Building Employer Brand on Review Websites (5 mins Read)
Why employer review websites form a critical part of the decision making process for candidates
The employer brand is actually in the hands of the candidates and the employees. The employer review websites (You can read about the top employer review websites by clicking here) play a crucial role in deciding the fate of the employer brand which is done by the reviews of the candidates. As found by a survey, 72% of the candidates share their experience on the online employer review websites. Further, a research from Deloitte found that 80% of the candidates who experience a bad recruitment process openly tells people about their bad experience.
Negative reviews from both the candidates or employees have a big influence on the decision making process of the candidates who aspire to join a particular company. As per CareerArc, 62% of the candidates have stopped applying for a company which treats its employees badly. Moreover, a survey found that 95% of the candidates said that while considering a new job offer, insight into the company’s employer reputation would be extremely (62%) important. A poor employer brand reputation can cost millions to a company, as the productivity decreases due to a reduced candidate pool and the consumers stop supporting.
How can the companies take control of the employer brand and their overall online reputation? There are some studies which show that the companies are globally investing more heavily in social networking, consistent monitoring of the employer review sites and using the employees more as their brand advocates. However, many companies are still unsure of where to start and they also lack the knowledge of the best practices for these strategies.
We’ll try here to help you improve your employer brand by outlining how to establish ownership of your companys’presence on the employer review sites like Glassdoor and Indeed; share tips on how to effectively leverage employee brand advocates, offer the best practices for responding to reviews and highlight the popular employer review websites that companies should be familiar with.
Need to establish the ownership & claim your employer review site profiles
The first step towards establishing an employer brand plan for the review sites is to identify who will take the initiative for this in your organization. It normally makes sense to have the HR team manage the employer review sites as they are familiar with the sites like Glassdoor which offers the job posting functionality, in addition to the candidate and the employee reviews.
Further, it can be beneficial to form partnerships with the other departments to manage your organization’s employer brand. Your communications team can help the HR in crafting the responses to the reviews which align with the standards of your brand as well as provide the upto date information on the awards and the accolades. In addition to it, the HR can take the support from the marketing team to maintain an active social media presence for your company. Also, work to optimize the search results by managing SEO and creating contents to combat the negative reviews and form the perfect keywords.
Once it’s established who will take the ownership of managing the employer review sites, you have to claim your profiles which can be done at no extra cost by verifying the profile as an employer and creating the employer account to edit and manage the profile.
Moreover, you can add all the valuable information to your profile for the candidates to view like salary and compensation details, explanation of benefits offered, company’s mission, vision and the values, overview of the company’s culture, logistical information (location, total number of employees, revenue, competitors, etc.), remote and flexible work policies,diversity, equity and inclusion programs etc.
As per Glassdoor, 75% of the active job seekers are likely to apply for a job if the employer is actively managing their employer brand. This can be done quite easily by responding to the reviews, updating your business profile and sharing updates on the culture and work environment. Building a robust profile on the employer review site allows the candidates to get a better understanding of your company, what you stand for and what it would be like to work with you.
Respond to the reviews
Responding to the reviews promptly is one of the most important and easiest way to create a strong brand presence on the employer review sites. While both types of reviews (negative and positive) can be very easy to view and dismiss, leaving thoughtful responses is a nice way to pass on the message to the candidates and employees that you care – irrespective of whether the feedback is positive or negative. 80% of the job seekers who read the reviews on Glassdoor say that their perception of a company improves when an employer responds to a review.
Leverage the employee brand advocates
While the companies have very little control over who will leave the reviews – especially the reviews with negative feedback – still they can proactively build up a strong body of positive reviews by influencing the employee brand advocates. Brand advocates are the employees who advocate for a company and generate a positive image of the brand via all the channels. You should emphasize the value of an honest and candid review while encouraging the employees to leave reviews and that the employees should not feel under any pressure to always paint a nice picture only for the organization.
You can consider these to encourage the employees to leave positive reviews which will help improve the employer brand
· The new hires
· The HR, PR & the marketing dept
· The promoted & awardees
· The employee resource groups
· Regular requests to the employees
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Which are the top employer review sites to consider
As there are a variety of employer review sites out there, it can be hard to keep track of them all. However, we have this list of the top ones which you should monitor regularly to improve your employer brand for long term success.
Summary: The recruitment processes are continuing to take the digital shifts rapidly, so the employer review sites are becomingly increasingly important in making or breaking a candidate’s decision to join an organization. While you cannot control every review, you can still be proactive enough in taking charge of your employer reviews presence by regularly responding to the reviews, leveraging the employee advocates and monitoring what the candidates and the employees are saying about your organization online. In this way, you’ll not only improve your employer brand by creating a strong brand for your company, you will also be able to make a positive presence in the market.