A recent study found that more than half of job candidates read employee reviews on Glassdoor and related sites at some point in their job search. And these reviews can have a significant impact on whether or not top job seekers decide to apply for your open roles.
Is your team doing anything today to actively manage online employee reviews? Whether you don’t have a strategy in place for managing employee reviews or are looking to improve, we’ve pulled together some best practices below.
Proactively Collect Candidate and Employee Feedback
According to a survey from Future Workplace, 78% of job seekers indicate they’ve never been asked for feedback on the candidate experience, and only 25% of employers regularly request feedback from candidates and employees. Few businesses proactively collect candidate and employee feedback, but doing so can benefit your business in several ways – including helping improve your hiring process, job applicant experience and employee training, which can lead to attracting more quality candidates down the road. Another benefit of collecting feedback is that your employees will feel valued and appreciated. By taking employee feedback on the hiring process and other aspects of your people operations seriously, you can create a better workplace, ultimately increasing productivity and profitability.
Regularly Read Reviews
Job candidates, current employees and former employees often leave reviews about the hiring experience and overall work environment on Glassdoor, Facebook and other channels. But many employers don’t take the time to read these reviews on a regular basis and only notice them when someone flags a negative review. For example, candidates might say they didn’t hear back from the hiring manager one way or another when they didn’t receive an offer. Or employee reviews might call out that management is disorganized and there are no set career paths.
On the other hand, candidates and employees also often leave positive reviews. It’s important to stay on top of the latest reviews – positive and negative – as they can have an impact on your overall employment brand and likelihood of securing quality candidates.
Respond to Feedback
Not only should you read online candidate feedback and employee reviews, but it’s also important to respond to feedback. Consider setting aside time each week to read and respond to any online candidate and employee reviews. This way, current candidates – and others considering applying for your company – can understand you’ll act on the feedback to improve the candidate experience and people operations in the future.
In addition to responding to both negative and positive feedback, if you receive positive candidate and employee reviews in person or via email, make sure to encourage sharing this feedback on Glassdoor, your career site and other related sites. This way, candidates who are interested in open roles in the future will see the positives of joining your team and be more willing to apply. And positive employee reviews can also help you build your customer base. Potential customers will see how much you value your employees, which means you also prioritize building a great team to provide top-notch customer service.
Embrace Feedback to Make Improvements
Candidates and employees are your best sources when it comes to collecting actionable feedback to improve your hiring process and people operations as a whole. When you hire a new employee, always ask them to share pros and cons of the candidate experience. And consider doing the same for candidates who make it several steps through the process but didn’t quite make the cut to get hired.
If a new employee says a specific step – or the entire hiring process – took too long, your business can identify next steps to speed up your hiring process. For example, if a candidate didn’t hear back about potential next steps until several weeks after he or she applied, you can make it a goal to review applicants quicker. Or if a new employee thinks filling out paperwork for the entire first day takes up too much time, you can consider implementing digital onboarding, so all employees can complete HR-related paperwork before the first day. Not only will addressing this feedback lead to a better candidate experience, but it can also help your HR team streamline the hiring process, and save time and money that can be reallocated to other parts of the business.
Managing employee reviews is just a small part of maintaining a strong employment brand to attract quality candidates and build your best team. For more information on how to get top talent excited to join your team, download our eBook, “The Hireology Employment Brand Playbook.”
