Keep your employees close and your ex-employees closer

“Disgruntled ex-employees can inflict serious damage on the reputation of a company as a potential employer, and word travels fast in the relatively small pool of executive and senior management level professionals,” she says.

“Regularly, having identified the ideal candidate for a position, we've had to work very hard to improve their negative perception of the employing organisation. The candidate's impressions are more often than not based on biased information given to them by a disgruntled ex-employee.”

Goodman-Bhyat explains that, conversely, in a skills short market, hearing positive comments about a company from a still-loyal ex-employee might just be a deal-clincher for a top candidate when it comes to final negotiations.

She notes that, as illustrated in Deloitte's Best Companies to Work For survey, remuneration is no longer top of everyone's wish list and that candidates are more frequently seeking employers who respect the work/life balance, in addition to financial rewards.

“For many of our candidates, interesting and challenging work, the opportunity to develop and grow, flexibility and an open trusting corporate culture are becoming more important than the salary package.

“As the economy slows and salaries begin to stabilise, the hefty sign-on bonuses and incentives used to attract the top skills will begin to fall away. In times like these, it is the organisations with the best reputations that will secure the top talent. And reputations are certainly a function of what former employees, as much as current employees, think and say about the company,” concludes Goodman-Bhyat.