How to Manage Your Company Reviews

Do you know what other people are saying about your company?  This question is not about the products that you sell, or the services you provide, but rather about your current and former employees as well as potential job candidates, think about your organisation as a place to work.  These reviews can offer those considering working for you a snapshot of your culture, working environment and values.  They are important for those considering applying for a role with you.

Your reviews

The main places that employees, past and present can leave reviews is on your Indeed and Glassdoor pages.  They can comment on a range of different areas including pay and benefits, culture, management, work/life balance and diversity and inclusion.

We have become more interested in external reviews, think about using Trip Advisor and Trust Pilot and how much people trust these reviews from people they don’t know.  Generation Y and Z will want to read reviews and will trust the reviews that they find.

We are seeing candidates withdrawing from the recruitment process because of the research that they have done on companies and the reviews they have found.

Managing your Reviews

If someone wrote (in the old-fashioned way – with pen and paper and a stamp) to you with some level of complaint or praise, you would make sure that you responded in some way and would take time to understand their points.  I think you should do the same with any reviews that you get.

1.      Poor Reviews

Lots of companies ignore poor reviews, but I think it is important to respond to them.  Make your responses specific and include some level of detail.  Make sure that your response isn’t taken personally but include information as to what you have done to address any valid issues. Show your reading audience that you aren’t perfect, but you take concerns seriously and are prepared to change things if possible.

2.      Good reviews

These are great to receive, make sure you thank the individuals and acknowledge what they have done.  Mark good reviews as “helpful” (thumbs up) as this will help this review appear higher up the list of reviews too.

One other thing

Reviews are not a conversation.  A person can post a review and you get the chance to respond to the review, there is no further communication.  Don’t worry that you may be entering into an online battle with a disgruntled ex-employee.

Action points for you:

Considering this information as an SME business owner/hiring manager you may want to:

• Look at your reviews and make sure you respond to any that are outstanding – good and bad!
• Include exit interviews when someone leaves your organisation and ask them if they will give a review of their time working for you.  You want to show potential candidates what good ex-employees thought about working for you.
• When you are looking at recruiting to add to a department, work with the other team members to write some reviews for you – frame it as you wanting the best people to join the team and therefore what would they say to someone coming to join the department?

If you want help managing your employer branding and attracting better candidates to apply for your roles, book a free strategy session with me, Caroline Hunt at Emerald Starfish HERE.