Employee company reviews: How to Address Bad Employee Reviews Online

Опубликовано: August 26, 2023 в 4:51 pm

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Категории: Miscellaneous

How to Address Bad Employee Reviews Online

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Just as many people do an internet search before going on a first date with someone they just met, it’s become standard practice to research prospective employers before accepting a job offer. Unfortunately, it’s equally common for businesses to receive bad employee reviews.

The reach of bad employee reviews extends beyond job candidates. Negative company reviews can seriously hinder a business by impacting consumer perception and recruitment. It can make it hard to find new employees, even if you use a job posting platform such as ZipRecruiter, and gain access to its 3 million users.

While poor employee reviews can be disheartening, it’s important to remember they don’t necessarily reflect negatively on the company. Instead, they’re an opportunity for you to improve employee satisfaction and create a truly great place to work.

Why do bad employee reviews happen?

Bad employee reviews can happen for various reasons. Sometimes there are disgruntled employees who feel an employer has somehow slighted them. Other times, your business might operate in a stressful or chaotic work environment. It’s also common for a lack of clear communication between employees and management to lead to a serious misunderstanding. Whatever the reason may be, it’s essential you, as an employer, take steps to address this issue publicly and internally. By “walking the walk,” you can resolve this situation permanently and improve your company’s work culture in the process.

How bad employee reviews can impact your business reputation

Negative employee reviews can have a significant impact on your business’s reputation. They can damage your public image, ability to attract workers and ability to retain top talent. Checking review sites is one of the first things prospective candidates do when looking for full-time jobs in their area. Damaging posts and employee complaints can also decrease customers’ satisfaction with a business, affecting that business’s bottom line.

Addressing negative employee reviews online: 8 tips to follow

Whether an ex-employee leaves bad reviews or posts constructive criticism, everyone from customers to job seekers can see negative posts on employer review sites. The only thing worse than negative employee reviews is uncontested reviews, as they give the impression the employer doesn’t care or can’t refute the claims.

Responding to negative employee reviews in a productive manner allows you to portray another point of view. It gives you a chance to improve customer perception with a thoughtful, reasonable response. A positive company posture can even help you find great candidates for a job on websites like ZipRecruiter, which allows you to post on 100+ boards with one click.

Whenever you receive negative feedback, follow these essential steps to correct it and prevent it from happening again.

1. Be open to constructive criticism

While no one looks forward to bad reviews, it’s essential to be open to constructive employee feedback. This allows you to create an open and honest dialogue between employees and management You’ll demonstrate your willingness to take employee reviews and concerns seriously. Just as employers may look for minor advantages when choosing between two great candidates, potential employees closely examine the companies they’re considering applying to. Potential employees and members of the public will likely see a thoughtful response in a positive light.

2. Create a workplace environment where employees can express their concerns internally

One of the best ways to avoid poor company reviews is to encourage your employees to speak up internally. Creating positive workplaces is essential to fostering an atmosphere. It’s a good thing when employees feel comfortable expressing their concerns to management without fear of recrimination. One way to provide this atmosphere is to create and maintain open-door policies and procedures for airing employee grievances.

3. Investigate employee complaints to figure out what went wrong

While it’s essential to acknowledge that some bad employee reviews are fraudulent, remember this isn’t always the case. Investigate employee complaints to determine their merit. In plausible instances, learn what went wrong and how you can improve it. This not only gives you a chance to demonstrate responsiveness to employee concerns, but it also helps you identify and address any underlying issues in your organization. This can significantly boost morale and is one of the best ways to help retain employees.

4. Acknowledge the issue and express your commitment to making improvements

Even a bad online employee review can allow you to stand out among employers. Turn a bad situation good by giving customers and job seekers a more positive view of your company. Acknowledge any shortcomings or flaws, then positively express your commitment to improving issues raised in online employee reviews.

Just as creating a better career page can help attract top talent on websites like ZipRecruiter, having an online response policy is a practical approach to demonstrating your company’s openness to dialogue and effective change.

5. Encourage current employees to leave positive reviews

While you would never want to suggest employees leave dishonest or exaggerated reviews, encouraging them to share their positive experiences can effectively counteract negative reviews. In fact, this may be one of the best ways to respond to negative Glassdoor reviews as it shows another side of the story and illustrates positive aspects of your company culture.

Not only does this show potential employees that your current staff is satisfied with their work environment, but it can also help repair your business’s reputation. However, if your employees are hesitant to leave positive feedback in their reviews, you may have more severe issues to address, such as spotting employee burnout.

