Workers Avoid Companies With Bad Reputations

75% of those surveyed asserted that they would not take a job with a badly perceived company even if the applicant was unemployed.

Whether or not we believe they would actually do that is less important than the fact that so many feel that way. We know from years of research that corporate reputation influences customer purchase decisions. In the post-industrial economy, what you buy can be seen as a reflection of who you are. Brand choices are perceived as values choices more than value choices.

In that context, employees - potential and current - also believe that the company for whom they labor says something about them. The notion of simply having a job, even in this damaged economic cycle, is thought to be passe. While there is abundant evidence that finding a job is more difficult in previous decades, there are perceived to be alternatives, like starting one's own business, that might never have occurred to the majority in previous generations.

Research has demonstrated the financial link between employee alignment and corporate strategy. People want to believe. They are no longer drones, grateful any opportunity. In the same way that many with fewer advantages are opposed to taxes on the rich because they hope to be rich themselves some day, so members of the workforce hope that their work gives them meaning, status and a way of contributing to the greater good. There are a few industries, like financial services, where that instinct is sublimated to compensation by custom and culture, but that appears to not be the norm.

Understanding this and acting on it could help corporations enhance their financial and brand value. If they care to make the effort. JL

Chad Brooks reports in Business New Daily:

A company's bad public image doesn't just hurt a business's reputation with consumers, it also tarnishes it for prospective employees, a new study finds. Research by Corporate Responsibility Magazine found that 75 percent of Americans would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed. Elliot Clark, CEO of Corporate Responsibility Magazine, said employees want to align themselves with organizations that do more for society than just increase their bottom line. "Even during a time when Americans face many fiscal challenges, most people would rather continue their search for employment than work for a company that has questionable business practices or ethics," Clark said. "The survey results demonstrate that there is a cost of bad business behavior, which significantly affects the ability to attract and retain people."