We’ll cut right to the chase; yes, it does matter what has been posted about your company on Glassdoor. With over 6 million company reviews, CEO approval ratings, salary reports, interview reviews and questions, office photos and more, this transparent career community has a lot of reach. The transparency works both ways though, a great review can do wonders for the employer brand, and bad one can tear it down just as quickly.

Ignore Them at Your Own Peril

Glassdoor has been around a while now, so companies who aren’t paying attention might not know just how popular this site has become among job seekers. Software Advice conducted a study in which 2,201 of 4,633 respondents reported having used Glassdoor at some point in their job search. That represents 48% of their data set!

The most important category for job seekers to see positive reviews in was compensation and benefits, followed by work/life balance and career opportunities.  Transversely, negative reviews in the category of career opportunities were the number one deterrent for job seekers.

They DO Influence Candidates

As the site builds more and more traction, employers are starting to take a deeper look at their reputation. When it first started, Glassdoor had that sort of wiki-stigma to it. The idea that none of this really matters because we don’t have any context and who knows what type of employees these really are or if they even worked for the company for a decent amount of time. Well reputation is mattering more and more, and Glassdoor is exactly where candidates are going for the scoop. Glassdoor study findings revealed that:

• 75% of hiring managers say that reputation affects recruiting.
• 83% of job seekers are wary of working for a company with a negative reputation.
• 55% of job candidates said they would reconsider their job application if the company had negative press.

Help Them Help You

Companies shouldn’t fear the potential power of Glassdoor reviews; they should be using it to their advantage. Over 1,000 companies display their employer brand to candidates researching them and advertise their jobs to quality candidates through free and paid employer accounts.

Almost half of respondents from the previously mentioned Software Advice survey used Glassdoor before the actual job seeking process to identify the potential employers that they find relevant and in good standing on the site. Managing Editor at Software Advice, Erin Osterhaus said:

“Simply having a Glassdoor profile can therefore increase your visibility to job seekers and potentially increase the number of applications you receive.”

The numbers don’t lie; it is important to not only pay attention to Glassdoor reviews, but also go further and join the community. It turns out that Glassdoor can be a powerful tool to display the company culture and build up the employer brand. Steering clear of the site can actually harm recruiting efforts by stunting your reach and visibility.

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photo credit: striatic via photopin cc