Leveraging the Voice of the Employee in Employer Branding & Recruitment Marketing

As a record number of people are quitting their jobs and finding new places to work, now is a great time for employers to start taking employee reviews seriously. That’s why we partnered with employer branding and employee review experts, Joel Cheesman and Haley Sasser, to get the secrets they use to attract, respond, and recruit with employee reviews. 

Read their advice below (and watch the webinar recording here!) 

WHY SHOULD COMPANIES CARE ABOUT EMPLOYEE REVIEWS?

Employee stories and reviews are two of the most credible sources of information among job seekers. Whether employers like it or not, research finds that 55% of job seekers would abandon a job application if they read negative employee reviews online. Yet, only 45% of companies monitor or address negative feedback on review sites or social media.  Needless to say, employee reviews have been an underutilized part of a company’s employer brand and larger corporate reputation. 

HOW CAN COMPANIES GET MORE EMPLOYEE REVIEWS? 

While 82% of women who leave reviews on Fairygodboss do so for altruistic reasons, most reviews on most review sites don’t share that experience. 

Cutting right to the chase, Sasser recognizes that most organic reviews aren’t great. “When something good happens at work, it’s generally not a person’s first thought to go and write a review. But when something bad happens, that’s often one of the first places people go,” she says. “That’s why it’s important for companies to ask employees for feedback on review sites,” Sasser says, “to level the playing field of good and bad reviews.”

Research confirms that asking for reviews improves the likelihood of getting more reviews. One study found that 68% of customers will leave a review if they’re asked. Employment research trends often see similar results. Subsequently, Sasser and Cheesman recommend companies actually ask employees for reviews. 

They also offer some best practices to help make those requests. Tips include asking for reviews across multiple sites and at regular cadences including on employee anniversaries, after company awards, and as part of employee communities and resource groups. In addition, while making requests Cheesman advises companies “give employees a few different options to leave reviews so they can choose which sites they want to share feedback.” He shares that including Glassdoor, Indeed, and a few other more targeted sites in one request can make people feel more comfortable leaving anonymous feedback. Even more, Sasser warns companies should follow FTC regulations and ask for “honest feedback” and not “positive feedback.” This seemingly minor difference can make a big impact in terms of compliance, the credibility of reviews (aka reviewers don’t trust all perfect scores), and the organization’s ability to collect valuable feedback they can use to improve.   

HOW TO RESPOND TO ANONYMOUS EMPLOYEE REVIEWS? 

In addition to consumers and job seekers reading employee reviews, they also read company responses to those reviews. In fact, one survey found that 96% of consumers who read reviews also read businesses’ responses to reviews – with 40% saying they ‘always’ read the responses. Job seekers usually respond to review site trends similarly, as well. 

What’s interesting about responding to reviews is that it can actually improve the customer, employee, and candidate experiences. Think about it -- people often leave reviews to convey an experience and feel heard. Responding to reviews helps the reviewer (and other review readers!) that the company is reading and listening to that reviewer.  

Considering the why, “when crafting responses, it’s also important to not just copy and paste the same message over and over again,” says Sasser. As many as 70% of survey respondents said they would be put off if a business responded to a review with a templated response. 

HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT EMPLOYEE REVIEW SITE VENDORS?

With a handful of major and minor players across the employee review landscape, it’s important to choose the right partners to help your company meet goals, position your employer brand positively, and attract candidates from underrepresented segments of the population. “Of course you need to partner with the two big sites like Glassdoor and Indeed,” says Cheesman. But, it’s also important to partner with companies outside of the general sites in order to diversify the reach of your employer brand. To do that, Sasser recommends choosing partners that align with company goals. She offers an example, “if your company is interested in diversity and trying to hire more women, look at partners like Fairygodboss who cater to that segment of the population.” 

HOW TO LEVERAGE EMPLOYEE REVIEWS TO ATTRACT DIVERSE TALENT?  

As organizations learn just how important employee reviews are to a company’s employer brand,  they’ll start to get highly creative and leverage them as recruitment marketing material. “Put reviews on your careers site, on your job descriptions, share them with candidates,” says Sasser. Cheesman suggests employers get even more creative and suggests sharing reviews as part of recruitment marketing television ads through self service platforms like Hulu. How neat would that be?! 

HOW DO COMPANIES MANAGE REALLY BAD REVIEWS?

Although having some bad reviews can be a good thing -- being seen as more credible, sometimes there may be exceptionally bad reviews that require specific actions. During the webinar, Sasser and Cheesman talked about how employers can manage situations like these through several actionable tips. 

First, companies can make sure that the reviews are compliant with the review site’s terms of service. Often, sites will have guidelines regulating what reviewers can and can’t do -- including naming specific individuals as part of the review, posting comments that aren’t relevant, pretending to be someone they aren’t, misrepresenting their relationship with the company, and more.  as it can lead to targeted harassment. If a review violates these guidelines, the credible review sites have a reporting system to remove problematic and violatory reviews. 

Beyond that, Sasser shares that often these reviews should be shared with organizational leaders responsible for creating and upholding a positive employee experience. “When problematic reviews are shared with the leadership team, sometimes they bring up issues that are already known and other times they surface entirely new issues that need to be addressed,” Sasser says. “Either way, sharing this feedback is critical to organizational success.”

WHAT TECHNOLOGY HELPS MANAGE EMPLOYEE REVIEWS? 

Getting back to a more positive part of reviews, there are some fantastic review tools to help companies strategize, get more reviews, monitor and respond to reviews across sites, and more. Companies can leverage social listening and review monitoring tools (like Ratedly!) to keep track of reviews across multiple sites. This will help organizations learn what employees are saying about them and direct feedback to the proper channels that will actively work to improve the employee experience.   

ADDITIONAL REVIEW SITE RESOURCES 

For more information on managing employee reviews and leveraging the voice of the employee in talent attraction, access the ON DEMAND WEBINAR: How to Acquire, Respond, and Recruit with Employee Reviews here. 

In addition, feel free to check out this Employee Reviews Toolkit, 5 Ways to Use Fairygodboss Reviews to Attract Women to Your Workplace, 11 Sites Where You Can Find Employee Reviews (Besides Fairygodboss), and 5 Resources to Manage Employee Reviews. 

Finally, learn how your company can qualify for FGB’s free Best Companies for Women award now. Request a consultation with our experts today. 

ABOUT FAIRYGODBOSS

Fairygodboss is an employer branding and recruitment marketing solution that helps companies attract, engage, and hire professional and technical women. Our career community for women, employee reviews, curated content, hiring events, and job platform helps companies enhance their employer brand, develop diversity-focused recruitment marketing, and build diverse candidate pipelines. 

Founded in 2015, Fairygodboss partners with over 150 enterprise organizations like Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Home Depot, and Deloitte to meet diversity recruiting goals and connect with the 15 million women who trust FGB each year to navigate their careers and find their next job.