In todays business environment there is an increasing recognition that human resources are a valuable asset to distinguish a company from its competitors. This tendency, in combination with increasing job mobility among employees and an ongoing demographic change, has turned the labour market into a competitive arena. Employer Branding and Talent-Relationship-Management are two fairly new concepts in the area of Human Resource Management, which have the aim to differentiate companies on the labour market and to support them effectively in their endeavour to approach, acquire and retain the most talented employees. In this study, the internal and external determinants, which form an appealing employer brand are investigated. A conceptual framework is first constructed and later modified in the lights of the empirical findings gained through four conducted interviews with four large organizations. In contrast, a deeper insight in the prioritisation of different TRM elements is gained by means of a quantitative study among university graduates and international scholarship holders. The major findings outline that there is a continuous challenge in creating a level of consistency in favour of a credible employer brand message. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that a change or adoption of the employer brand in the short-term is difficult due to the culture and values of the respective organization. In addition, the employer brand plays an important role in preventing unplanned impulses, which result out of negative impacts from the business environment. The comparison of the major findings among the different groups within the quantitative study shows that the instruments ‘Information about vacancies’, ‘Scholarship’, ‘Company Workshops’ as well as ‘Exclusive Information’ are among the most valued ones in comparison with ‘Periodical Services’, ‘Personalized Websites’ or ‘Giveaways’, which most respondents do not perceive as interesting.

Micro businesses are the most common form of business in the world and they play an important role in the economic growth of every country. They are usually characterized by a lack of financial resources, which influences the management of such firms. The role of the owner manager is crucial in micro businesses and has a strong influence on every aspects of the business and one of these aspects is human resource management. Compared to the research about larger companies, the number of researches in the scope of human resource management (HRM) specifically within micro businesses is very small. Another fact which caught the attention of the authors is that the situation in Thailand regarding HRM within micro businesses remains a blank spot. This master thesis will try to provide more information about the situation on the Thai micro businesses and human resource management within them. In order to do so, a theoretical framework was created based on the literature available about human resource management within micro businesses. The second step was to interview the owners of nine Thai micro businesses and discover what their HRM practices are. After these steps we compared the literature and the data provided by the owners of micro businesses in order to find similarities and differences between the two. The conclusions of this study were that many similarities could be found between the theory chosen in our frame of reference and the reality of the nine Thai micro firms. Some differences were noticed but those could not overshadow the fact that the frame of reference was able to describe the situation of the Thai businesses. This thesis obviously evidences some limitations and recommends that more studies should be performed in order to generalize human resource management within micro businesses in Thailand.

Abstract Introduction Boarders are shrinking, the world becomes more internationalized and the globalization of society has resulted in increasing demands on universities to adjust their education to the labor market. A growing interest among Swedish students to study abroad and re-ceive an international experience has increased as well. The changes in the environment have affected organizations’ recruitment processes and how they manage their human resources. Problem Today an ordinary education is not enough, you need to have something unique, some-thing that makes you stand out in the crowd. As a student you are encouraged to study abroad, and many view this as a possibility to broaden their competence. However, it is not known how future employers value and compensate this experience. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to examine how university studies abroad are valued when recruiting white-collar workers. The ambition is to provide prospective and current stu-dents with an understanding of the employers’ view of the subject. Method The empirical data have been gathered by using a qualitative approach and face-to-face interviews have been conducted with the human resource manager at eleven medium- and large-sized organizations, located in Norrköping, Linköping, and Jönköping. Conclusions We have come to the conclusion that it is difficult to determine specific competences that are preferable in the selection of white-collar workers, however the candidate’s unique competences are somehow reflected in the personality. Organizations view the study abroad experience as rewarding for the candidates personal development and ma-turity. The university study abroad experience might not be valued higher in the future, but the more knowledge and information available, the larger are the benefits for both the organizations and the candidates.

Introduction Boarders are shrinking, the world becomes more internationalized and the globalization of society has resulted in increasing demands on universities to adjust their education to the labor market. A growing interest among Swedish students to study abroad and receive an international experience has increased as well. The changes in the environment have affected organizations’ recruitment processes and how they manage their human resources. Problem Today an ordinary education is not enough, you need to have something unique, something that makes you stand out in the crowd. As a student you are encouraged to study abroad, and many view this as a possibility to broaden their competence. However, it is not known how future employers value and compensate this experience. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to examine how university studies abroad are valued when recruiting white-collar workers. The ambition is to provide prospective and current stu-dents with an understanding of the employers’ view of the subject. Method The empirical data have been gathered by using a qualitative approach and face-to-face interviews have been conducted with the human resource manager at eleven medium- and large-sized organizations, located in Norrköping, Linköping, and Jönköping. Conclusions We have come to the conclusion that it is difficult to determine specific competences that are preferable in the selection of white-collar workers, however the candidate’s unique competences are somehow reflected in the personality. Organizations view the study abroad experience as rewarding for the candidates personal development and ma-turity. The university study abroad experience might not be valued higher in the future, but the more knowledge and information available, the larger are the benefits for both the organizations and the candidates.

