Attractive Job Advertisements? Potential Discrepancies between Managers Predictions and Preferences of Nursing Recruits

Job advertisements signal employer value propositions (EVPs) that affect the interest in a job. Such job ads are designed by managers in public organizations. But do managers who design those job ads actually know which EVPs are more or less preferred by nursing recruits? We explore discrepancies between nursing recruits and managers in their relative preference of EVPs. Two conjoint experiments were conducted with 503 Danish nursing students, who represent the recruit pool on the job market, and 103 managers from public health organizations with recruitment responsibilities. For recruits, some of the preferred propositions are more symbolic, such as daily patient contact or high social support. In contrast, managers may overestimate the relative importance of some instrumental propositions, such as low salary or temporary position. We discuss the implications of comparing predictions of managers to recruits’ perceptions, researching multi-incentive settings, and understanding symbolic and instrumental propositions in job ads.