INTRODUCTION

During the last two decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has arisen as one of the
significant and essential practices for business organisations. CSR entails all those efforts
and activities on the part of business organisation which are beyond its immediate interest or
direct gain. CSR is aimed at both the internal and external stakeholders, including employee
and environment. With strategic CSR in its arm, the organisation tries to establish itself as a
conscious and concerned corporate citizen by contributing towards the sustainability of
value for its all stakeholders. The CSR sphere includes an organisation betterment of the
corporate and social lives of all concerned through a wide variety of welfare and
developmental activities. By undertaking various CSR activities, companies try to preserve
the physical environment; provide better work conditions; ensure fair salary and benefits to
their employees; take care of the wealth of their shareholders and gives back to the society.
Along with CSR activities, organisations also maintain a balance between their business
operations and societal contribution (Vallaster et al., 2012).

Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR as commonly called, is an idea or a notion of having

an inherent intent for doing good to all those involved with and/or affected by, directly or
indirectly, the operations of an organisation and in the process, seek satisfaction in the
performance of social obligations besides, drawing the attention of and mileage from all
concerned the stakeholders including the environment. CSR as a concept includes
maintaining and establishing the long lasting relationships with the stakeholders for the
benefit of all who are connected with the organisation in any form, showing commitment
towards them and creating wealth by adopting appropriate business practices and strategies.
CSR is thus beyond charity or mere donations. CSR is an initiative towards the betterment of
all those who contribute for the organisation. It is not limited to the proximate stakeholders
such as investors, vendors and customers rather CSR activities are implemented to advance
the social and environmental good. CSR as a practice involves utilization of all available
resources at the disposal of an organisation in a sustainable manner to further economic,
social and environmental interests by integrating the respective concern into its business
processes and strategies. And above all, CSR voyage rides on the waves of volunteerism.

