Factors Affecting Job Announcement Competitiveness on Job Listing Websites

Recruitment as a Human Resource Management function is seen as the factor influencing the development of a competitive advantage. Merely a moment in the online environment can determine whether a potential job candidate responds to a job offer, and thus factors influencing the candidate’s attention also influence the employer’s competitiveness. The paper aims to determine factors that affect job pursuit intentions ( JPI) in the job listing websites environment based on the evaluation of a particular job offer that has attracted the respondent. Data was collected from a randomly selected sample of 412 Czech (CR) and Slovak Republic (SR) university students (effective response rate 29.11 percent). Multiple linear regression was used to determine independent variables to help explain the response. Two models were constructed: the first model contained all suspected variables (explaining the variance of 34.59 percent); the second model also contained their second-degree combinations (explaining the variance of 40.23 percent). The results showed that informativeness about salary and benefits (ISB), employer attractiveness (EA), informativeness about employee responsibilities (IER), as well as informativeness about work-life balance (IWLB) significantly affected job pursuit intentions ( JPI) in both models. The second model revealed that the attractiveness of content (CA) also contributes to explaining variance by this factor’s affecting of the attractiveness of the employer (EA). The study extends the research into job pursuit intention into the online environment, with empirical validation of the models showing the mechanisms and conditions through which the selected variables affect job pursuit intention. The conclusion also offers suggestions for future work that can identify and more deeply describe factors which attract job candidates.


INTRODUCTION
Today the labor market can be characterized as a candidate's market with a strong demand for employees. As the market is becoming more competitive, identifying suitable employees from the pool of candidates is an increasingly demanding task (Sander & Teh, 2019;Malega et al., Although recruiting through a company or jobs listing web site shares many similar characteristics with more conventional recruitment techniques, there are also some differences. For instance, websites allow communicating practically unlimited information about the company in various forms (e. g. plain text, images, audios, videos, animations, links) (Allen et al., 2007). Job seekers are in this way led to seek more extensive information about an employer (Ghielen et al., 2018) simply because it is so easy and convenient to do so in the online environment. Nevertheless, this may not be the best strategy for employers, mainly because of the glut of information on the internet (as well as information overload in the environment general) which easily distracts candidates and limits their attention. Therefore, organizations need to focus on publishing the right information at the right time to the right candidates.
Another challenge is that job listing websites provide potential job seekers with the opportunity to easily compare several job offers. They can then choose one that best matches their qualifications and needs. (Braddy et al., 2006). This possibility of comparison again further highlights the need for companies to prepare attractive offers.
Despite the widespread use of the job listing websites for recruitment purposes, little is known about how job seekers process and evaluate the information presented (Gregorka et al., 2020;Hinojosa et al., 2015;Priyadarshini et al., 2019;Shahbaz et al., 2019). Exactly which information is best to stimulate a candidate's job pursuit intentions ( JPI) must be determined. In order to address the mentioned research gaps in the existing literature, the study aims to determine factors that affect job pursuit intentions ( JPI) in the job listing websites environment.
The paper has the following structure. Firstly, it discusses the literature on job pursuit intention. This is followed by the methodology section, which explains the research context as well as the methods of data collection and analysis. In the section which follows a discussion of the results will be presented as well as the implications for HRM literature and practice. Finally, the paper concludes with suggestions for future research directions.

Job pursuit intentions (JPI)
Job pursuit intentions ( JPI) can be defined as the willful act of taking active steps to gain indepth knowledge about the organization, establish closer contact with it, and to arrange a job interview (Aiman Smith et al., 2001), or as Arijs et al. (2018), the process of starting to consider a particular organization as the right place to seek and secure employment. Job pursuit intentions ( JPI) in the early recruitment stage refer to the range in which persons looking for a job attempt to find out career-useful information about the potential employer (Beenen & Pichler, 2014), or the applicant at least has the desire to be included in the organization's list of potential job candidates (Chapman et al., 2005). Moreover, persons who would like to work for an organization will also try to actively acquire more profound knowledge about the organization to better succeed in selection procedures (Hinojosa et al., 2015).
According to Highhouse et al. (2003), the assessment of affective responses to organizational recruitment messages is based on the assumption that these responses can be generalized to actual organization choice. In contrast with organization attractiveness as such, intentions move beyond passivity, and they thus will likely be limited to a selection of a smaller subset of potential employers.
Published researches in the recruitment domain have revealed several independent variables that have been used to assess applicant reactions to the employment opportunity in the online environment. The findings can be in principle split into two groups. The first group of scholars declares that job seeker intention cannot be arbitrarily increased or forced by immediate recruitment campaigns; intention depends mostly on employer attractiveness (EA). The second group considers the more specific the information provided to the applicant during recruitment as resulting in higher job pursuit intentions ( JPI). In the second group, we can also include works studying the impact of wording or visual attractiveness on job pursuit intentions ( JPI), e.g., humorous text; a personal, friendly and sociable way of communication; as well as the use of multimodal features such as text, graphics, video, and sound.

