When responding to negative Glassdoor reviews, addressing their concerns professionally and proactively is crucial. Glassdoor is a popular platform for employees to express their thoughts and experiences with evaluations that can drastically impact an organization’s reputation. Responding to all essential reviews involves significant thought and adherence to specific best practices. Highlighting the company’s values, benefits, and opportunities for professional development to demonstrate your commitment to employee happiness and advancement can help potential candidates reading the review get a more fair perspective. In this article, we will discuss how to respond to reviews on Glassdoor and its importance to a company and to job seekers.
What Is the Online Platform Glassdoor?
A free online platform, Glassdoor, collects information and opinions about businesses, pay scales, and job postings from current and former employees. The organization has data from employers worldwide and has its corporate headquarters in California. Company’s Glassdoor evaluations can assist employers in choosing the best candidates for open positions and job seekers looking for new career prospects. Glassdoor is another tool recruiters can use to learn more about the businesses they work with and advance their recruitment strategies.
How to Respond to Negative Glassdoor Reviews Properly
1. Polarize Thoughts Between 2 Groups with Different Viewpoints
To gather an adequate sample, request new reviews from your staff on Glassdoor. Separate the positive reviews from those submitted by previous employees who may have already been fired.
2. Always Have Humility
Be modest while acknowledging their feedback. Being understanding of negative feedback will help you demonstrate that your company is an excellent place to work.
3. Always Find Out the Truth
Find out if the stated concerns are indeed true. If the problems are real, fix them by being proactive and letting the public know what your company is doing to solve them. Ask your employees for feedback and use their opinions to make changes and improve your company.
4. Utilize Some Positive Reviews to Make Up for the Negative Review
To balance out drawbacks, mention some of your company’s advantages. To help individuals see things differently, show them the positive aspects of your company.
How Crucial Are the Reviews on Glassdoor’s Site?
Using Glassdoor is one of the easiest methods to learn all there is to know about company culture. Candidates will care a lot if you are actively hiring. However, your Glassdoor profile might be very influential even if you aren’t looking to fill any open positions. This is because more people than only job searchers utilize Glassdoor. Customers frequently review these profiles to decide whether they want to support particular businesses or collaborate with them regularly.
You may learn more about how businesses treat their employees through Glassdoor, which can help determine whether their values align with yours. This information goes beyond a single user’s interaction. With your Glassdoor ratings, you can appeal to potential customers, partners, clients, and even people in your community. However, a poorly maintained Glassdoor profile can be the end of your company’s image.
The Challenges With Glassdoor Reviews
For job seekers, Glassdoor has managed to offer some of the much-needed transparency. However, it’s occasionally advisable for readers to view Glassdoor evaluations cautiously. Users can publish several evaluations for the same business, and the site doesn’t do anything to confirm that a reviewer was or is employed by a specific organization. This could unfairly inflate or deflate the perception of a corporation. an employer could possibly spam their own account with unjustified favorable evaluations, while a wronged employee could spam the company with negative ones. The anonymity of reviews can prevent employee reprisals and encourage open and empowered input. However, there is a chance that it will be abused. People are more prone to leave reviews when they’ve had a bad experience, just like with any other review system.
Organizations must take the initiative to encourage employee reviews while maintaining their integrity. Unfortunately, it has been claimed that certain companies will pressure current workers to leave a favorable review to counteract negative reviews or boost their overall reputation on the platform. Although everyone agrees this is a questionable move, little can be done to prevent it. When a business only receives 1- and 5-star evaluations from current employees who had vastly different experiences and who arrived around the same time, suspicions begin to grow. For employees who often deal with a company’s internal operations, this is a much less common scenario than it is for an individual’s experience, which can frequently alter significantly over the course of a given period.
Responding to a Negative Glassdoor Review: Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s
- Recognize both positive and negative feedback.
- Be respectful and proficient.
- Avoid using jargon that is only used within the firm.
- Encourage offline discussion.
- To avoid spelling, punctuation, and tone errors, draft responses in Word or Google Docs.
Don’ts
- Be non-confrontational.
- Remember to consider the important concerns.