The Employer brand is considered as a distinct image of any product or service that is
carried by customers or other stakeholders. It is a simple way of showing or conveying the
value of a product or service. Similarly, employer branding is the unique way to project the
specific value of an employer with an objective of attracting the potential candidates. It is an
important tool in the management of HR used by HRM to focus on existing and future
employees. discipline for the promotion of products and the company. Gradually the concept
has been applied in HRM for talent attraction and retention on similar line of marketing to
attract & retain customers. are interchangeably used in HR to connote an employer value
proposition. However, it differs from the generally understood management (Backhaus &
Tikoo, 2004) and was first coined by Ambler and Barrow the1990s, has been extensively
used by researchers & practitioners alike. As a concept, it can be described as the
organizational perception from the perspective of internal employees and external
stakeholders including prospective candidates, clients, and customers. Employer branding,
as a process, is a talent management technique or a strategic HR tool to attract and retain the
talent The core capital (human resource) is becoming increasingly critical for organisation to
acquire and retain, and hence the need for the development of an appropriate approach and
strategy to attract the potential candidates and motivate existing employees to continue
working with the organisation. Besides many other tools and technique, the process of
employer branding is being extensively used by large business organisations for talent
attraction and retention as well. Employer branding portrays the positive image of a firm as
an employer to prospective employees whereas, 1 CSR can help in engaging, motivating,
retaining internal and attracting external employees as it has been found to build image and
enhance trust among all stakeholders including employees. The purpose and objectives of
CSR and Employer Branding being the same in many aspects both intersect at multiple
points and can thus complement each other. CSR aids employer branding and in turn, helps
in HR sustainability. As the requirement of desired (skilled & competent) human resource is
becoming more and more critical, there is a need for corporate to establish itself as an
employer of choice. This is possible with the help of employer branding aimed at 41 the
potential employees whereas CSR can help an employer in the achievement of this objective
as it has an impact on attraction, motivation, and retention. At organizational level, CSR can
be an important factor in influencing the success of an employer besides the employee, being
the most important resource and integral part of the company as they possess the required
skill and competencies to ensure the operational success of the organisation. Employees are
valuable assets which are hard to replace and thus the differentiating resource to have a
decisive impact on the success of a company (Stotz & Wedel-Klein, 2013). The process of
employer branding involves representing of the employer brand to the target group of
potential employees to create a competitive edge for the company (Brast et al., 2017).
Developing and communicating the employer value position (EVP) is an important task for
employer branding (Brast et al., 2017). The EVP defines the characteristics of the brand and
communicating it to the target group of future employees is equally important (Brast et al.,
2017). The success of an organisation is immensely impacted by practices of employer
branding. According to the internal perspective, it means that worthy talent is already
employed and by the external perspective, it means that the future talent keeps coming from
outside. The working of Human Resource professionals along with the branding and
marketing experts is very important for employer branding. After aligning interests with the
visions of companies, plans must be made to undertake strategies like employer value
proposition, re-engineering of culture, company positioning, corporate branding, etc. that
enhance brand equity and loyalty as it plays an effective role in attraction and retention of
good talent. CSR plays a positive role in every part of employer branding. Most importantly
it helps in attracting and retaining of employees. In a survey in 2014, Nielsen found that
67% of employees prefer to work for a socially responsible employer. Another landmark
international study by the Society for Human Resource (SHRM, 2007 as cited in Strandberg,
2009). All these studies underline the importance of CSR for employees and consequently
for employer branding.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been studied by many researchers in the past,
working in the field of management and social sciences where relevant antecedents and
consequences have been identified by them such as organizational sustainability, brand
image or reputation, corporate branding, and long-term profitability, etc. Though it has
already been determined in the existing body of knowledge or literature that CSR positively
influences Employer Branding, no such studies have yet been carried out involving these
variables and multiple business sectors.
The present study fills the above gap. The rationale of the study is to establish the
relationships among CSR, and EB from the perspective of applied research.
The study, in the context of the select organisation, determines the extent to which CSR
influences EB and, also the extent to which EB mediates between CSR. Further, the study is
aimed at critical investigation and analysis of the concepts and practices of Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) and Employer Branding (EB) made up of Employee Engagement (EE)
and Talent Management (TM) in select organisations before interpreting the association and
influence of CSR on the dependent variables.
The study shall help the similar organisations in adopting the best practices and proposed
framework would enable them to create a benchmark for themselves. The study shall also
help the academicians and researchers interested in the domain of CSR and its possible
contribution towards the effectiveness of an organisation. The study shall, in the process,
add significant literature on select variables and
2 their inter-relations, and open more avenue
of future research in the area.
IMPLICATION
In this era of cut-throat competition, companies are focusing not only on attracting the best
talent but on retaining the required ones as finding an appropriate replacement for the talent
lost after development is not only difficult but also a costly affair both in terms of time and
efforts besides the finance involved. For developing successful strategies to attract and retain
the talent, companies have to integrate their HR practices with the corporate vision and
objectives. One of the most important strategic move towards best HR practices has been
claimed as use of CSR (Cohen et al., 2017), which contributes in attracting and retaining the
best employees for an organisation.
This study goes one step further and connects CSR with HRS (Human Resource
Sustainability). It is revealed by this study that there is a significant and positive relationship
between CSR and HRS. This relationship gets further strengthened by the mediating role of
EB. The findings of the study have certain important implications for the CSR and HR
practitioners. The study indicates the importance of extensive CSR practices for building a
robust and long-lasting employer branding. CSR has always been considered as an important
and integral part of the employer branding (Carlini, 2015). Further, CSR contributes directly
and indirectly (through employer branding) to HRS (employee engagement and talent
Management). The outcome of the study reflects that the firms now focus on maintaining a
high level of CSR to ensure high brand image of the organisation among existing and
potential employees and finally to ensure HR sustainability by way of enhanced employee
engagement and talent management.
The major implication of the study is that CSR is not only an important ingredient in the
recipe of employer banding for external stakeholders to ensure a higher branding quotient
but also for the internal stakeholder - the employee, undeniably the most important asset an
organisation can possess and harness, to contribute to their retention by ensuring a higher
level of engagement and development. However, to be specific, the implications of this
study can be conveniently grouped and described as under:
I. Theoretical Furtherance of conceptual clarity, especially on HR sustainability, and
substantial addition to the literature on relations and interdependence of variables involved
(CSR, EB, and HRS-EE & TM).
II. Practical/Managerial Revealing of under-utilized areas of CSR (for brand building,
employer branding, employee engagement and retention) should make serious players to
stop for a while and review their strategy to reach the goal post. Hence, both HR and CSR
must work in tandem.
III. Societal The very premise of CSR is community orientation or society centered. CSR is,
in essence, an effort to improve or maintain better relations between a firm and its various
stakeholders. All stakeholders as beneficiary, including employees & their families, are
different sub-sets of society and thus, every improvement in their living condition/standard
is an addition to social development for the benefit of all, including the corporate itself.
Also, the environment as a stakeholder has the highest stake in terms of social implication,
being the savior of society rather protector of lives (including flora-fauna, species and the
human) and thus, every corporate effort for its protection results in societal gain.