Employer attractiveness (EA)
The current debates about employer attractiveness (EA) reveal that it can be defined based on the benefits a potential employee expects to receive when working for a particular organization (Berthon et al., 2005). This factor can be operationalized as an attitude or influence on the perception of the organization "as a desirable entity with which to initiate some relationship" (Aiman Smith et al., 2001). Employer attractiveness (EA) thus refers to the extent of how potential applicants perceive organizations as the right places to work ( Jiang et al., 2011;Rynes et al., 1991). In the context of this study, employer attractiveness (EA) can be defined as benefits that are related to the firm's reputation or result from belongingness to a specific group of companies (e.g., sector, familiarity with an organization, reputation, organizational culture). Peiffer et al. (2018) confirmed assumptions relating to the relationship between the sector and the organization's distorted images and job pursuit intentions ( JPI). According to them, job pursuit intentions ( JPI) for a specific organization can be predicted by the perception of the organization's and sector's warmth and competence. Specifically, the sector's warmth and competence are essential in the for-profit sector, while the organization's and sector's warmth and competence affect job pursuit intentions ( JPI) in the non-profit sector. Arijs et al. (2018) indicate that also the family business employer brand's instrumental and symbolic components can affect the intent to pursue a job in a family firm, too.
As websites are fast, becoming an essential part of recruiting, Allen et al. (2007) tested the critical components of traditional recruitment theory, such as the image of organizations, in the online environment. Contrary to the first group of scholars, they suggest that the impact of an organization's image in the online environment on the perceived attractiveness of an organization can be overcome by exposing it to the workplace's reality.
Wang (2013) reveals that the beliefs or opinions generally held about an organization are positively related to job pursuit intentions ( JPI) and willingness to recommend the organization. He also argues that job seekers' intentions can be improved in the long term by the social actions of their target organization. Kumari & Saini (2018) state that the symbolic feature of employer attractiveness (familiarity of the firm), which is known to potential applicants very early in the recruitment process, had a significant influence on how positively the participants rated the job offer. Baum & Überschaer (2018) confirmed that the use of recognized awards in the recruiting process improves applicants' job pursuit intentions.
Regarding the influence of organizational culture on job pursuit intentions ( JPI), the results indicate the differences between men and women considering the choice of which organization they would like to work for. Men are more likely to choose an organization with a competitive organizational culture, while women instead prefer a supportive one (Catanzaro et al., 2010). In terms of externally presented values as a part of the organizational culture, several researchers have conducted research related to religious values or CSR. For example, the presentation of religious values in an organization's media communications led to lower job pursuit intentions than openly professed non-religious values (Neubert & Wood, 2019). Tsai et al. (2014) confirmed that declaring an effort to reach economic, legal, ethical, or philanthropic citizenship attracts potential people looking for a job. In another study, they also confirmed that organizations' perceived corporate credibility, positive publicity, and corporate social responsibility are positively linked to job pursuit intentions ( JPI) and word-of-mouth. These connections are mediated by organizations' attractiveness and job seekers' career expectations (Tsai et al., 2015). According to Belinda et al. (2018), online CSR information supports human resources professionals' ideas about organizations' success and provides a high-level, strategic view for attracting highly-skilled and valuable employees. Accordingly, it can be hypothesized (H1) that after viewing a job announcement in the job listing websites environment, the higher employer attractiveness (EA) will result in higher job pursuit intentions ( JPI).

