working and representing Alphas as an attractive employer and partner to collaborate with. Consultant managers are in this HR practice trying to ensure consultants behaviour, something they do by leading at a distance. This means that they are not in direct control over their consultants even though they are both the salary-setting managers and responsible for consultants' work environment. However, leading at a distance was said as both an advantage and a challenge. As an advantage it can give consultant managers more of a coaching role since, they are not emotionally invested in the assignment. It gives them the opportunity to be an advisor. On the other hand, consultant managers are the middleman and only get secondary information regarding consultants’ performances from both parties, and thus are not personally able to make judgments or pick up nuances regarding consultants' daily work and behaviour. 45 Since the consultant managers lack direct control over their consultants, they try to affect and educate the consultants' behaviour to their best ability. One consultant manager said that it is quite common that consultants ask for advice on how to handle certain things, for example if there is a problem at an assignment. They are limited in educating or supporting them in technical competences, since the consultant managers do not share this competence with consultants. Instead, they provide support and guidance in other situations like who to turn to if a problem occurs and how to express themselves in difficult situations. A consultant manager said that it is important in this way of managing that consultant managers act as role models. […] but I think there, that I sort of am their mother. Like what I do, they will also do to some extent. At least they still ask me how I think they should do, that one is simply a good role model. (Consultant manager 1) An example of acting like a role model and to mediate on how to behave can be to always be on time for their meetings and to live the company values by acting on requests that consultants have. For example, one consultant requested a computer mouse from their consultant manager during one of their regular meetings and the consultant manager explained that it is important to act upon those requests since it is a small cost for Alpha but something that will make the consultant satisfied and thus create added value. It can also set an example for the consultant on how to act when their colleagues ask them for help. In this sense it educates the consultant in how to perform as an actor of employer branding. Another performance to affect consultants on how to act properly was during an occasion where a consultant manager had an onboarding introduction with several new consultants. The consultant manager expressed that the new consultants need to represent Alpha in a good way. For example, it was said that they as consultants are representing Alpha when being on assignments and that it is important that they keep time and are “nice and tidy”, meaning that they have a representative personal front to their audience i.e., the client. The consultants were also informed that they will have two managers, one at client and their consultant manager. It was also expressed as important that the consultants adapted to the client’s requirements. It is encouraged that consultants should be part of the client's employer branding performances and backstage. This means that consultants should perform as actors for Alpha’s employer branding, but also be adaptive and hardworking actors to the client firm 46 as an audience to the degree that the client firms’ own audiences should interpret and perceive the consultant as a natural actor and part of the client firm’s organisation. Since consultants are representing Alpha as their face outwards, it is important that consultant managers are well informed on how consultants are behaving to be able to coach their performances to be as good as possible. During interviews with internal employees, they were asked if they had experiences of consultants behaving “badly” and the consequences of that. The answer from most of them was that they had experienced doubtful behaviours from some consultants. However, they said that clients often understand that consultants are not directly representing Alpha as employees. Even when consultants have behaved badly such as calling in sick with the explanation that they had played computer games all night, to more extreme cases such as having done criminal actions, the managers and sellers had not experienced severe consequences of it reflecting badly. Even so, it is important that Alpha has consultants on assignments that represent them well and perform in line with their employer branding. When this is not met, internal employees educate and put in actions to the consultants’ performances by having conversations and reprimands or giving consequences such as to terminate the consultant’s employment. Thus, internal actions have been made that affect Alpha’s and consultants’ relationship, but consequences on Alpha’s collaboration with client firms has not been terminated. The sellers emphasised the importance of good communication with clients and meant that if they have good relationships with clients, a bad behaviour from the consultant will not harm them as badly. “Since it is people it is, like it is not hard to handle with some nice communication and like - we fix it together. It's like, it is almost never a problem.”. 6. Discussion This thesis set out to answer the question “How does employees' daily HR activities contribute to the performance of employer branding?”