Don’t Rely on Glassdoor – Use Software for Company Reviews

Why Are Company Reviews Important?

Just like looking for reviews of products, people look for company reviews when applying for jobs.

The experiences of current and former employees are an important factor in how job seekers see you as an employer.

Job seekers look for reviews on company review sites like Glassdoor, Quora, Indeed, CareerBliss and Kununu. Of course, Google and Facebook also include reviews from employees, even though they are not specifically branded for that.

Example from Glassdoor:

Prospective employees will likely look at your website and career pages, possibly also social media channels.

If you aren’t showcasing positive company reviews on your career page, you are missing out on great social proof content!

I know what you are thinking. Aren’t company reviews usually rather negative?

Well, it can be true, especially when looking at external review sites.

Bear with me: I will show you how you can leverage company reviews, but let’s first look at some stats.

Statistics about Company Reviews

Fractl surveyed people who wrote a company review for their past employer. Here are some of the most interesting takes.

1. After leaving a workplace, people usually wait some time before they submit a review.

2. Negative reviews often have to do with management practices, bad bosses, and employee turnover.

3. Over 10% of reviewers lie or “stretch the truth” in the company reviews.

4. Over 50% left 1 or 2 star reviews of their ex-employer.

5. Only 5.7% left a 5-star review of their ex-employer.

6. Most people are affected by negative reviews when looking for jobs.

Yikes! 😬 There are many things that are out of your control and can harm your reputation.

How could you prevent this from happening?

Take Matters into Your Own Hands

While company review sites are great for the job search, they can be a little bit problematic for the employer.

It is easy for employees to turn to Glassdoor and other review sites when they feel bad about their workplace. 

Dissatisfied (ex-)employees blasting negative reviews on the Internet makes real harm for your employer brand and image.

If the employee is already gone when they write a review, there’s nothing you can do about their bad experience.

In case your ex-employee leaves a negative review when they are in a tough place emotionally, they might even lie or exaggerate in the review. 

Even when the feelings pass, the review is online and potential new employees can see it. Someone might not even apply to your company if they see negative job reviews.

That’s bad news for you.

Okay, I have now focused quite a lot on what the former employees do. But the truth is that as an employer and boss, you need to take responsibility for why things like this happen.

There will be no negative reviews if you do things right.

How can you make sure that your company does not have a toxic environment and that your management style is good enough so that no one will need to bash you online?

👏 Feedback, 👏 feedback, 👏 feedback! 👏

When you collect feedback regularly, you have a chance not only to react to issues, but to also collect company reviews yourself!

It can be a tiring process to collect feedback if you do it manually. But there are tools that can help you!

Benefits of Review and Feedback Software

How to make the feedback process as smooth as possible?

With feedback software!

When you connect feedback with review collection, you get social proof and marketing materials for recruitment campaigns easily.

Let me introduce you to Trustmary. Here are benefits that you experience when you implement Trustmary as a feedback and review system for your organization.

1. Get Honest Feedback

Few people are comfortable with starting difficult conversations.

If your employees need to come to you in order to give feedback (positive or negative), the chances are it will never happen.

People will more likely just keep those opinions to themselves, or at the best, complain to a coworker.

However, when there is a possibility to leave anonymous feedback through an easy channel, it’s much more likely that you will get a piece of their mind.

Additionally, it’s easier for your employees to be brutally honest when they can write their feedback, instead of talking to you face-to-face.

2. React to Negative Feedback

If you are the one who regularly asks your employees “How are you feeling?”, you get valuable information on employee satisfaction and can react to possible issues in real time, not only after the employee has already left.

In the end, you might be able to solve whatever problems or issues cause the dissatisfaction, and your employees will be happy and loyal again.

After all, we always appreciate it when managers truly listen to us and want to fix problems.

3. Get Authentic Praise and Public Reviews

It’s kinda rare to get unprompted positive feedback, too.

This is your chance to learn what people appreciate about you and the organization. It really boosts morale!

The best thing? Trustmary lets you collect public testimonials from the happy employees!

The first question of Trustmary’s employee net promoter score survey defines whether the respondent is satisfied or not.