The content informativeness
According to Maurer & Liu (2007), during the early recruitment phase, the amount and kind of information content (message) presented during the early recruitment stage is the most elementary design components that have to be reflected, which in practice means that mainly "richness" of available information needs to be considered, and, therefore, it is a decision as to whether the published information should be detailed or just the cursory. Also, Verwaeren et al. (2017), in their work "The Specificity of Compensation and Benefits Information in Job Advertisements," have found out that more specific compensation and benefits information (H22) results in higher job pursuit intentions, especially in situations where competitive packages are provided. Moreover, it seems that information about future remuneration and benefits is used by job applicants to form perceptions not only about remuneration and benefits appropriateness but also about broader organizational attributes.
In this context, it should be also noted that the research results suggest that Millennium workers value work-life balance more than previous generations (Yang et al., 2020). Therefore, it can be assumed (H2) that content informativeness will connect to the job pursuit intentions ( JPI), in the sense that announcements with detailed information will result in higher job pursuit intentions ( JPI).

The content attractiveness
The last group of published works deals with the impact of the job announcement mood or degree to which the employer's website provides rich information directly perceived by the human senses (Maurer & Liu, 2007) job on pursuit intentions ( JPI). For example, humor content has no impact on intentions to apply for the job. Yet, humor content intensifies willingness to share job ads, which is a valuable marketing reaction with increased importance, specifically in the social media environment (Oikarinen & Söderlund, 2016).
Potential applicants create a mental picture of what the organization is as an employer based on how organizations communicate. Attractive content is often willingly shared and disseminated in the online environment. Hence, a more personal, friendly, and sociable way of communication leads to an overall warmer perception of organizations. Further, organizations that provide more compelling information about the job offered are perceived as more competent (Carpentier et al., 2019). Therefore, it can be proposed (H3) that the content attractiveness of the online announcement (CA) affects job pursuit intentions ( JPI).

The aim, hypotheses, and variables
This study aims to determine the factors that affect job pursuit intentions ( JPI) in the job listing websites environment.
The hypotheses were formulated as follows:

Measuring the informativeness of online job announcement -independent variable
The informativeness of online job announcement was measured according to the variables such as employees' responsibilities (IER), salary and benefits (ISB), training opportunities (ITO), the security of employment (ISE), working atmosphere (IWA), work-life balance (IWLB), career opportunities (ICO).

Measuring the content attractiveness of online job announcement -independent variable
The content attractiveness of the online announcement (CA) was evaluated as the degree to which selected announcement captured respondents' interest.

Measuring the job pursuit intentions (JPI) -dependent variable
Although the definition of the job pursuit intentions ( JPI) is clear, there is no consensus on how to measure its components between the scholars. In the literature, we can mainly identify measurement approaches based on the works of Aiman Smith

Data collection process
This study used a quantitative approach through survey research. The data was collected from a sample of the Czech (CR) and Slovak Republic (SR) university students.
Firstly, the faculties with the Economics and Management field of study list was created based on the information available in the register of faculties and their study programs (CR: https:// regvssp.msmt.cz/registrvssp/; SR: https://www.portalvs.sk/sk/). The total number of students in the Economics and Management field of study was approximately 67,000 in 2019. Secondly, the faculties offering Human Resource Management subject during the winter semester (from November to December 2019) were randomly selected. The lottery method of creating a simple random sample of faculties was used. With the help of selected faculty teachers, there were identified 1,415 students. This procedure was chosen mainly due to the unavailability of the list of all students.
An email was sent to potential respondents with an invitation and instructions on how to complete the questionnaire. Respondents were also informed about the nature of the study and the intended use of the data. Four hundred and forty-seven questionnaires were returned with 412 being fully completed (effective response rate 29.11 percent). There were 53.4 percent (N=220) questionnaires completed by Czechs and 46.6 percent by Slovaks (N=192). As for the to gender, 42.96 percent of respondents (N=177) were men, and 57.04 percent (N=235) were women. For more extensive sample data, see Table 1. Based on the previous literature, the questionnaire consisted of 24 questions divided into four parts. The first part of the questionnaire measured employer attractiveness (EA) -9 questions, second part informativeness and attractiveness of online job announcement -8 questions, and third part the job pursuit intentions ( JPI) -3 questions. A seven-point Likert based scale was used to measure constructs in the first three parts of the questionnaire. The fourth part of the questionnaire included questions about nationality, gender, generation of the respondents, and the university status (public or private) -4 questions. The questions are listed in the above section, for each variable separately.
The respondents' task was to select the exciting job announcement on the job listing sites (CR: https://www.jobs.cz/, SR: https://www.profesia.sk/) and to evaluate it based on the questions (indicators) presented in the questionnaire.
Before the administration of the survey, the questions were distributed to several doctoral students. Some revisions of translation to the Czech and Slovak languages were made based on their feedback.