One of the many tasks that an International Human Resource Management department has relates to the field of expatriation in which an employee is sent abroad to work in a foreign subsidiary. Expatriation is not a new concept, in the early modern era of expatriation after World War II, businesses were usually driven by international divisions that supervised the export issues, licensing and subsidiaries abroad. The main role of corporate human re-source department was to make it easier to select staff for foreign postings. This to find employees that were familiar with the activities and products of the company, organization, culture and also at the same time comfortable with working abroad. The purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of how three Swedish multinational companies select and train their Parent-Country National (PCN) expatriates before the in-ternational assignment in China. In order to reach the goal of our purpose, we have chosen to conduct case studies on three Swedish multinational companies that are currently operating in China, where interviews with the key persons for respective company has been made. The interviews was either conducted through phone or face-to-face. Our Frame of reference is based upon four sub-chapters in which we in the first chapter defines the concept of Expatriation followed by a brief introduction of the cultural differ-ences between Sweden and China. The third chapter deals with the different selection is-sues and the fourth chapter deals with training issues. Based on the Frame of reference, we created six major research questions in which from them we developed our interview questions. Through the Empirical Findings which was analyzed with help of the Frame of reference, we can say that most of the processes within selection and training are not as visible and clear as what it is said in literatures compared to a few Swedish multinational companies practice.

Globalisation has brought on dynamic markets and competition, and with that obliged companies to focus on long-term strategies and a greater focus on attracting, developing and retaining its employees. The present hunt for talent can be entitled as talent management, a concept that nowadays cannot be avoided. Talent management evidently not only affects companies, but also the newly graduates that are about to be employed. Students within business and economics are one affected group, since there is an increased competition for the most talented students within that field. Hence, it also concern different universities and Business Schools that offer education within the field as they are expected to provide students with certain skills before entering the working life. This leads us to an investigation of the following problem statement: How could a business student become more employable and how does a Business School respond to the requirements of the companies in the view of the war for talent? The main purpose with this study is therefore to obtain a comprehension of how newly graduates from Umeå School of Business (USBE) can become increasingly attractive among large organisations within the business world. In this qualitative study we wish to gain a deeper understanding of abovementioned issues and organisations’ talent management, and therefore we have used a hermeneutic perspective. Consequently, we have performed telephone interviews with people that are well acquainted with recruitment and human resource related issues at large companies in Sweden. The eight interviewed companies include; Öhrlings PriceWaterHouseCoopers, Sony Ericsson, Volvo Group, Nobia and Nordea, as well as three companies who requested to be held anonymous and are thereby ficticiously named: HRCompetence, CapitalBank and Consultancy AB. In addition, we arranged group interviews with personell at USBE to get an insight of whether the Business School is focusing on facets that are valued by the organisations. The scientific approach has been deductive, and the results from the empiricism has therefore been analysed together with recognised theories. The main theories used in this study regards Human Resource Management, Talent Management, Employment and Higher Education Institutions which leads us into Branding. The results of the research show that students can become more employable by developing certain characteristics and competences. The most important ones are: driving force, education, work experience, activities in parallel to studies, international experience and good grades. When it comes to the Business School and in this case USBE, it can respond to companies’ requirements by most importantly increasing its corporate and community relations and increase its marketing in order to strengthen its brand. This could be done through providing internships, develop the alumni network, find alternative channels to corporate and community relations and marketing and engaging in internal marketing.

