How Glassdoor Works and Why You Should Use It

Apr 07, 2016

The ability for any good organization to sustain growth depends on its ability to find the right employees, keep them happy, and provide a rewarding work experience. But the inevitable happens – there’s downsizing and good people are let go, people are involuntarily removed due to performance issues, and sometimes good people just leave on their own accord.

So what happens when these people start posting on social media and sites like Glassdoor? It’s a possibility you could have a recruiting disaster on your hands.

For those of you not familiar with Glassdoor, it’s a website where employees and former employees can review companies, management, and their culture. Recently raising over $70 million in funding from Google Capital and Tiger Global Management, Glassdoor has cemented its place as a tool for employers and employees to communicate about organization culture and recruitment.

While it doesn’t receive as much web traffic as LinkedIn, Glassdoor should be taken seriously. Glassdoor can directly influence candidates and affect your organization’s reputation. So, here are some steps we’ve found helpful with organizations offsetting the negative clamor over open, honest, and often unflattering reviews featured on Glass Door:

  • Update your employer profile. Whether you have the free or premium plan, update your employer profile so you can have some control of your brand, look, and how you present your organization to new recruits.
  • Secondly, as senior management, acknowledge Glassdoor exists. Communication goes a long way with new and existing employees. Address issues head-on. Senior management should be talking about these issues, and what actions are being taken internally within the organization to strengthen a positive work environment.
  • Next, consider restructuring your exit interviews. It’s an opportunity to get to the core of employee’s concerns and address them head-on. Sometimes, employees just want to be heard and that their experiences, both positive and negative, may impact an organization’s decision-making and actions in the future.
  • Lastly, be transparent during the hiring process. Not to say a hiring manager should go out of the way to proactively bring up negative Glassdoor reviews, but if it’s brought up by a candidate deal with it front-and-center. Provide some context to what might have occurred, how the organization learned from it, and steps taken to help mitigate it in the future. Being genuinely concerned about current or potential employees is just as important as being genuinely concerned about past employees.

It’s important to note that, as an employer, you’ll never truly have full control of what is put into the digital sphere about your organization. But, you can be proactive in controlling the message by creating a great place for employees to thrive and staying diligent and informed about the resources available for retention and recruitment.

2 Comments

  1. Logan Naidoo says:

    Most informative!

  2. Jennifer Cunningham says:

    Time to get on Glassdoor – thank you, a very interesting article!

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