Samenvatting

Demographic change, generational shifts and fierce competition on the labour
market present companies with major challenges and make it difficult for them to
attract and maintain suitable personnel (Bundesagentur für Arbeit 2019, 5). The
demographic change is already far advanced in Europe and has a significant influence on the European labour market. More precisely, declining population figures and birth rates are leading factors of this progressive change (European Commission 2020, 9 ff.). In addition to that, the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation is supposed to leave a big hole behind, because more employees are entering retire ment than young people coming through to replace them Statistisches Bundesamt 2021). This impending shortage of qualified academic specialists and managers poses a challenge above all for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) because these companies often have fewer financial resources and are inferior in the “war for talents” due to their often perceived lack of attractiveness in comparison to large companies (KOFA 2019). In addition, many SME are often not as well-known as large companies although several of them operate internationally and some are also world market leaders in their field. Employer branding is therefore gaining in importance, especially for SMEs. In order to position themselves as an attractive employer, companies need to know which factors play a decisive role in the choice of future employer. The needs and views of the young target groups should be in the focus. This means young employees who have just entered the labour market or students and pupils who will do so in the coming years. These young people belong to the so-called generations Y and Z. They have completely different values, norms and expectations than previous generations. Companies need to adapt to these changes in their recruiting process. Only if companies appear attractive in the eyes of these target groups, they will be competitive in the ‘war for talents’ in the future. Therefore, this paper analyses the preferences in job search of students in the euregio rhine-meuse-north.
After this brief introduction, the following chapter will explain the research
problem, research aim and research approach of this study. Chapter 3 presents
some theoretical considerations before chapter 4 continues with a description of
the methodological approach of the study. The fifth chapter provides the results
of the research and discusses them. Finally, a conclusion completes the paper.