The vast digital environment gives employers many tools to leverage to their benefit but often without an instruction manual. Glassdoor is one of those tools, too often thought of as the exclusive domain of jobhunters rather than the critical conduit it becomes between organizations and a challenging job market with just a bit of know-how.
To maximize those unique benefits available to employers through Glassdoor, particularly in the critical onboarding stage of the employee experience, Betterworks Engage has assembled a few insights and best practices to incorporate into your onboarding strategy. Between the people data gathered with an effective feedback system and the impactful spotlight shed on your organization by Glassdoor, these simple tips can help you transform Glassdoor from just another repository of career-oriented opinions to a powerful difference maker in a tight job market.
The Warm Glow of a New Job
Starting a new job is cause for celebration. From a new hire’s perspective, it’s the beginning of something new, something better that leads to financial stability and satisfaction. That new hire wants to hit the ground running, impress you, their new employer, and ramp up as quickly as possible. In other words, employees have that new job glow about them during onboarding, filled with excitement, anticipation, and motivation.
Since there’s a fair chance your new hire at least consulted Glassdoor while informing their job search, don’t be shy about asking them to share their feelings about their new job on the popular site. Leverage that new job glow to your benefit, requesting a fair and unbiased review rather than anything artificially slanted. Odds are your newest team member will write a glowing review, especially during onboarding as the bulk of their focus is on performing well and impressing their employer. Reviews submitted by new employees during onboarding can be instrumental in attracting new talent. Word spreads fast, so make sure that word is positive concerning employment with your organization.
Negative Reviews Shouldn’t Ruin Your Day
Of course, sometimes things don’t go according to plan and even the warm glow of a new job isn’t enough to prompt a positive Glassdoor review. When you receive a negative review, whether during onboarding or any other stage of the employee journey, be proactive in your response and, most importantly, don’t let a negative review or two dissuade you from requesting Glassdoor reviews from your new hires in the first place. When handled properly, the ends absolutely justify the means, even if that includes an occasional negative review.
According to Glassdoor, 62% of site users walk away with a positive perception of an organization when they respond to a negative review. It shows a genuine concern from the employer, an authentic desire to participate in the process, and a critical sense of empathy. An organization that is prompt and balanced in their response will only magnify the positive impact of their efforts.
Let Feedback Guide the Way
As we’ve said in the past, feedback is, by far, an employer’s most effective tool in designing an onboarding strategy that evolves with the times and adheres to an individual new hire’s own pace and style of learning. A personalized approach to onboarding is far more likely to generate positive Glassdoor reviews that will attract additional talent to your enterprise. Without feedback, you are essentially creating an onboarding process based purely on intuition and instinct rather than actual, quantitative people data.
Given the importance of onboarding to both Glassdoor reviews as well as the remainder of the employee experience, anything short of a fully-informed strategy is selling your organization drastically short and not providing it the best chance to succeed. Request and collect feedback consistently throughout onboarding, allowing it to guide the process and maximize its impact and effectiveness on your new hires. Such practices will inevitably lead to positive reviews that speak well of your culture, the importance and attention you place in your workers, and develop positive brand recognition that can be instrumental in fully leveraging Glassdoor for future talent. The more reviews you have on Glassdoor, the more relevant your organization becomes in the site’s search engine, increasing your visibility and relevance to Glassdoor users. Feedback is the primary driver behind such dynamics.
Glassdoor Best Practices
As you integrate Glassdoor into your ongoing recruitment efforts, there are a handful of simple tips to keep in mind that will help you get the most from your efforts.
- Automate (through solutions such as Betterworks Engage’s onboarding survey) the process of requesting employees who are satisfied with the onboarding process to leave a positive Glassdoor review.
- Address every point made in a user review, preferably from management or even the CEO of your organization. This will emphasize a genuine concern for the reviewer’s points.
- Make every response unique. Glassdoor users will quickly notice boilerplate responses that will ultimately do far more harm than good. Once again, authenticity is critical to the process.
- Prepare your responses offline and then transfer them to Glassdoor. The site does not allow you to edit your text so accuracy is important.
- Be prompt, professional, concise, and open-minded. Every reviewer is different so, no matter how outlandish their opinion might seem, take the time to adequately address their concerns.
- Have a single person handle your Glassdoor responses but use a team to read each of them before submitting.
- Always thank the reviewer for taking the time to write the review. If their perspective happens to be wildly different than yours, agree to disagree but be cordial and sincere.
Glassdoor does not have to be something feared by an employer. In fact, it can be a powerful tool in your search for new talent when properly leveraged. Take full advantage of the onboarding process to request reviews from new hires. When guided by Betterworks Engage’s feedback platform to inform your decisions and reveal critical information that might otherwise slip through the cracks, that onboarding strategy will naturally lend itself to a positive experience.
