Employer Review Sites Can Make or Break Your Hiring
Many companies are feeling the sting from online reviews made by those who have gone through the interview process at companies, as well as by former employees who will inform the World Wide Web just what it’s like to work there. Web sites such as Glassdoor, which has approximately 30 million monthly users each month, allows current or former employees of any company to either praise or criticize that company and do so anonymously. If company simply ignores such feedback, it can damage that company’s brand and if they respond to it in the same forum, it is likely that they will end up looking defensive. Either way, it can be a challenge for organizations to know just what to do.
According to a report released by CareerArc, a social recruiting platform based in Burbank, Calif., 94 percent of workers believe that negative comments on employer review sites damage an employer’s brand. Three-fourths of job seekers said that they take into consideration an employer’s brand before applying for a position at that company. 62 percent of job seekers surveyed said that they will visit social media sites in order to evaluate a company’s brand while only 57 of companies say they have any kind of employer brand strategy in place in order to attract talent to their ranks.
The CareerArc study stated that just over half of job seekers begin their search by going to a company website, while 17 percent will first turn to colleagues, peers and people within their own networks. Still, the report stated that approximately 15 percent of job seekers will begin their job search by visiting employer review sites such as Glassdoor. The remaining number of those surveyed indicated that they would first turn to news articles or other means of researching for a possible job opening.
There are a few ways that employers can respond if they find their company listed on such review sites.
* Be Present: Show that your company is genuinely committed to improving and respond to online criticism that is indicative of this.
* Allow employees who currently work for you to utilize internal intranets to express concerns about problems or potential issues within your organization. Allow them to remain anonymous if possible so they are less likely to turn to outside websites.
* Encourage employees to comment on their application and interview process and work experiences on outside websites to give potential new hires an idea of what it is like within your company culture. This approach tends to be more useful if you have a positive work environment.
Of course, if your company culture is less than ideal, such an approach can backfire.
Review sites can provide valuable data that can be collected and aggregated and used to give a good picture of a company’s culture and how it looks to potential employees. Companies can then work on improving their brand and perception of it.
EinsteinHR realizes that your company brand to employees is important. Let us not only help you find the right candidate to fill the job, but also help you write your job advertisements, and review qualified candidates in a timely manner. We can also advise you about concerns in handling all of your hiring and retention needs.
Hiring a qualified candidate is an investment of both time and money. We can help ensure that you get the most for your money and improve your chances of getting just the right candidate for the job. Contact us today at 770-962-1700 to find out how we can help.
