Signaling or experiencing: Commitment HRM effects on recruitment and employees' online ratings

Even though existing studies on website information have focused on e-commerce views such as product information and customer responses, firms and employees also frequently dispatch information on websites regarding the firms' human resource management (HRM). Using signaling theory as well as findings from strategic HRM, the present research explores the causes and effects of HRM information flow on websites. Data were collected with a longitudinal and multisource frame of two HR manager surveys and two website analyses. Path analyses using AMOS provide evidence that (1) firms implementing commitment HRM signaled more detailed HRM information on their websites, (2) firms' website signaling had a significant effect on recruitment trends as a before-experience outcome but no effect on employees' web ratings as an after-experience outcome, and (3) website ratings by employees were significantly influenced by firms' actual use of commitment HRM. A discussion of the theoretical contributions and practical implications is included.