Analysis
Multiple linear regression was used to determine which independent variables affect the response or help explain the response. Before the models were constructed, the multiple linear regression assumptions were checked. First, performed analyzes confirmed the linear relationship between the independent variable ( JPI) and all offer dependent variables (EA, IER, ISB, ITO, ISE, IWA,  IWLB, ICO, CA). Second, multivariate normality was checked, and it was found that errors between the observed and predicted values were normally distributed. Third, variance inflation factors (VIF) were computed to detect that there was no collinearity in the data (Table 3 and 4). Fourth, there was no clear pattern in the residuals' distribution; and thus, the homoscedasticity assumption was met. Fifth, the autocorrelation test was not performed because the data did not come from a time series.
Instead of fitting separate models for each predictor, the first model included all predictors, and the second model also second-degree predictors combinations. The least-squares approach was used to estimate the values of the model coefficients. All calculations were performed in SAS JMP version 15. Table 2 illustrates the respondents' responses to the ten items studied in the instrument. Based on the mean scores, it can be identified that Job pursuit intentions ( JPI) have the highest mean score (5.26). However, it should be noted that this value is mainly caused by the design of the study, as it is measured based on the most interesting job announcement. It is also important to point out that this is a dependent variable in our study. From independent variables, Content attractiveness (CA) has the highest mean score of 4.99, followed by Informativeness about employees' responsibilities (IER mean score = 4.24). The lowest score appeared to be for informativeness about training opportunities (ITO mean score = 2.95), followed by Employer attractiveness (EA mean score = 3.00 Before the construction of the models themselves, differences as for the selected variables were also verified. The results show the only differences in Informativeness about working atmosphere (IWA) according to country (p-value 0.0389) and Informativeness about work-life balance (IWLB) according to gender (p-value 0.0444) are significant.

Fitting multiple linear regression models
To build the first model, we started with all predictors. The analysis showed that only Employer attractiveness (EA p-value < 0.0001), Informativeness about employees' responsibilities (IER p-value < 0.0001), Informativeness about salary and benefits (ISB p-value < 0.0001) and Informativeness about work-life-balance (IWLB p-value = 0.0066) had a significant impact on Job pursuit intentions ( JPI) (R Square = 0.34109742). Therefore, we continued without insignificant factors. As Table 3 presents, the proportion of the variance for a dependent variable that is explained by independent variables in a regression model is slightly higher (R Square = 0.34590475). According to this model, the most important factor is Informativeness about salary and benefits (ISB coefficient estimation = 0.34027165), the least important and even having a negative impact is Informativeness about employees' responsibilities (IER coefficient estimation = -0.2126448). The second model contained all predictors along with their second-degree interactions. The model was developed mainly because we doubted whether content attractiveness (CA) influences job pursuit intentions ( JPI). After the initial deletion of factors that did not affect the job pursuit intentions ( JPI) (RSquare = 0.4023739546), we built the model presented in Table 4.  The second model also confirmed that information about salary and benefits (ISB) is the salient factor that significantly affects job pursuit intentions ( JPI). This result may be related to the fact that the Czech as well as the Slovak economy both continue to be centered on employees with low wages (Habánik et al., 2019). Moreover, the findings are consistent with previous results showing that more explicit wage and benefits information leads to higher job pursuit intentions (Verwaeren et al., 2017). Even though it goes beyond our research, we dare to say that information about salary and benefits (ISB) can also affect the perception of employer attractiveness (EA) in the Czech and Slovak labor market specifically.
The results regarding the work-life balance and employee responsibilities variables are also inter-esting, with IWLB proving the third most important in the first model and fourth in the second model, and IER the fourth most important in the first model and fifth in the second model. With regards to work-life balance (IWLB), the present data are consistent with Firfiray & Mayo (2017), who found that Millennial and Gen X job seekers develop higher P-O fit perceptions for organizations, and thus assessed them as more attractive prospective employers. With these job seekers, supplement standard pay along with work-life balance in their recruitment materials compared more favorably with organizations than did supplement standard pay. Another interesting finding was that more specific information about employee responsibilities (IER) contributes to lower job pursuit intentions ( JPI).
On the other hand, the second model did not affirm that the content attractiveness of the online announcement (CA) itself contributes to the job pursuit intentions ( JPI). Still, it has been shown that this factor has indirect influence on actions taken in relation to employer attractiveness (EA). Concretely, more interesting the content is, the more attractive the employer is perceived. These additional findings are in line with Ganesan & George (2019), who found that the aesthetic features of a print recruitment ad significantly enhanced the organizational attraction and attitudes, and thereby, job seekers' application intention. Nevertheless, this factor insignificantly induced job seeker intention to apply in an indirect way (Ganesan & George, 2019).