. In this study we have shown that employees' everyday HR activities are employer branding performances and thus have a performative aspect. Alphas employees always represent and are the employer brand. To work with HR practices of attracting and recruiting, onboarding and retaining and managing and supporting is equal to working with employer branding. HR practices involve daily HR activities that all 47 employees at Alpha do, such as building relationships, participating in meetings, having company presentations etc. The analysis of data shows that performance of employer branding is practised in communication through and via the daily HR activities. Employer branding needs a receiver, an audience, someone to interpret and react to the employer brand. It is performed and thus practised when meeting audiences, which can be colleagues, consultants, client representatives, friends or oneself. When an employee gets employed at an organisation, they become an organisation representative and its face outwards of the company employer branding. In this study employer branding is investigated in the contextual setting of daily HR activities in a consulting company. The study contributes to research in three ways, first to the phenomenon of employer branding, second to managerial and practical implications of employer branding and third, in the use of Goffman's theatre metaphor applied on organisations. Our first research contribution is to the field of employer branding by challenging previous perspectives on the phenomenon. Researchers mutually agree that working with employer branding is important by illustrating its effects and with suggestions of what to do (Chhabra & Sharma, 2014; Cascio, 2014; Kumar et al., 2021; Maheshwari et al., 2017; Hadi & Ahmed, 2018). A commonly shared perspective is to perceive employer branding as external tools or specific strategies to implement (Maheshwari et al., 2017; Hadi & Ahmed, 2018; Chhabra & Sharma, 2014; Reis et al., 2021). Some researchers suggest that employer branding should be co-created and integrated to the degree that it is lived in the organisation (Ind, 2014; Itam et al., 2020). But few have studied how employer branding is practised in reality. This study answers this by illustrating that employer branding is not something external or a tool but it is practised in employees everyday working tasks. In daily HR practices such as attracting and recruiting new employees, employer branding is practised by the employees presenting the company employer brand by for example showing their personal front. The personal front contributes to the employer branding by showing the audience how the employees present and perform on frontstage. Hence, different HR practices and activities contribute to employer branding in different ways. By using the performativity perspective (Diedrich et al., 2013) and Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor illustrates that employer branding cannot be narrowed down to something specific, it is more than that. It is embedded and practised in all employees' daily HR activities. The concept of employer branding has been broadened and exemplified how it is practised by this framework. It illustrates employer branding as more inclusive than 48 individual employer branding strategies. To implement employer branding strategies and activities as tools to affect people's perception of an employer is not wrong. However, we consider it too simplistic to see the phenomenon in itself as a sole, outside activity, unconnected to the business, its employees and their work. Using this perspective, combining the performativity perspective (Diedrich et al., 2013) and Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor, it helps highlight how and that employer branding is performed all the time, by everyone. The results have shown that doing specific employer branding activities, are important but it also is practised and co-created, through meetings with both external and internal individuals. Even when employees themselves may not know it, they are actors and always representing the employer branding. For example, even outside of work as illustrated with the keychain and the kiosk or with the consultant unauthorised wearing a client firm's old jacket. Beyond that when internal employees build relationships with teachers before activities, which not only gave Alpha exclusive access but also made one teacher engaged in emphasising and strengthening the employer branding to students. These HR activities are part of Alphas daily work and can be seen as employees going in and out of performances. This constant representation of employer branding is possible to connect to other organisations, workplaces and sectors as well. This case study has shown that employer branding is practised through performances that are linked to each other. It has shown that preparations and backstage have as much function and importance as the performance in itself. Performances are naturally and continuously occurring in employees' work and are found to take energy and effort. Three HR practices were found as central in this case study, where internal employees try to attract, retain and educate actors of employer branding. All employees are actors of employer branding due to viewing employer branding as a performative aspect. The HR practices are practised through performances to audiences and actors, which sometimes are the same and in other situations audiences and actors can simultaneously be both. This is extra clear with the HR practice of managing and supporting consultants, when consultants are both actors who represent Alpha's employer branding to the client whilst also being an audience to the consultant manager's efforts and performances to make them as good actors as possible for Alpha. Even though employer branding cannot be separated from employees' everyday work, it can be steered and affected in those activities. Thus, this new perspective of perceiving the phenomenon of employer branding still acknowledges the importance and managerial implications for managers and people working with HR practices. 