6. Develop an online review response strategy

If you’re in business long enough, you’ll run into the issue of disgruntled employees leaving bad reviews. It’s inevitable. An essential step to counteract this is to develop an online review response strategy before it happens. Doing so will allow you to effectively address and handle poor employee reviews when they happen

Just as researching the best recruiting software can help you find qualified job applicants more quickly, a little bit of preparation goes a long way toward helping you respond to negative reviews promptly and respectfully.

7. Monitor review sites for employee feedback

It’s important to stay current on employee feedback by monitoring review sites. A great way to guard against lingering problems is to have an online employee review system that regularly checks for new company reviews. This kind of dynamic approach is helpful for responding to negative Glassdoor reviews or complaints left on ZipRecruiter and other best job posting sites for employers. It can also help you quickly identify and address negative reviews on other professional or social media platforms.

8. Respond to bad reviews promptly and respectfully

The worst thing you can do is to compound a bad review by responding in an argumentative or dismissive tone, responding late or failing to respond at all. You should view company reviews by employees, both positive and negative, as an opportunity to demonstrate effective, responsive leadership and a commitment to a positive work environment. Always respond promptly and respectfully to show potential employees that you take employee feedback seriously.

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Bad employee review examples

Bad employee reviews can take many forms and cite many different problems. Some examples include commentary about unprofessional behavior from management, unsatisfactory working conditions, unfair treatment of employees or other concerns ranging from the trivial to the potentially severe.

It’s important to note that some complaints — such as failing to keep promises, having unreasonable or unrealistic deadlines, or communicating unclear job responsibilities — can have a more significant impact than comments about personality conflicts or dissatisfaction with pay. [https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/resources/hr-and-recruiting-stats/]

Why respond to bad employee reviews?

It’s an unwritten rule that people tend to complain more often than praise. Finding positive employer feedback can be challenging. Every negative comment is an opportunity to impress, and responding to lousy employee reviews is critical to maintaining a positive business reputation. Here are a few benefits of responding to bad reviews.

Showing prospective employees that you take your employees’ concerns seriously

Responding to company reviews by employees shows prospective job candidates the company takes employee concerns seriously. It also indicates its commitment to creating an effective, pleasant, professional work environment. This will help create a positive reputation and make the company more attractive to potential hires. It’s also one of the best ways to solve workplace morale problems.

Building a positive company culture

No one gets it right all the time. Responding to bad reviews and admitting when you missed the mark is a great way to build a positive company culture and foster a solid reputation as a good employer. Publicly acknowledging issues and taking steps to address them is a great way to become a better manager. It shows your employees you care about their well-being and their concerns are important to you.

Providing insight from the company perspective

There are two sides to every story, and responding to bad reviews is an opportunity to provide insight into company policy and give an employer’s perspective on any raised issues. This provides much-needed context to a tough situation. It also demonstrates thoughtfulness and a willingness to receive feedback on the part of your management team.

When to and not to respond to negative reviews from employees

Not every workplace conflict requires a response. It’s essential to determine when to respond to negative reviews on a case-by-case basis — and when to let a review go without commentary.

Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to respond to every review containing factual inaccuracies. You should also respond to those with language or allegations that may particularly damage your company’s reputation.

On the other hand, reviews that seem unreasonable, unduly negative, hostile or based on little more than ill will and personal feelings are best left alone. You don’t want to pick a fight with anyone who may be beyond reasonable discourse.

Summary of Money’s how to address bad employee reviews online

Though negative employee reviews can significantly impact a business’s reputation, they also provide an opportunity to show effective leadership, demonstrate a willingness to take constructive criticism to heart and allow it to create positive change.

It’s important to address negative reviews promptly, respectfully and productively. Show potential employees and customers alike your company takes employee sentiment seriously. It’s an excellent way to prove you’re concerned for your employees’ well-being and aim to provide a great workplace.

Being open to constructive criticism can also help foster a positive workplace environment. Employees want to feel comfortable expressing their concerns internally rather than taking their complaints to a public forum. It’s also vital to investigate employee complaints to determine if they’re legitimate. If they are. you can issue any necessary apologies and identify areas with room for improvement in your organization.

Encourage your current employees to leave positive reviews about their experiences working for your company. Then take the time to respond to those, thanking your team members for their feedback and expressing your gratitude that they’re part of your company. It’s also a good idea to develop an online response strategy and regularly monitor employer review sites for any employee feedback, good or bad.

