Effective recruiting is all about connecting with talented candidates at multiple levels. That’s why, Marketing your brand as a desirable employer can go a long way in filling the vacant positions in your organization fast and easy. One way to do this is by managing your reputation on job boards and employer review sites. No employer serious about hiring quality talent can afford to neglect their reputation on such platforms.

And if you have created a strong employer brand and have a great employee advocacy program in place, you have a great opportunity to take a step closer in embracing the power of an HR and recruitment platform like Glassdoor. With the emergence of Glassdoor, companies have a chance to actively develop and manage their employer brand to attract the best talent available for hiring.

With more than 41 million monthly visitors, Glassdoor is one of the best resources when it comes to promoting your employer brand and recruiting great talent. According to a recent study, 48% of job seekers consulted Glassdoor during their search. That equals to 38 million unique monthly visitors on the website! This is a staggering number. With a little effort, your company can use Glassdoor to transform your recruiting and hiring efforts and develop a strong employer brand.

Here’s how Glassdoor assists employees to share their reviews about their companies in different ways:

1. Former or current employees can rate their experience in the company by giving a rating on a one-to-five star scale and writing a headline mentioning pros, cons, and advice for management. Since these reviews are posted on an anonymous basis, there is no way the employee can get into trouble with their professional reputation or with their employer.
2. Employees can share their salary on Glassdoor on an anonymous basis segregating it with job title and location. This can give other job seekers a fair idea about the pay scale of the company for the relevant position.
3. In addition to checking the reviews posted by the employees, candidates can review the companies’ hiring procedures by sharing the role that they applied for, experience during the interview, questions asked and length of the process. They can then give thumbs up or thumbs down and share whether they were made an offer and if they accepted it.

With so much information being available on Glassdoor and candidates relying on it so much to make decisions on whether or not to join a company, you have to take necessary steps to ensure your organization presents a positive image on the platform. Here are 7 ways you can do this. 

1. Unlock your company account on Glassdoor

The very first step to manage your brand image on Glassdoor is by unlocking your company account. Sign up for a free Glassdoor employer account and complete your profile. Then add your company description, benefits, and photos to display on the site. This will give a fair idea to the candidates about the work culture of the company and help them to make the decision of whether they are interested in a particular role. This will also assist you in attracting twice as many talented candidates. You can even upgrade the employer account to a paid Enhanced Profile, allowing you to advertise your company and jobs on your competitor’s profile. 

2. Observe and respond to reviews

Glassdoor is like a bible for employees and candidates. It provides relevant information to them pertaining to a company. For employers, it works as a mirror in reflecting the true image of the company from an insider’s perspective. In fact, 52% of Glassdoor members read reviews at the start of their job search before speaking with the recruiter or hiring manager. Hence, it is absolutely critical to observe the reviews posted and respond to them in real time. Remember, it is all about managing your reputation on Glassdoor. Hence, it is important to thank people for the time spent in submitting the reviews and ensuring that corrective measures are taken quickly, if any complaint has been raised.

The key to responding to the reviews is by being real and authentic and staying true to your brand identity. Although, there might be certain complaints raised, they provide opportunities to employers to improve their services. Hence, it is imperative to address the specific criticisms or concerns in an honest manner without using any stock responses. In fact, it has been researched and found that 9 in 10 job seekers find the employer’s perspective useful while learning about the company. While 69% say their overall perception of the company improves after seeing them respond to a review. Hence, this goes to show that responding to reviews in real time is the key when it comes to creating a positive employer brand on Glassdoor. 

3. Advertise your jobs

Even though your company’s job listing are already on Glassdoor, when you advertise your jobs on this platform, they get the required impetus to get into top ranking and custom targeting. So, instead of your jobs appearing on 4th or 5th page, they would appear on the 1st page. This is one of the best ways to attract a talented bunch of candidates across different industries. 

4. Get access to free analytics to gain useful insights

You get access to free analytics while registering for Glassdoor Free Employer account. With the help of these analytics, you can see who is viewing your profile, view the demographics of the candidates, most jobs clicked, the job descriptions that worked best and check engagement metrics. You can even see comparing statistics pertaining to your competition. After getting these invaluable insights, it is important to leverage the information to identify the areas of improvement, create a strategy to address the issues and present the ideas to the top level management executing the ideas approved.

5. Promote your Glassdoor profile

What is the use of having a Glassdoor account when your candidates are unaware of it? Hence, it is extremely important to promote your Glassdoor account through emails by including its link and posting a badge on your corporate website. Irrespective of your Glassdoor rating, it is important to acknowledge your Glassdoor account and spread its awareness. Once you are successful in doing this, it would assist in making your Glassdoor account stand out. 

6. Use your Glassdoor account as an employment press page

The company update section on your Glassdoor employer account is the perfect place to share information pertaining to launch of a new product line or winning an award. It is a place where you can highlight information that is relevant to attract potential candidates. This is your best chance to use this section on Glassdoor as a press page and create a positive employer brand image. 

7. Encourage employees to post their honest reviews on Glassdoor

When you create awareness amongst your employees about your Glassdoor account, it gives them a fair chance to leave a suitable rating on the platform. It would also assist you in gathering employee sentiments which can help you in understanding where you are and what needs to be improved. Thus, it is very important for you to make employees know about your account on Glassdoor through onboarding process, email reminders or company huddles. 

Conclusion

There are certain companies that show their apprehensions when it comes to employees and interviewees gaining access to review them on Glassdoor. They do not take Glassdoor seriously. But they do not know what they are missing out on.
In today’s highly competitive world, it is very important to use every job platform to your advantage and create your positive employer brand. More so with Glassdoor and it is one of the world’s largest HR platforms and your positive or negative image on it can have lasting repercussions on the quality of your manpower.

Note:-This article was originally published on Talentnow