Managing Your Employer Brand through Glassdoor

You’ve probably heard about the glass ceiling, but have you heard of Glassdoor? It’s a website where current and former employees can review company information – from salaries and benefits to the interview process. Company culture and how managers treat workers are important areas potential employees research when considering working for a company.

Glassdoor lets potential employees view the company from the inside without going through the process of being hired. In some ways, Glassdoor resembles LinkedIn. It’s a community where people can meet in cyberspace and become company insiders.

All comments posted are vetted to make sure they are from actual current or former employees. Once comments are made, they cannot be deleted or removed by the employer. It is similar to the reviews for everything we see online, only with a little more substance. Word-of-mouth recommendations often drive the sales world, resulting in increased profits for companies. Using Glassdoor, especially for younger generations of workers, is just part of investigating whether a particular organization shares the culture, values and ideals of a potential employee.

With the current US unemployment rate at less than four percent, employers are scrambling to find qualified employees for their organizations. A bad review on Glassdoor might be the make-or-break reason a potential employee decides to give a company a pass and move on to one with a higher ranking. As an employer, how can you boost your rankings and attract the best employees to your company?

The best-designed social media and websites will not convince someone to work for you if the content is just corporate blather. Millennials and Generation Z workers are computer savvy and can see through that. Instead, they search for real information on sites like Glassdoor. So what are your options if you aren’t getting the feedback you want?

You can’t manufacture a great company culture – you have to build it. It starts with the two T’s – trust and transparency. Do the current employees trust their leaders? Is the company committed to its values and vision? Does it care about the global community? You can’t fake that sort of information. If it isn’t built into your current company culture, consider putting together a team of employees from all levels to develop company values to attract the right employees.

While LinkedIn caters primarily to employees, Glassdoor provides employers with an opportunity to create an employer profile. This should not just be a rehash of your current marketing materials, but provide substantive information about the things that matter to potential employees. Start by creating an Employee Value Proposition (EVP). This is what you have to offer employees in terms of salary, compensation and benefits in return for their talents and skills. Remember, benefits include values, mission and purpose, as well as co-workers and culture.

A well-constructed EVP should show what is good about your company, not tell. It should contain the values and be coherent. Make sure current employees see the finished product, and encourage them to contribute to making it the best and most reflective of what employees enjoy about working for the company.

In a recent study, Glassdoor showed companies with strong employer brands stand out from competitors.

What can you do to build a positive company profile and brand on Glassdoor to recruit the right candidates? It starts, of course, with the company itself. Glassdoor recommends you:

1. Do your research. Look at what is being said about your company and identify common themes.
2. Take action. Unlock your company profile, respond to reviews, add details, and include mission statements and other information.
3. Respond to reviews. Respond to negative reviews after thoughtful consideration.
4. Monitor your profile consistently. Use the information to identify internal problems, as well as build trust and credibility.
5. Empower your employees. Word-of-mouth reviews are now the best way to recruit candidates. Encourage communication, feedback and sharing with employees and new hires.

Whether you have a community or social media manager on-site, or you are responsible for maintaining your brand/profile on Glassdoor, remember to create your vision so others not only share it online, but share it with each other.