As the saying goes both at work, and in life, "Feedback is a gift." When it comes to your employee engagement measurements, one great way to see how you're doing as an organisation, and improve the conditions for your employees, is by listening and responding to your company Glassdoor reviews.
There are many benefits to investing in your company Glassdoor reviews. For starters, reviews are an important part of a company's brand and recruitment strategy, as people consider reviews by employees and former employees to be a more reliable source of information than company awards and public accolades. Additionally, online employer reviews seem to influence not only participants' opinions of the company, but also their expectation of how other people would view it. Finally, participants who saw a positive review about a company formed a better opinion, felt more eager to apply and to recommend it, and would even sacrifice part of their salary to work there, compared to those candidates who saw a negative or neutral review.
Related: Respond to Reviews
If you want to attract top talent, don't ignore your company's Glassdoor reviews! In fact, reviews should be continuously collected within the organisation throughout each year, so that your page is not filled with those "polarising" reviews of disgruntled employees, who may have been let go in the past.
Amerah Egab, Brand Manager shares her list of top "Dos and Don'ts" to consider when creating a process for collecting reviews at your organisation:
Do:
- Make sure you're asking everyone within the organisation to participate in submitting reviews, not just cherry-picking the ones you know are engaged. You'll want to create a fair sample size, so consider asking people to submit reviews at meetings where the majority of staff are present, like town halls for example!
- Communicate ahead of time, letting people know that this request is in the pipeline. Without this step, employees might feel like they are being put on the spot, or being targeted for an unknown reason.
- Make sure employees know that submitting reviews is entirely voluntary, and most importantly, kept anonymous! This should feel like a very non-personal transaction. Employees should not feel like they are being forced, or even swayed. Rather, it should be mentioned as a reminder in a memo or brought up casually in meetings.
Related: 5 Essentials for Managing Reviews from Glassdoor Power Users
Don't:
- Follow up with employees to see who submitted reviews and who did not. Individual employees should not be approached, and should not be made to feel pressured to submit reviews.
- Ask brand new employees to write a Glassdoor review - they don't have a genuine feel for the company yet, so it's best to give them some time. Glassdoor recommends asking for feedback from new employees at the 90-day mark or the one-year anniversary.
- Get upset or lash out when there is critical feedback. When happy employees share things they wish were better, it helps inform jobseekers who are considering working there about issues that may exist within the company. This makes the overall review more valuable and authentic to job seekers.
Related: The Right Way to Ask Your Employees for Feedback
Egab says that "as employers seek to manage their brand, they need to be aware that many superficial positive reviews are often not enough to win individuals with many career options. The more depth a review has, the more likely it will be taken seriously and used to assess an employment opportunity."
Reviews are a way to give current employees an outlet for feedback, and potential candidates market insights into what it's really like to work at the company. Empathise with the employee population and ask for their participation in an honest and transparent way. Remember: Glassdoor shouldn't be turned into a game or a measure of how HR is doing, but instead used as another source of engagement and a method to improve your company culture!
