By Nicola Simpson, Med Comms Associate Consultant
Glassdoor – one of the world’s largest job and recruiting
websites - has 32 million unique monthly users. That’s 32 million people who
could be looking at authentic reviews left online about your company. So if the
candidates you’re looking to attract are highly engaged and well-researched,
they’ll obviously want to take advantage of a website which gives them insider
knowledge on the company they are interested in.
Glassdoor can provide job seekers with information on
salaries, benefits, company culture and more. This can provide potential employees
with invaluable advice they wouldn’t have gathered from a job advert alone – so
why do so many companies ignore the reviews (both positive and negative) left
on sites such as Glassdoor, especially when these reviews could be so
influential in the decision making process of potential new employees?
Below we’ll take a look at several ways in which companies
can ensure they’re portrayed on review websites in the best possible light.
- Encourage team members with positive experiences to write reviews:
Every company will have experienced disgruntled employees in
the past. And just like with sites such as TripAdvisor, people are more likely
to leave a review if they’ve had a bad experience as opposed to a good one. It
should be expected there will be the odd negative review left about the company
you’re looking to interview at - what’s important is that the company has
responded to all these negative comments in a timely and professional manner.
To offset any negative comments it’d be worthwhile
encouraging current employees to leave comments too. They should feel free to
write what they want (it’s an anonymous forum after all) and ask them to
comment in dribs and drabs over several weeks and months. This will ensure your
Glassdoor profile looks more credible, instead of a sudden rush of reviews all
left within a couple of days.
There are bound to be plenty of team members with really great things to say about the company, who hadn’t even thought about writing an online review – so encourage them to do so! It’s also a great chance for current employees to get their voices heard.
- Monitoring and responding to your glass door reviews:
Why do companies ignore their bad reviews? If these aren’t a regular occurrence – and the company knows this isn’t how the majority of their staff feels – they might not see the need to respond. Yet future employees might view these comments as the truth. Or that any issues they have with the company may not be listened to.
It is always worthwhile regularly checking company reviews –
you should welcome all feedback, address specific negative experiences and
amplify your positive reviews. This will show you are a transparent company who
values feedback. It’ll also hopefully show potential future employees that the
negatives reviews were either one off experiences or factors you are working to
improve.
- See it as constructive criticism:
Glassdoor, and other company review sites, can be of use in
helping your company uncover issues you were previously unaware of. If a few
reviews are giving the same feedback, for instance asking for more regular
appraisals or more flexible working options, you can use this feedback to
implement positive changes. Viewing these reviews as constructive criticism
will show staff you value their feedback, and these changes are likely to
increase both your staff retention and your employee’s job satisfaction.
We can’t state enough how important company review sites are
both to attracting new talent and retaining that which you already have. By
implementing a few of these tips, you’ll be able to successfully improve your
company’s online presence, whilst showing you value and take on board both
positive and negative comments about how you run things.
For a more in-depth look at how best to utilise Glassdoor for your recruitment needs check out this fab article here.
