The increasing use of websites such as Glassdoor, where employees can post anonymous reviews about their employer, means that it can only take a quick internet search about your organisation to influence the opinion of a potential employee, or even a customer or supplier.

Positive reviews can be great for employers as they can boost your profile, enhance your brand and act as a great promotional tool. Bad reviews, on the other hand, can be very detrimental. You don’t want to put prospective employees off or allow negative comments to cause a negative impression with customers.

Understanding Glassdoor

On Glassdoor, current employees or ex-employees can list the pros and cons of working for you, and they can offer their advice to management. It is also possible for them to state whether they would recommend you to a friend and if they approve of the CEO.

Members of the public can also find are salary reports, interview reviews and photos of the organisation’s offices. You can see the ratings for different areas, such as culture and values; career opportunities; compensation and benefits; work/life balance and senior management.

Take charge

Employers can sign up for an employer account and depending on the type of access you have,  you can respond to reviews, see who has been looking at your profile and advertise job vacancies.

It is important to actively monitor all the reviews posted about your organisation. You should respond to comments promptly, regardless of whether they are positive or negative. Remember that people will not only read the comment; they will read your response too, so their opinion will be further shaped by the way in which you have handled the situation.

No matter how angry or annoyed you feel when reading reviews, you should always keep your composure and respond with professionalism. Acting defensively or going on the attack will only make it worse!

You should try and directly address their points. For example, if they are complaining about the lack of flexible working arrangements on offer, you can explain what you are doing to address this problem, refer them to the relevant policy or ask them to discuss it with their line manager or HR.

See the value of reviews

When looking through the reviews, you should see this as a good way to identify what your employees most value and what they think can be improved. It gives you the opportunity to find out how satisfied employees are in their job role and working for the company, but also how they feel about the company’s values and goals, work practices and procedures, work environment, culture and leadership.

If legitimate concerns are being raised, you can look into them further and see what you can do to rectify the situation.

It may seem a daunting and time-consuming task, but keeping on top of these types of reviews will only help your brand and reputation, but your employees’ engagement level.