CONCLUSION
Long term demographic trends have forced organizations to reconsider their attitudes regarding the labor market. It is not the potential candidates who compete for the job position, but that several organizations instead compete for the same employee in the labor market (Bejtkovský, 2018).
In the never-ending war for talent, organizations must increase their recruitment efforts to be seen as the employer of choice by qualified applicants (Kumari & Saini, 2018). Attracting and recruiting the right talent is a crucial differentiator in modern organizations (Shahbaz et al., 2019).
In today's digital age, many organizations use online recruitment to at least inform potential candidates about job opportunities or to enable them to apply for a job on the web (Mareschal & Rudin, 2011). In light of a growing interest in the use of social media among HR activities, this study set out to answer the question of what factors affect job pursuit intentions ( JPI) in the job listing websites environment.
The paper has drawn on the literature on job pursuit intentions ( JPI) and employer attractiveness (EA) to study the phenomenon. Based on the published work, a nine-variables model was derived and tested using multiple linear regression. Two models were constructed: the first model contained all suspected variables (explaining the variance of 34.59 percent), while the second model contained their second-degree combinations (explaining the variance of 40.23 percent).
Both models found that: employer attractiveness (EA); informativeness about employee responsibilities (IER); informativeness about salary and benefits (ISB); and H26: informativeness about work-life balance (IWLB) all contribute to explaining the variance of the attractiveness of the employer (EA). Informativeness about salary and benefits (ISB) was the most crucial factor in both models. An interesting finding was that more specific information about employee responsibilities (IER) led to lower job pursuit intentions ( JPI). We have also shown that the attractive-ness of the online announcement (CA) itself does not contribute to the job pursuit intentions ( JPI). This factor acts only indirectly by acting on employer attractiveness (EA).
This study provides several implications for human resource management theory and practice. First, at the theoretical level, it extends the research to the factors affecting job pursuit intention ( JPI) in the job listing websites environment. Second, for HR practitioners, it provides practical information about what the announcement of a job offer on job listing websites should contain in order to attract potential job seekers. However, it is also necessary to warn HR practitioners about trying to embellish the information provided, because job seekers now have access to many social media resources (e.g., independent web sites, chat rooms, and message boards) that provide additional information about potential employers (Djurdjevic et al., 2019). It is obvious that job applicants will compare these independent sources of information with the terms indicated by potential employers.
The current paper has several implications for theory and practice, although some limitations should be discussed. Data collected from university students might raise issues of generalizability to other populations. However, this demographic bias is not without justification, as young adults represent the largest group of social media users (Hoy & Milne, 2010), which makes them the most effective group in determining online habits (Youssouf Osman & Rahim, 2011). The fact that students are also future job candidates is also important. Obviously, for the above reasons students are often subjected to this type of research (Chang & Tanford (2018); Chaudhary (2019); Firfiray & Mayo (2017)). The responses to these types of questionnaires may be inaccurate due to a respondent's misunderstanding of a particular question or the effort by the respondent to be seen in the best possible light, even if the survey is anonymous (Rosenman et al., 2011).
Further research should primarily address the limitations of this work and therefore enhance this sample construction by the study of prospective employees beyond university graduates. Specifically, it could also focus on factors influencing the perception of employer attractiveness, such as an organization's prestige, i.e. it appears that organizations which feature information about their prestigious awards or labels (such as "Great place to work") are more attractive (Guillot-Soulez et al., 2019). Also, the personalization of the job announcements as a factor that attracts considerably more visual attention (Pfiffelmann et al., 2019) should also be addressed.