It’s a match! Aligning employer branding and corporate real estate management

Purpose This study aims to provide insights into using corporate real estate (CRE) to enhance employer branding success. Therefore, different employee groups are identified according to their social, economic and ecological perception and assessment of CRE as well as their workplace-related needs. Design/methodology/approach Principal component analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and analysis of variance are applied using cross-sectional data from n = 937 German office workers. Findings The clustering results reveal a cluster differentiation according to the social, economic and ecological CRE dimensions. Furthermore, examining workplace-related needs reveals high importance of productivity-enhancing attributes for the social cluster, status-related attributes for the economic cluster and attributes related to biophilic design for the ecological cluster. Aligning employees’ needs with workplace attributes offered can strengthen the employer branding success. Originality/value The study adds an interdisciplinary approach to previous research on the relationship between CRE and employer branding, incorporating both corporate real estate management (CREM) and human resource management (HRM). Insights from this study can support CREM in creating a fit between (potential) employees and the workplace-related needs to contribute to employer branding success.