Beyond Work-Family Balance: Are Family-Friendly Organizations More Attractive?

This study endeavours to investigate the effect of family-friendly practices (FFPs) on organizational attractiveness. Using a policy-capturing research design, we tested the distinct effect of four FFPs (i.e., on-site child care; generous personal leaves; flexible scheduling; and teleworking) on applicant attraction. We also tested the effect of organizational reputation and candidates' desire for segmentation. Our results indicate that FFPs do have a main effect on attractiveness. More specifically, the two scenarios that received the highest scores on attractiveness were personal leaves and flexible scheduling. Contrary to expectations, we did not find a significant "Desire for segmentation x Family-friendly practices" interaction. As expected, corporate reputation does have a significant main effect of attractiveness. Implications for research and practice are discussed.