If you get the occasional bad review, respond to it promptly and respectfully. Indicate you’re open to further conversation on any legitimate issues raised.

Though following these tips can give you a real advantage in dealing with negative PR, it’s essential to acknowledge that a real commitment to creating a positive, pleasant work environment is necessary for addressing bad employee reviews. You can’t just hide or ignore real problems, as they’ll persist and continue to be the source of bad press. By “walking the walk,” you can create a positive atmosphere where few people will want to leave negative online reviews in the first place.

Do Glassdoor employee reviews affect your business? Hint: yes.

Glassdoor is an online platform that allows current or former employees to express their views about companies they work (or have worked) for.

It helps job seekers and clients to understand your business. But, it can also help customers gain a deeper insight into your business value and ethics. Look at fast-fashion brands – they’re being boycotted because of how they treat their staff.

Customers are want to be proud of the businesses they support and buy from

How your company treats your staff trickles down into the customer’s mind – especially when consumers are being more conscious and ethical-focused. Bad Glassdoor reviews affect many things:

  • Sales and revenue
  • Customer perception of your brand
  • Overall reputation, from an internal (employee) and external (customer/investor) perspective
  • Productivity (due to affecting quality of candidates or amount of employees your business can retain)
  • Recruitment
  • Morale
  • Investments

Negative Glassdoor reviews have a ripple effect – top-quality candidates will see bad reviews, and then apply elsewhere; you will have to settle for less experienced employees; there might be mistakes; morale will be low; the financial success of the business will dwindle and the overall atmosphere will feel. ..rubbish. No one wants any of that.

Reviews on the platform are anonymous. This allows former or current employees to give their honest opinions about your company.

Any reviews, positive or negative (even fake ones) can impact your company’s reputation – it’s also a bit worse when the reviews are anonymous. It means that your business is open to spam reviews, without much evidence such as a name to prove it.

If you’re wanting to resolve an issue addressed in the review, it’s also going to be a lot harder if you can’t figure out who left it.

When you cant edit your reviews, or delete them, here’s how to handle your Glassdoor employee reviews.

Why job seekers use Glassdoor

Many Glassdoor users are job hunters looking for:

  • Knowledge of company culture
  • What’s the boss like?
  • Information about potential hiring companies
  • Insights about work environments
  • Whether the salaries are bad, good or excellent

People search on Glassdoor to find reviews about top companies or get insights about potential employers before accepting a job offer.

Therefore, the ratings you get from Glassdoor will affect your hiring process.

How negative reviews can affect your business

Well, you can’t please everyone, right? So no matter how good you treat your employees, one or two will have something bad to say.

You can’t please everyone!

After all, if all your reviews are positive, it might be a bit suspicious for those seeking jobs. The internet is full of spam and fraudulent behaviour, and people can expect that.

However, too many negative reviews can hurt your business, and here’s how.

Impact on your recruiting efforts

If your business has more negative reviews on Glassdoor, it won’t attract and retain top talent. A negative review makes it easier for a job seeker to turn down a job proposal from your company.

So, no matter how good your business sounds in a recruitment brochure, if it has many negative reviews, it won’t attract the right talent. A single negative review might not cause a prospective employee to turn down a job offer, too many negative reviews will.

Companies with solid employer brands record low costs per hire whilst negative reviews increase a company’s hiring costs. If your ratings on Glassdoor aren’t glowing, you’ll only attract under-qualified candidates, which will affect your business performance.

Impact on company reputation

A negative review presents a bad image of your brand, not only to potential employees but also to customers and clients. Negative reviews from former or current employees can damage a company’s reputation.

Consumers and clients often shy away from businesses with many negative reviews. This damages a company’s:

  • Trustworthiness
  • Prestige
  • Credibility
  • Profitability

Therefore, you should always strive for an excellent overall rating.

Your reviews have to make you look trustworthy

How to minimise the impact of negative reviews on your business

If you don’t handle your overall rating on Glassdoor, your business will be at risk.

Luckily, there are various tactics you can use to prevent or minimise the impact of bad reviews on your business.

Here are some tips.

1. Adapt based on the reviews

Considering the impact of online ratings on your business, it’s essential to have someone manage your Glassdoor account.

While you can flag or hide negative reviews on Glassdoor, more will still come. The best way is to adapt and improve your business based on the ratings.