49 Our second contribution regards the managerial and practical implications that come with this new perspective. As a reminder, this study has not evaluated the case company's efforts in employer branding but investigated what they are doing. The results have shown that employer branding is practised and integrated with all employees’ daily work. This knowledge is valuable for HR practitioners and managers when working with employer branding. Since performances are something that all employees do all the time, employees need to live the employer branding through all actions thus making it important to have a clear cohesion. Previous research (Ind, 2014; Itam et al., 2020) has argued that managers should make their employees live the brand by integrating organisational attributes and employer branding. Chhabra and Sharma (2014) argue for the importance of keeping promises to newly recruited employees to reduce the risk of them feeling dissatisfied. By living employer branding in backstage as well allows the organisation to be perceived as trustworthy and reduces the risk of the company employer branding being perceived as a facade. Alpha’s communication and organisational manager emphasised their strive regarding this and argued for having “a red thread”. This may be even more challenging in the case of being a consultant company since it also includes conveying cohesion to consultants. Internal employees at Alpha state that it is important that consultants feel some kind of connection with Alpha, even though it is not prioritised that they identify completely with them. For example, it is also acknowledged as important that consultants adapt to client organisations. Although it is argued as important that consultants work and perform as actors of employer branding, since they are part of Alpha’s business and branding. This is found challenging for the internal employees since it is difficult to "control" consultants to live the brand when they do not share a physical workplace. The results have shown that internal employees try to “walk the talk” and to be role models in their communication and relation to everyone. Consultant managers strive to manage and support by coaching and being someone for consultants to turn to. Alpha emphasises that it is important for them to find the right people to recruit, both internal employees and consultants. The control and reach are limited; thus it is important that the right person is recruited from the start. Another implication for managers and HR practitioners is recruiting actors who want to perform as actors of the desired employer branding. In a consultant company this gets highly relevant, making consultants want to become an actor for the employer and thus perform Alpha’s employer branding. Organisational benefits were found to be extra important to present to potential candidates in the war for talent as the demand for IT consultants was high in the 50 labour market. Incentives such as further education and the added value of having a consultant manager operating as an extra individual service were emphasised. Internal employees at Alpha meant that for Alpha to be perceived as attractive they needed to be lavish and flexible. However, both internal employees and consultants stated that working as a consultant is not for everyone, it attracts people that perceive the business model of being a consultant company as a flexible and exciting way to work. Alpha needs to balance the time and money invested in consultants with its return of investment. Thus, Alpha’s employer branding stretches to everyday business and activities such as what clients to collaborate with. It was found more important that they had a wide range of clients, something to attract a lot of consultants, more than cherry picking the trend collaboration clients. Sellers at Alpha emphasised the importance of relationships when making clients choosing them as partners to collaborate with. To create the kind of relationship clients want, sellers said they adjusted their performances, something that takes time and effort. Internal employees highlighted the importance in choosing a suitable consultant more than to be selective in the choice of clients. Although, matching a good consultant to the right client is important to get and retain attractive clients that consultants want to work for. Consultants living Alpha’s employer branding at clients are important, not only because clients want to hire more consultants if they have good experiences with consultants from Alpha. Consultants also meet other consultants and perform the company employer branding on site. Therefore, they can attract even more suitable consultants since Alpha is consistently in need of new actors. As shown, all factors and activities are included in the work of employer branding. Even though not all organisations seek to attract every single person on the labour market, it is important that the perception of the organisation is overall good. Thus, HR practitioners and managers cannot seek a one-way solution when practising employer branding. It is important to remember that it is integrated in all activities and relationships, everyone always practises and represents the organisation. Thus, HR practitioners and managers need to actively work with several ways towards making employees happy with their job and want to be an organisational representative. By having a performativity perspective, employer branding was seen as a wider phenomenon and thus, the design of the main