‟Recession‟ and ‟Layoff‟ were the buzz words of late 2008. Economic slowdown and recession have hit the economy hard. At the same time people in society are getting older and the demographic profile of the population is getting increasingly top heavy, with the retirements of the 1940‟s baby boomers expected to peak in 2010. The implications of an increased proportion of old people in society have been debated for some time, but the issue has not become a pressing concern for firms until recently. The purpose of this study is to investigate „How does the economic slowdown and the demographic change affect the recruitment behavior of the firms in the region?, the region being defined as the County of Jönköping and County of Östergötland in southern Sweden. The study is based on an exploratory survey polling respondents about their willingness to employ, the effects that the economic slowdown and demographic change exert on them. The survey was conducted during November 2008. The descriptive and inferential quantitative statistical analysis of the empirical findings and sec-ondary sources draw on contemporary research in the areas of demographic change, economic theory and human resource management. Demographic change is of less importance with regards to firms' willingness to employ than ex-pected and is overshadowed by the lack of skilled and experienced labour, which makes finding a suitable employment not so difficult, even in these recessionary times, if you have the right education, qualification and/or experience. It is hard to give a definitive answer as to how large the effect of the economic slowdown on recruitment is, but it does indeed affect the firms' willingness to employ, and it has generally negative consequences for the overall size of the workforce. Nevertheless, there remains a need for employees fed by the inextinguishable calls for competence and experience. With regards to the general recruitment behaviour, the firms face a dilemma. The weak economic climate commands cost savings. But the widespread call for and concurrent lack of skilled and experienced labour, both in the firms and in the labour market, command resources to be committed to the search for applicants. Furthermore, coping with the challenges of an agediverse workforce will be one of the most important commissions for anyone dealing with human resource management issues in the future. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur den ekonomiska avmattningen och den demografiska förändringen påverkar företagens rekrytering i regionen. Region i studien är definierad som Jönköpings och Östergötlands län. Studien bygger på en enkät, utförd november 2008, angående företagens vilja att rekrytera och de effekter som den ekonomiska avmattningen och den demografikas förändringen har på den. Enkätsvaren och sekundär data analyserades med hjälp av beskrivande och jämförande statistisk analys och bygger på en teoretisk referensram hämtad från relevanta forskningskällor inom områdena demografi, nationalekonomi och human resource management. Den demografiska förändringen har mindre effekt på företagens vilja att nyanställa än vad som var väntad och är överskuggad av en kronisk svårighet att hitta utbildad och erfaren arbetskraft. Detta betyder att hitta en anställning i dessa svåra tider inte är så omöjligt som vissa personer föreslår, under den viktiga förutsättningen att man har den rätta utbildningen, de rätta kvalifikationerna eller den rätta erfarenheten. Det är svårt att ge ett definitivt svar på hur stor effekt den ekonomiska avmattningen har på företagens vilja att nyanställa. Klart är dock att den finns en generell negativ ekonomisk effekt som påverkar företagens vilja att nyanställa negativt som även orsakar en generell minskning av den totala sysselsättningen. Dock kvarstår ett behov av att anställa hos företagen på grund ut av den kroniskt höga efterfrågan på kompetens och erfarenhet. Med avseende på den generella rekryteringsbeteende hos företagen står dom inför ett dilemma. Den ekonomiska avmattningen tvingar företagen att spara pengar inom human resources. Den kroniskt höga efterfrågan och bristen på kvalificerad arbetskraft tvingar dock företagen att avvara resurser till att utveckla sin rekrytering för att hitta rätt personal och nyanställa. Företagen måste börja förbereda sig för de utmaningar och förändringar som en allt äldre befolkning innebär på området human rescource management i framtiden.

Problem: Companies are facing problems concerning the attraction and retention of talented employees, due to the shortage of individuals with competence. Employer Branding is a relatively new concept that can function as an instrument for firms to position themselves as an employer, in order to attract and retain wanted employees. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the field of Employer Branding in the context of recruitment and retaining. The study examines the questions of how and why Employer Branding is implemented in firms and what role such implementation plays in Human Resource Management, in the context of recruitment and retaining processes. Methodology: This study has been made with a qualitative approach, with a descriptive and exploratory purpose a case study approach. Data has primarily been collected through interviews at five different companies with knowledge within the area of Employer Branding. Findings: Employer Branding can be utilized both externally to attract potential employees, and internally to increase commitment and loyalty among current employees. In the context of recruitment, Employer Branding can make the process more effective. For the Employer Brand to be trustworthy and successful the consistency between the internal values and the external image is vital.

Research Question: How can a firm such as Länsförsäkringar Bergslagen utilize selection and retention methods to find and keep employees that add value to the organisation? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the process of selection and retention and how it can affect organisations’ ability to select and retain staff that perform well and are an asset to the organisation. Method: Primary information was gathered from a face-to-face interview with the chief of personnel at LFB, as well as from a follow-up e-mail interview. Secondary information was gathered from books, journals and the web. The research is designed as a case study and the approach to analyzing data is qualitative. Conclusion: From the findings the authors conclude that by using selection methods with high predictive validity such as structured interviews, cognitive and personality tests, work samples and assessment centres, while at the same time considering how these methods affect the candidates attitudes and how well they allow for the candidate and employer to exchange views, values and goals, is the way firms can utilize selection methods in order to find staff that will add value to the organisation. LFB is using all these methods, except for work samples. Of the others remaining, structured interviews is the most common in LFB. On the perspective of retention, Länsförsäkringar Bergslagen has developed a performance-based system which takes an essential role on employee motivation, where recognition by offering growth opportunities is most significant in retaining key employees but is also most difficult to be conducted in LFB as growth opportunities are limited.

In recent years, the nonprofit sector has grown and charitable organiza-tions have become more important. HRM has got a more significant role and it is no longer enough to build an organization on the perception that "doing good is good enough". Since charitable organization often have both employees and volunteers and they have different needs, goals and competence levels it is crucial to manage both groups in a suitable way in order to achieve the organizational goals. For that reason we will focus on how charitable organizations can use Human Resource Management to motivate their staff in order to get a desirable performance and a better outcome. The purpose with our research is to see how HRM is used in order to manage the volunteers and employees in a charitable organization and what consequences this de-sign has for the organization. Since previous research has not focused on both employ-ees and volunteers our research will fill an important gap and therefore our ambition is to contribute to the research society by acknowledging this phenomenon. In this research we have done a single qualitative case study of Rädda Barnen and conducted two interviews. We have discovered that both groups are managed differently in the four areas of HRM (flows, performance, involvement & development) since they have different needs, goal and competence levels. Furthermore, we found that Rädda Barnen has been struggling with retaining (and recruiting) volunteers.