For instance, look for a pattern in the reviews such as:

  • Pay rates
  • PTO allowance
  • Career advancements
  • Internal politics

Try to address the problems in your organisation. When you improve your company culture, your reviews on Glassdoor will start glowing.

2. Respond to reviews

Whether it’s a positive or negative review, it’s best to provide feedback. However, you should be careful with how you respond to reviews. For negative reviews, react and respond professionally. Always. Regardless if you agree with them or not.

Many Glassdoor users will be looking for your genuine concern to address the problem, so make sure you take time with your responses.

3. Encourage your employees to leave positive reviews

If you have many negative reviews or don’t have any at all, you might consider asking your employees to share their experiences and opinions online.  

Do this during crucial moments like when hosting a company celebration, on a bonus day, or after delivering a compensation package. It’s tactical, sure, but it’s not unethical. It will be more effective than requesting reviews on a Monday, anyway.

Impacts of positive reviews on your business

Thanks to technology and the internet, company reputation management is difficult and complicated. Online sites like Glassdoor provide a platform for former and current employees to voice their opinions anonymously.

The voice is so loud that it reaches a wide audience of people looking for jobs in different parts. Ideally, if you own a business, you should have someone professionally manage your online employee reviews.

Positive reviews offer great benefits to your company’s reputation. When everyone has something good to say about your company, your business will have a good reputation.

Hiring process

Positive reviews improve employee recruitment and retention. Your business will attract a large talent pool, making your hiring process seamless.

A positive review proves that your company offers a good working environment for employees, meaning fewer employees will leave.

SEO

Additionally, online reviews are a ranking factor in local search. This means if you have more glowing reviews on Glassdoor or other review sites, your business website is likely to rank high on search engines.

Positive ratings send a good message to potential employees, customers and clients while improving brand awareness. Also, they add credibility and social proof to your business.

All the same, you should strive to be an excellent employer to command excellent employee reviews. Your current or former employees won’t praise your company on Glassdoor if you don’t treat them well.

However, it’s not easy getting positive reviews on Glassdoor or other job boards, and it all boils down to human nature – we tend to write more negative ratings than positive ones. We focus more on what we don’t enjoy than on what we do enjoy.

This means satisfied employees (not all) are more likely to keep the satisfaction to themselves rather than share it with others online.

They feel like they have nothing to review because they’re content. You need to actually ask them to review you, and try to pinpoint why they’re content. But, it’s likely you’ll need software to help with that, especially one that you can personalise with a video like Cloutly.

Final thoughts

Reviews can impact your company’s recruiting efforts, reputation, and overall performance. Positive reviews will draw top talent to your business, simplifying your hiring efforts during the interview process.

Negative experiences will drive away professionals looking for better job opportunities and work environments. However, you can improve your Glassdoor reviews by responding to them and encouraging happy employers to share their experiences.

Cloutly will help you streamline your online reviews on Glassdoor and improve your business’s reputation. You can work with us to get more positive reviews and attract more talent.

5 employee review sites about employers you need to know

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You are communicating with a candidate. The conversation looks quite adequate. And it seems to you that the interlocutors parted, pleased with each other. But the appointment did not take place: the candidate for some reason refused. Didn’t say the reason. However, he wrote a negative review about the company on one of the Internet resources.

This should be taken lightly. The easiest way to throw out the negative of a disgruntled person is to turn to the keyboard and the Internet. At the same time, the writer is sure that in this way he will take revenge on the offender, “dishonoring him to the whole world.” Often it’s unfair.

Check out these sites with reviews about employers more often. There you can read a lot of interesting things about the company, and not only from applicants for open positions, but also from retired employees. This sometimes gives valuable information and stimulates development.

Potok experts offer to get acquainted with 5 such sites. Remember that published reviews about the company are often unfair and subjective. But all of them, to one degree or another, provide information for reflection.

Contains two sections: Job Seekers and Employers. The interface is clear and convenient. The list contains more than 30 thousand companies and 330 thousand responses. There is a rating of “Best Employers”. In the rubrication, you can look at reviews about the work of competitors, and this is always interesting.

Reviews are given on five indicators that form the rating of companies. Points are affixed from 1 to 5:
– salary,
– boss,
– team,
– workplace,
– career.

Many sensible and detailed comments on various aspects of the work. For example, you can see the level of salaries in different companies.

The Dream Job widget with ratings and reviews about companies is placed on the largest Russian resource HH.ru, including job pages, and contains:
– assessment of the company on a scale from 1 to 5 points;
– percentage of employees who recommend this employer;
– employee reviews.

