Ex ante i-deals, perceived external prestige and turnover intentions

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize ex ante idiosyncratic deals (or i-deals) as a way to foster individual perceptions of a positive employer image by offering customized additional instrumental benefits.

A survey is led among 182 engineers in demand on a local labor market to test whether ex ante i-deals combine to a more global and external perception of a good employer, measured by perceived external prestige (PEP), to explain turnover intentions.

The results validate all research hypotheses, and show that the moderating effect of ex ante i-deals in the PEP-turnover intention relationship is significant during the first years spent in the company.

This research contributes to the literature on employees’ attraction and retention by building bridges between the literatures on employer image and i-deals.