A survey from multi-sector recruiter Communicate Recruitment Solutions shows that 55% of finance candidates would reconsider a job application to a company that comes under negative scrutiny.

It also finds that 48% either have or might quit a job thanks to bad publicity, having received responses from mid-to-senior finance professionals at 142 companies.

Just over half of respondents (51%) agreed that they had been affected by a company’s brand identity at some point in their career – although only 19% said this had been in a negative way, with 24% saying it had been in both positive and negative ways at different points.

Three-quarters of hiring managers at the firms surveyed agree that if something was to damage a company’s reputation, recruitment would be affected, and a further 16% admit that they have struggled to recruit because of bad press.

James Lock, chief executive officer of Communicate, says: “If you can’t get your brand right and don’t care about public perception, you’ll have a tough job convincing the market – not to mention your current workforce and prospective employees – to put their trust in you.”