stage i.e., the office, also contributes to employer branding. The setting and its decor arguably have an impact on employer branding, as how it is interpreted as a front- or backstage by the audiences. Thus, a further discovery of managerial and practical implication is that HR also takes place in a material context. Which also 51 contributes to the illustration of employer branding not being able to be something external and separated from context. During our observations the office was always clean and representable. After the office event it was prioritised to clean and put everything in order, because the office represents the main stage who always need to be able to quickly change to frontstage. The material setting and the company employer brand needs to be coherent in a consulting company since employer branding and the personal front can be argued to be of extra importance in this type of organisation. This impact is also illustrated in material examples of misuse of branded clothes or the unconscious choice of wearing a keychain to show company belonging. Alpha strives to be modern and cutting edge of not only other consulting companies, but also in the IT industry. The location of Alpha is also favourable since it is surrounded by other IT companies and well-known brands in the building area. The sea view and the modern decor and overall style mirrors the strive of being lavish and gives added value. A tour at the office was done when welcoming new consultants, thus it is important that the office represents Alpha. The office decor is also important for internal employees who have it as their main stage and thus spend a lot of time there. The stage sets the frame of where many of their performances take place. The stage is important due to it reflects the expectations of what kind of company they strive to be perceived as. If it would not be modern or clean it would be contradictory and both audiences and employees could question the trustworthiness. The perspective of everything being employer branding, even including material aspects, might be overwhelming for practisers and organisations to handle. It might be difficult to concretize what to do and where to start in the efforts to affect the employer branding. Although this is only speculation as this has not been the aim or investigated in this study. Our third research contribution is by using and developing Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor in an organisational context. It is new to use the metaphor in relation to the performative aspect of employer branding and when applying it to a consulting company we found areas where it needed to be further developed. For example, in contrast to Goffman's (1959) restaurant description, frontstage and backstage are not indistinguishable from a physical place. This understanding has been challenged by the results of this study. If anything, the main stage, the office, can be interpreted as backstage by default. Especially since consultants are not in place if they do not have booked meetings there. In other organisations that are not consulting companies, employees will be invited backstage when they are employed - they become part of the family (Goffman, 1959). This should mean that internal 52 employees drop their act and masks and that consultants should be able to see behind the internal employees’ fronts. But consultants at Alpha are still not fully included in Alphas internal employees backstage after being employed. They may be invited to visit the physical place but upon arrival everything shifts and becomes a performance with the internal employees on frontstage. It could rather be said that consultants are one step closer to backstage than an everyday person on the street. They have more information and are part of Alpha, but they are still the audience to the internal employees and not in the space of Goffman's (1956) definition of fully being colleagues and family. This is illustrated by actions such as when internal employees adjust their front by cleaning, fixing things, go on presentation rounds and greet everyone who works at the office. Thus, we have noticed that the stages are situational. It is the situation and the context that determines what and when something is frontstage and or backstage. A stage can be temporary in the sense that the everyday workplace and backstage can be given a makeover and become frontstage. In everyday activities and at the office it becomes clear when, for example, consultant managers and recruiters go in and out of front- and backstage when doing onboarding introductions, regular meetings, company presentations etc. They can sit in the same physical place as before and after but move psychically between front- and backstage. They prepare, put on their costume, fix their personal front and afterwards they breathe out, as shown for example when a consultant manager reflects "you get tired of this, you get tired of your own voice". This also applies in the same way when doing digital meetings. Further discovered is that the stage is movable, it may be in a queue in a kiosk, at a school or in the everyday meeting room. This developed version of Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor can be used in coming research and accounts for the nuances and complexity of organisational structures such as for example consulting companies or staffing agencies. The usage of Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor can be valuable to analyse organisations in general and when investigating phenomenon as employer branding in specific. In this study it has provided the possibility of investigating how employer branding is practised by analysing what the employees are doing. Although, as always when using frameworks