Employer Branding in the Indian Armed Forces Context: A Comparative Study of Potential Defence Applicants and Defence Employees

Indian Armed Forces are one of the largest organizations around the globe. Joining the forces is based on the voluntary service. Hence, it is important and critical for the armed forces to attract skilled talent and also to retain the current employees. This research is based on the study of instrumental and symbolic attributes related to Indian Armed Forces as an employer brand. The attractiveness of the Indian Armed Forces as an employer for potential candidates and the current employees of the armed forces is also studied. A sample of 200 people was used (150 potential candidates and 50 current employees) for studying the perceptions of potential and current employees. Results showed that there is significant difference between the perceptions of potential candidates and current employees for the instrumental functions related to Indian Armed Forces. Potential candidates were more favourable towards the instrumental function. The perceptions regarding 'symbolic functions' and 'the Indian Armed Forces attractiveness as an employer' were explained in similar proportion between the potential candidates and the current employees.