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Conceptualising the Employment Value Proposition: The Role of the Extended Marketing Mix Drs Mark Wickham, Wayne O’Donohue and Dallas Hanson, University of Tasmania Abstract In Australia, as elsewhere in the Western world, firms are faced with the challenge of recruiting, retaining and motivating quality human resources from increasingly competitive labour markets. One response to this challenge has manifest in firms attempting to position themselves as ‘Employers of Choice’ (EOC) in their relevant industries. In order to contribute to that ongoing debate, this paper explores the application of a key element in marketing theory – the ‘extended marketing-mix’ concept – to the management of the employment relationship. Introduction In Australia, as elsewhere in the Western world, factors such as the globalisation of competition, the ‘tightening’ of skilled labour markets, advancements in technology, the growth of the knowledge economy, and the need for flexibility and expertise in the workplace have each presented strategic challenges to which firms have had to respond (Aghazadeh, 1999; Barnett and McKendrick, 2004; Harrison and Kessels, 2004; Hiltrop 2006; Rowley and Warner, 2007; Sparrow, 2007). One strategy employed by firms facing direct competition for high-quality employees has been to position themselves as an ‘Employer of Choice’ (EOC) in their respective industry (Lenaghan and Eisner, 2006; Mackes, 2005). Organisational efforts to achieve EOC status have entailed the use of ‘employer branding strategies’ that draw on marketing concepts and principles for the express purpose of effectively marketing themselves to their target labour market(s) (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004; Berthon, Ewing and Hah, 2005). Simply put, EOC strategies represent attempts to construct a unique ‘employer brand identity’ based on an ‘employment value proposition’ (EVP) that is deliberately constructed to set firm apart from competitors in some meaningful way (Herman and Gioia, 2001). The...