and metaphors they come with their limitations. No metaphor or theory is all-inclusive, all explaining or necessarily cancelling each other out. Organisations have previously been described by using metaphors as being cultures, machines, brains, organisms or theatres (Alvesson, 2002). Thus, we do not argue that Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor, or even our developed version of the metaphor, is all explaining when investigating how employer 53 branding is practised. Goffman focuses on aspects such as behaviour and interactions, while there of course are other important aspects of practising employer branding to acknowledge that the metaphor does not capture. Although we have found the metaphor useful for investigating the nuances of what is happening, such as clearly highlighting when employees are preparing for a performance and when they are performing the company employer branding. It illustrates that employer branding is always practised by everyone. Interviews were done with consultants in this study, but further observations of their work at clients or more comprehensive data collection was. If conducted this could have given a deeper understanding of how consultants perform and act when being at client firms. Thus, future research could investigate how the HR practice of managing and supporting consultants affects consultants’ performance of employer branding at client firms. Future research could therefore investigate this further to deepen the analysis. The finding of material and contextual aspects being part of HR work can be further investigated in future research as it is not found possible to separate material HR aspects without the context it operates in when investigating employer branding. This study is conducted as a case study and by that is limited to the specific context. A consulting company has a specific business structure where employer branding is central, therefore it would be interesting to do a comparative study in other sectors and industries. 7. Conclusion In contrast to previous research which focuses on employer branding effects and strategies on how to achieve best results, this study focuses on how employer branding is practised and performed through different HR practices. It should be noted that we have not investigated whether Alpha’s employer branding activities were successful or not. To get an in-depth understanding of how employer branding was practised at Alpha, data was collected through both interviews and observations. By applying a performativity perspective, employer branding has been taken as a given phenomenon (Diedrich et al., 2013) and by applying Goffman's (1959) theatre metaphor the results have shown that employer branding is practised through different HR practices and performances by and for different actors and audiences. The first HR practice is about attracting and recruiting new actors. The second HR practice is onboarding 54 and retaining the actors. The third HR practice is about managing and supporting the behaviour of the actors. Employer branding is practised in all these HR practices through their daily HR activities, through multiple performances by actors i.e., the employees. In contrast to Goffman's (1959) description of the stage and the setting being indistinguishable from the specific location. The results have shown that the stage is situational, and that one place quickly can move from being back- to frontstage depending on a performance occurring. The results have also shown that the stage is movable, with actors being able to perform outside the office e.g., at school presentations but also outside work in a kiosk queue. The performances are being prepared in backstage and performed at frontstage. The actors are continuously moving to and from the different stages and thus stages are situational, and dependent on context. The performances at frontstage are in the spotlight of employer branding and take energy and effort. However, preparations in backstage are just as important as being able to practise and laying the basis of the performance at frontstage. Thus, employer branding is always practised by everyone. This study contributed with three main scientific contributions. First, it challenges previous studies on employer branding by studying how employer branding is practised in reality with the conclusion that it is practised all the time by everyone. Our second contribution is that this new perspective comes with practical and managerial implications. Employer branding is lived and integrated in all parts of an organisation which managers and HR practitioners need to acknowledge when working with employer branding. Even material HR aspects cannot be separated when working with employer branding but would also need to be integrated. 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Main section - How do you work to make the consultants feel that they are/ want to be part of Alpha? - Can you describe the relationship between you as a consultant manager/seller/recruiter/CEO/HR/Communication and organisational manager, the client and the consultant? - How do you introduce new consultants to the company? - How often do you meet with the candidates/consultants/consultant manager/clients? How often do you have contact? - How do you prepare for a candidate interview/consultant/client meeting? - Do you have any examples of situations where you have been adjusting your work to satisfy the consultant/client? - Have you experienced that a consultant has been behaving “badly” at the clients? Can you tell us about this, what happened? - What do you do to represent Alpha in meetings with others? (clothes, tone mode, etc.) - What do you believe that the consultants appreciate most with Alpha? 