Information available only to authorized users.

The site was launched in 2015. More than 800 thousand visitors per month. Simple search interface, no registration. On the first page, you will see reviews of frequently discussed companies in the form of a bulletin board. Be prepared: you will be met with a flurry of negativity: about the dishonesty of employers, about cheating in paying salaries, about the “terrible treatment” of employees.

Reviews of organizations are grouped by industry: construction, medicine, transport, etc. You can search by city. Opinion about the company is proposed to be filled in two windows: pluses and minuses. The geography of participants is wide: Russia, the Near Abroad, China, the United Arab Emirates.

There is a “Rating of companies that can cheat.” True, the authors of the site admit that positive reviews can be boosted with the help of hired agencies. However, if you find your company among the hundreds of scammers, it’s worth seeing if there is any truth in it.

Contains information on more than 100 thousand companies and has more than half a million reviews. The site is distinguished by a convenient search form in which you select a country and also indicate the name of the company.

Interesting headings, which include 25 “outstanding employers”:
– companies that are most written about,
– companies that are viewed the most,
– the lowest and highest ratings.

The authors of the site consider their project to be a “bright representative of freedom of speech”, not subject to outside influence. I am glad that profanity is not indexed by search engines. Each review can be commented on.

Contains a black list of employers, and more. Portal vc.ru calls this site a virtual trade union. The authors position themselves as “a place for propaganda of ‘direct action’” in resolving labor conflicts – as opposed to the judicial and bureaucratic system”, and also claim that “thanks to antijob.net, more than a dozen workers received a salary after publishing a review on the site, because many employers are afraid to get on our site. ”

The number of visitors per year is about 2.5 million. The site receives 6,000 responses. Only half of them are moderated and published. To stop the filling of the portal with purchased responses, the administration introduced categories: certified, trusted and anonymous.

Considered an authoritative international resource. Created in 2008. Glassdoor operates as part of Recruit Holdings’ growing HR technology business segment. Registration is required to access data.

Contains reviews of 600,000 companies. There are more than 1000 reviews per employer. The rating consists of ratings:

– values ​​and corporate culture;
– work-life balance;
– top management;
– wages + bonuses;
– career growth.

Key characteristics of the site: 54 million visitors per month, 110 million reviews, 2.1 million employers. Designed for those who are looking for work abroad. It’s also of interest to those looking for employee experience information based on millions of company ratings and reviews, payroll reports, benefits reviews, and more.

Hundreds of thousands of comments about companies are collected here. Bad and good. You will find out what former applicants think about how the interview goes, about salary, about privileges, about the pros and cons of the job.

Ratings and comments add up to a specific company rating with a maximum of 5 stars. True, almost no company has such an assessment here. The more reviews, the more reliable the image of the company appears.

How to deal with negative feedback?

You can’t avoid them, no matter how hard you try. But something can be done.

  1. Strengthen alternative company information. Write about yourself as often as possible so that negative resource pages move down in the search results.
  2. Work with negative feedback to neutralize it. Do it promptly. A professional and persuasive answer will benefit more than the negativity itself. If you are not ready to work with reviews, you can outsource reputation management.
  3. Remember that there are sites where there are a lot of fakes that the authors of the resource offer the employer to remove for a certain amount of money. Whether it is worth paying – decide for yourself. You create the image of the company yourself. And the reputation depends on how you work with employees. Mistakes lower your reputation. Correcting a negative opinion is much more difficult than building a positive image of the company.
  4. Do not forget that no one canceled the work with the satisfaction of the staff. To get started, find out how many of your employees are satisfied with the company and start improving performance.

To do this, research the opinions of employees and candidates, and it is better to start doing this at the stage of hiring. Potok Recruitment is a universal recruitment automation platform that allows you to integrate surveys into the process of working with candidates.

When can the survey be launched:

– when a vacancy is closed for the candidate and process participants;
– when a candidate is transferred to a certain stage of the funnel or in case of refusal;
– for the candidate and the hiring manager after a period of time after being hired.

Get feedback from everyone involved in the recruitment process, speed up hiring and improve quality.

Depending on the configured rules, the survey starts automatically: you do not need to connect additional services. Each survey is related to a specific job, recruiter, or candidate, so you don’t have to ask about it separately. The results are accumulated in Potok: just download an Excel spreadsheet with data to easily organize and analyze it.

Reduce the manual work of collecting feedback and improve the process based on data!

Do you want to automate the search for new employees?

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