After that, the survey flow divides into two possible paths: give constructive feedback or leave a positive comment that can be published online.

This way you can use the positive feedback in marketing efforts and use them as company reviews.

Psst… You can also get employee video testimonials which are even more effective!

4. Decide What, When and Where

Unlike in external review sites, when you use Trustmary to collect reviews, you can decide which ones to showcase on your website.

It’s also possible to import reviews from Google and Facebook.

Don’t you hate it when the company reviews on a review website are as old as time? With Trustmary, you can filter the reviews by date, so that there are never out-dated reviews out there.

As you have a marketing permission for the comments, you can decide in which contexts to use them.

Imagine how great it would be if you were able to showcase your employee’s experiences for people who read your job ads?

It is possible! Just add reviews to the job ad.

You can even build whole campaigns around the positive company reviews by satisfied employees.

5. Do It With Style

Trustmary’s widget library is full of stylish widgets that you can use to showcase the reviews.

If you aren’t sure which one to start with, try our Google review widget.

Whether you decide to go with an elegant double testimonial or dynamic testimonial carousel widget, you are surely going to experience a boost in conversion rate (=more applicants!)

Pro tip: since you are already using a great marketing software, why not make use of other features as well? Add pop-ups, lead generation forms and chatbots!

6. Automate The Process

Asking for feedback is tiring and requires lots of manual work, sending emails, analyzing results… NOT!

Trustmary allows you to set automations for the feedback surveys.

Whether you want to ask for feedback once a month or send the survey after a specific event (like a performance appraisal), Trustmary’s got you!

You can also use the software for collecting customer feedback. The best results come when you integrate Trustmary with your CRM.

7. Analyze Results

Trustmary gives you an overview of all past surveys and reviews. 

Of course, you can also analyze the results of each individual form separately.

The results are saved in the system, and you won’t lose your acquired data.

How to Get The Best Company Reviews

Now, how can you actually get the glowing reviews?

First of all, communicate the process with your employees!

When they know that there is a way to give anonymous feedback that is really listened to, they will be more likely to bring issues to your attention.

Additionally, satisfied and engaged employees are happy to give positive reviews for the workplace that they truly enjoy, if they know how useful the reviews can be.

Secondly, create a good review form.

If you want to get reviews about specific aspects, write some questions or prompts on the form. They will lead the respondents towards the themes that you want to know more about.

Some ideas:

• How would you describe the company culture?
• What do you say about the work-life balance?
• Do you feel your skills are valued?
• I think the compensation for my work is…
• The leadership here is…
• My team is…

Maximize Your Trustworthiness

It’s true that you probably don’t want to showcase negative reviews on your own website.

However, if you are aiming at least close to the trustworthiness of review sites like Glassdoor or Indeed, you need to accept responses that are not overly positive.

What will your employees think when they see you haven’t posted their honest reviews?

This will harm your reputation.

Besides, the most effective average rating for businesses is between 4.2 and 4.5 stars. Full five stars can be a bit suspicious.

So, my best advice is: ask your employees to give their honest opinions, and also publish ones that feature some negative aspects as well.

Check out these employee testimonial examples for inspiration.

Conclusion

If you haven’t utilized company reviews as a part of your recruitment process and strategy, it is time to start.

People do read company reviews when searching for a new job. They are usually read on review sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, Google and Facebook.

The thing is, that those websites often feature rather negative and bitter reviews from ex-employees. It doesn’t convey a good image of your company.

What you should do is start asking for feedback from your current employees. 

This way you can react to negative feedback and fix people’s concerns, but you can also use the positive feedback as company reviews.

Best tool to do so is Trustmary, as it 

• Includes many feedback survey templates 
• Collects marketing permission for the feedback 
• Lets you collect video testimonials
• Offers widgets with which you can showcase the collected reviews on your own website
• Stores all responses in the system
• Allows you to analyze the results
• Is compatible for integrations
• Lets you use the same system for employee and customer reviews
• Features lots of additional features for social proof and conversion rate optimization

Start with a free trial and see how easy it is!

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