60 - Is it something the consultants are dissatisfied with? How do you handle it? - Can you tell us about the monthly newsletter and the educational package? - What kind of activities do you work with to contribute to being perceived as an attractive employer/partner to consultants and clients? - What do you think is important when being a consultant manager at a distance? Pros and cons? - What are your thoughts about finding consultants that represent Alpha to its clients? - What are your thoughts about finding clients that represent Alpha? Final section - Do you have anything to add? 61 Appendix B Consent form Information to participants about the student Master project Employer Branding in a consulting company (working title) The aim of this project is to investigate how actors such as managers and HR employees in a consulting company are communicating and constructing the company employer brand. The subject is interesting because it contributes to a wider perspective of the concept employer brand as we explore an alternative theoretical angle to the concept. The study is a student project and will result in a thesis within the Master Program in Strategic Human Resource Management and Labor Relations at the University of Gothenburg. The study is conducted independently by the students Alice Tennmark and Amilia Bliding, under the supervision of Ola Bergström Professor in Management and organisation and the Vice-Dean at the school of Business, Economics and Law. Please see further contact info below. The project adheres to the key ethical principles of the Swedish Research Council for research in social science research. Information about research ethics for participants please see below. Data Collection The data collection consists of observations and interviews that are recorded with the permission of the participant. Voluntary participation and non-disclosure Participation is voluntary and confidential. Participants can choose to cancel their participation at any time and have a right to withdraw from the study should they wish. Unauthorized individuals will not have access to the material and participants involved in the project are covered by professional secrecy. Personal names are not registered, and participants will be given a pseudonym and exchanged for fake names when 62 interviews are transcribed and analyzed. This also applies to organizations that wish to be given a pseudonym. Participants decide when it is suitable to meet and participation takes place on research participants' terms. Handling of collected material Material such as recordings and notes are kept locked away on password protected computers and are only available to authorized researchers. Some type of material, interviews, notes, etc. will be transcribed to the computer. In the final thesis, extracts from interviews may be cited and given a pseudonym [e.g., a fake name]. The collected material and interview transcriptions will not be used for any purpose other than scientific research and for teaching purposes under the conditions described herein. The results may also be presented in a scientific article or report. Interview files will be erased after the conclusion of the project. Results and publication The results of the study will be published in the form of a Master thesis completed on 3/6 2022. All participants will be able to read the final master thesis. Participants are welcome to attend the future presentation of the project 3/6 2022. For questions and further information, please contact: Alice Tennmark Phone: 0706368384 E-mail: alice.tennmark@gmail.com Amilia Bliding Phone: 0761910063 E-mail: gusblidam@student.gu.se 63 Responsible Supervisor Ola Bergström Titel: Professor and Vice-Dean of school of Business, Economics and Law Phone: 031- 7861544 E-mail: ola.bergstrom@handels.gu.se Consent to participate I have read and fully understood the scope and implications of participating in this student MA project. Any questions I had were answered satisfactorily. ☐I agree to participate, and that the interview can be digitally recorded and agree ☐I agree to my personal details being handled as described above. Date and place Name and Signature (participant) Date and place Name and Signature (student) 64 Appendix C Information letter Hej, Vi är två studenter, Alice och Amilia, från Göteborgs universitet som läser utbildningen Master´s programme in Strategic Human Resource Management and Labour Relations. Vi är nu inne på vår sista termin som går ut på att vi ska skriva vår uppsats och vi har fått tillåtelse att få skriva den med hjälp av Alpha. X känner de flesta av er redan till i och med att hon arbetar deltid som rekryterare på Alpha. Y kommer ni förhoppningsvis få lära känna under vårens gång. Vår uppsats kommer fokusera på hur arbetsaktiviteter i den dagliga verksamheten bidrar till skapandet av en attraktiv arbetsplats och företagets varumärke. Därför önskar vi att få vara med er under vissa aktiviteter, t ex på möten, företagspresentationer etc samt att ibland bara vara närvarande på kontoret för att kunna följa vad som görs och varför. Vi önskar även att få genomföra en del intervjuer med er för att få höra era reflektioner och tankar kring ert dagliga arbete. Vår tanke är även att involvera en del konsulter. Vi vill poängtera att syftet inte är att utvärdera varken er som personer, ert arbete eller organisationen i sin helhet utan istället bidra till forskningen kring employer branding utifrån ett helt nytt perspektiv. Men med det sagt så hoppas vi även att ni ska kunna dra lärdom av detta. Vi vill även poängtera att företaget och alla personer som väljer att delta kommer att vara anonyma. Det är också helt frivilligt och vi kommer berätta mer om detta under vår första träff. Mvh, Amilia Bliding & Alice Tennmark 65