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SCOPE FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

CSR and Employer Branding are broad areas for research. Though there have been a large
number of studies in these fields yet, there still exists a lot of uncovered space that can be
explored further. Some of the potential areas/fields for future research can be:

 Empirical studies can be conducted to explore the extent of influence of CSR on EB

in an industry or sector with a large sample size, as this aspect remains underutilized
among companies in India, as revealed by this study, in spite of recognizing the
positive influence of CSR on employer branding (attraction & retention) but in
theory alone.
 Impact of both CSR and EB on Attraction/Retention can be empirically individually
examined on an organizational and industry basis, as this area remains almost blank
in the Indian context. Sector-specific comparative study can be conducted on
variables and their relationships, for example, Private vs. Public Sector, Mfg. vs.
Service Sector, Listed vs. Non-listed Companies, Global vs. Local Cos., Indian
MNCs vs. Foreign MNCs, etc.
 Empirical studies can also be conducted on relations between the investment on
CSR and return on investment in terms of profitability of the organisations. Also,
relationships may be determined empirically between CSR and employee retention,
employee satisfaction, and other aspects of HR sustainability (beyond employee
engagement).
 For further studies, the moderating role of demographic variables between the
relationships of CSR, Employer Branding be investigated.
 Also, the moderating role of demographic variables between individual constructs of
CSR, EB, EE and TM can be investigated in future studies.
 Studies may be conducted on the individual constructs of the CSR and EB for their
respective areas of influence on various aspects of Talent Management. A
comparative study can also be conducted for comparing the types of CSR and EB
practices followed by organisations spending CSR amount as a mandate and those
undertaking such initiatives on their own, which is without any legislative
compulsion.

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LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Every research has certain limitations. In fact, certain limitations even emerge from the
limited scope of the study itself which in turn, provide the scope for future research as seen
above. The limitations of the present study can thus be listed as:
 The study is limited to the organisations selected and therefore, the results may be
generalized only for the same and similar organisations in India.
 The main results/findings on causal relationship of variables under the study are
based on primary data. Though utmost care has been taken to collect, clean and
analyze the data yet, a minor bias on the part of respondents cannot be ruled out,
affecting the outcome on either side but marginally.
 The study is based on certain scales adopted from existing literature. There are many
other similar scales which may produce different results. However, the chances of
such a possibility are remote due to validity of scale adopted and reliability of data
collected.
 The study involves only private companies except for one service organisation i.e. a
bank the financial institution under the government control and therefore, study
cannot be said to be representative of a substantial section of CSR practising
companies in India with a long legacy of socialism.
 The study involves respondents only from the executive or managerial levels, and
not from the operational level staff or employees that form the majority of
workforce. This aspect can be considered as the most pertinent limitation as the
success of CSR depends upon the involvement of people in an organisation as much
as the organizational success on the type of talent it has, as the very genesis of this
novel idea revolves around people themselves and thus, CSR as Higher the number
of respondents with proportionate representation, better rather realistic would be the
result.