- Do not imply that the review’s author will suffer legal or other disciplinary consequences.
- Don’t just say that the reviewer needs to be corrected in response.
- Do not reveal the reviewer’s identity in public.
What to Do With Your Glassdoor Page
Inform your employees in a direct manner that you value Glassdoor reviews. Don’t act discouraged by a bad review if it becomes a major topic of conversation; instead, explain that reviews are valuable since they reveal how employees feel. Establish company values where criticism is honestly appreciated. Updating your company’s profile is a good idea.
A Glassdoor page allows you to highlight why your company is a fantastic workplace; you can add images, highlight awards received, and even list current job openings. Give the team a private channel for feedback. Give current team members a free and anonymous way to provide feedback that will be forwarded to HR and leadership. Keep an eye on Glassdoor frequently and respond quickly. Responding to reviews months after they are written is not useful.
What Factors Do Job Seekers Consider When Browsing Glassdoor Reviews?
1. Safety of Employees
Applicants prefer to work for companies that care about their health and happiness. Glassdoor found that 70% of workers think businesses should require COVID-19 vaccinations before returning to work and that about as many think companies should incentivize employees to be vaccinated. Employers who fail to follow health requirements are frequently passed over for organizations that actively take steps to keep their employees safe.
2. Remote Work
Flexible work arrangements sparked the interest of job searchers. However, for many prospective employees, remote work may now be non-negotiable. Reviews mentioning ongoing remote work may entice applicants. However, reviews mentioning a full-time office job necessity may harm your reputation.
3. Diversity
Potential employees care deeply about how they fit into your company culture. Almost one-third of job seekers said they would not apply for a position with a company lacking staff diversity. Furthermore, 66% of employees and job seekers will believe a company’s workers over senior management, recruiters, or a company’s website regarding the true narrative of workforce diversity and inclusion.
4. Involvement of Employees
On Glassdoor, employee satisfaction is one of the most significant indicators of a good employer. Employees’ desire to work for a certain organization can be obtained from their levels of engagement, even if their individual motivations vary. If workers enjoy their job, feel respected, and receive the advice and support they require, they are more likely to stay longer. If you observe a lot of complaints about high turnover rates in a company’s evaluations, you can definitely assume that employee engagement is low.
5. Compensation
If the organization receives negative feedback about poor pay, a lack of paid time off or perks, or no real possibilities for advancement, you’re not offering employees or candidates a reason to stay. Workers willing to stay with a single employer for more than a few years are hard to come by.
If you don’t pay your staff what they’re worth, job searchers and potential clients will generate negative impressions about your company. Glassdoor users anticipate you to care more than just the bottom line regarding your company’s treatment of those who work there. You may resolve negative feedback patterns in your Glassdoor evaluations by addressing those basic human challenges.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do You Need to Respond to a Negative Glassdoor Review?
Any effective employee engagement and employer branding plan includes engaging with favorable and negative reviews. In fact, according to a Glassdoor U.S. Site Survey, 62% of job searchers believe their opinion of an organization changes after seeing an employer reply to a review.
Should I Answer a Critical Review?
Regarding how job seekers connect with your organization, criticisms are as influential as favorable. A response is necessary if you get a bad Glassdoor review. It is ethical and a best practice for the company’s reputation management. Responding to negative employee reviews enhances your standing with Glassdoor users and demonstrates to the reviewers your willingness to address their concerns and win back their interest within the company.
Why Is It Necessary to Respond to Unfavorable Reviews?
Responding to negative feedback in a kind and respectful tone, and working to improve your brand, despite the temptation to disregard the poor reviews and concentrate on the positive, will benefit the company. If you play your cards well, you can win back a dissatisfied individual and earn their interest to work at your company.
Conclusion
What your current and former employees say about your company is important to job applicants and recruiters. Glassdoor pages allow your company to get comments and grow. Investigate them, make modifications, respond directly to accusations, and take action on different reviews. You may significantly boost your company’s reputation by responding to all reviews. You could show that you take employee feedback seriously to create a great work environment by responding to negative Glassdoor reviews, providing helpful information, and emphasizing the company’s values and dedication to improvement.
