In business, reputation is a pivotal strength. A good reputation attracts new clients and new employees alike. To this end, the recruitment site Glassdoor, whose listings include company reviews and employee insights, is fast becoming an important asset.
Here we’ll examine the strategic use of Glassdoor company reviews to enhance your reputation and attract new business.
Build an Authentic Culture
To achieve a high-ranking Glassdoor Company Review, a company must develop a positive and authentic business culture. What does that mean?
Genuine employee satisfaction is the bedrock of workplace culture. Companies should prioritize creating an environment where employees feel valued and engaged. Hopefully, this is something you’d want to do anyway, but it’s also important to ensure your employee satisfaction ratings remain high.
If achieved, this commitment will directly improve the quality of reviews on Glassdoor. As detailed in this Reputation.ca article, the impact of these positive reviews goes beyond employee recruitment to influence potential business clients.
A positive feedback loop is created:
Satisfied employees rank their employers more highly on Glassdoor, which leads to a rise in reputation as a good place to work.
Recruitment is improved, in turn boosting workplace culture, and so forth.
How can you work to improve your workplace culture, to garner and use those positive Glassdoor company reviews? Below, I share some of the insights I’ve gained helping small businesses and entrepreneurs thrive.
1: Encourage and Reward Honest Feedback
Promoting transparency is key to leveraging Glassdoor for business growth. Encourage your employees to leave honest reviews and consider rewarding those who provide constructive feedback.
Don’t explicitly bribe your staff to say nice things though! Companies that do so, and are found out, suffer reputational damage, and this is tricky to recover from.
Inviting honest feedback not only fosters a culture of openness but also provides invaluable insights into your company’s strengths and weaknesses. Common employee criticisms will help you identify practices you can improve, and additional benefits you might offer.
As outlined in a recent article by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, such practices foster a culture of continuous improvement.
2: Leverage Employee Insights in Sales Efforts
Incorporate positive employee testimonials from Glassdoor into your sales and marketing strategies. This can significantly enhance your company’s appeal to potential clients, as they actively look for objective assessments of your business.
Showcasing these testimonials demonstrates your commitment to employee satisfaction, thereby boosting trust and credibility. You’ll pick and choose the very best reviews, and you should provide links back to Glassdoor so that readers can check other reviews for themselves. This builds a picture of openness and honesty, as well as a hint of justifiable pride.
Digital Nexa’s blog post on using Glassdoor effectively highlights how these insights can serve as a persuasive element in your marketing materials. They also point out how important it is to ensure your Glassdoor company profile is up to date with an attractive banner, embedded video (if you have it), plus excellent photography and written content.
3: Regular Monitoring and Responsive Action
Actively monitoring Glassdoor reviews is crucial. Understanding employee sentiment and responding appropriately not only improves internal culture but also signals to prospective clients that your company values and acts upon employee feedback.
Pay close attention to the “pros” and “cons” sections of the Glassdoor Company Review, as well as the “advice to management” – that’s where the meat of any criticism lies.
Don’t be tempted to argue with anyone providing negative feedback, even if you believe they are wrong or vindictive. Doing so seems petty and unappealing to Glassdoor’s readership. Instead, thank them for their feedback and outline any steps you are taking to improve the situation.
Remember to thank people for leaving positive reviews too.
Regular engagement with Glassdoor reviews is a testament to your commitment to maintaining a positive workplace environment.
4: Integrate Glassdoor Ratings in Branding
Utilize high Glassdoor ratings as part of your branding and marketing efforts. These ratings can serve as badges of honor, differentiating your company in a competitive marketplace.
Why not have your designer create a laurel including your Glassdoor star rating (plus any ratings from similar sites)? Glassdoor produces annual lists of “Best Places to Work” so if you make that hallowed chart, boast about it. Use celebratory icons on your visual branding.
By integrating positive ratings into your brand image, you underscore the quality of your workplace and your ethical practice.
4: Storytelling with Employee Experiences
Finally, use real employee stories and testimonials from Glassdoor in your storytelling efforts.
This strategy can humanize your brand and provide compelling reasons for clients to choose your business. The authenticity and relatability of these stories can significantly enhance your brand’s appeal.
You could create an “employee story” page where a star employee relates how they came to the business, what they love about working with you, and what makes them excited for the future. These personal testimonials count for a lot in the age of influencers and social media.
Speaking of which, you can share great employee feedback on your social media channels too. Make sure you get permission from the employee first, of course, or anonymize it appropriately.
Glassdoor Company Reviews are nothing to fear
In conclusion, Glassdoor company reviews are not just about attracting top talent; they’re a multifaceted tool for enhancing your company’s reputation and winning new business.
They’re not to be feared either. Remember that most people will only ever review anything (be that an employer, a restaurant, or a hotel) if they have had either a wonderful or a terrible experience. One recent analysis of scientific papers about online reviews over the last 20 years found that “in general, reviews have become less diverse, less comprehensive, and more polarized.”
It’s either rant or rave, in other words, so aim to minimize the former and maximize the latter!
This polarization can give a somewhat skewed picture of how employees feel, which means that such reviews are never a substitute for conducting regular in-house employee satisfaction surveys.
That said, by building a culture that naturally breeds positive reviews, encouraging and rewarding honest employee feedback, and integrating these insights into your sales and branding strategies, you can turn Glassdoor into a powerful asset.
If you’d like to know more about building the kind of brand that employees and clients rave about, then check out my recent piece on how to improve your LinkedIn profile.
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