7 Sites to Monitor Your Employer Reputation

These days, no one even buys a sweater without reading the reviews. Would you sign on to join a company without doing the same? Maybe… but probably not.

Review sites like the ones we’re including here are seen as a trusted resource for job seekers because the feedback and insights posted there are first, for the most part, anonymous and second, voluntary. Aside from the few companies that might “ask” their HR teams to “post something nice” (sorry, HR teams who had to do this), it means that a human decided that their experience with a company – either one they worked for or during the interview process – should be shared with anyone else considering applying there. 

The reviews on these sites are part of what makes up your employer reputation, and you should definitely tap in, that is if you care about your reputation… which you should. There are dozens of review sites that also include job postings, but we’re including only the most popular ones here. So, get your reading glasses on and take a look because this might literally save your reputation as an employer.

Glassdoor: The most popular review site in the U.S., Glassdoor has 114 million+ employer reviews and more than 62 million monthly site visitors. So… yeah, I would jump on that because your company is probably on there somewhere.

Indeed: Offers an anonymous review section of their website in addition to a forum, and job postings that include salary ranges (either supplied by employer or set by an algorithm). Indeed attracts more than 250 million monthly site visitors.

Fairygodboss: A review site that spotlights women’s perspectives on their employers – one of the questions it asks reviewers is “are women treated equally?” (Maybe ask one of the 44 female CEOs on the Fortune 500 list? That’s 44 out of 500 companies and it’s a record high).

Bro tip: Women that you’d probably love to hire really love this website.

InHerSight: It hasn’t been around as long as Fairygodboss, but the site aims to help women find female-friendly companies by focusing on 15 key metrics that matter most to working women, like flexible work hours, maternity and adoptive leave, and management opportunities for women. Like they say in marriage, “happy wife, happy life!” The same applies to employers… “happy women, happy workplace” (has a little less of a ring to it) but this motto will reflect positively on your employer brand.

CareerBliss: In its own words, an “online career community that is designed to help you find happiness in the workplace and your career.” It comes out with a list every year of the happiest companies to work for. I mean, look…it’s cute. You can’t really hate it.
 

Comparably: It’s a little different because it initially focused on compensation data when it launched in 2016, but also offers reviews, culture and salary information. If you love to slice and dice data points, this one is a winner.

Yelp: Yes, the restaurant or consumer business review site, however employees are leaving reviews about their workplaces on the site (this is not encouraged by Yelp, but it did launch a new “Nearby Jobs” paid feature in 2020).

Keep in mind that star ratings on Yelp don’t always translate the same as they would on an employer review website. A 3.5-star rating on Yelp can be viewed as negative whereas the same rating on a job review site is a respectable rating.

So now that you’ve thoroughly read through your company reviews (and let enough time pass so you’re not still wondering if Karen in Accounting is the one who left a review about the breakroom microwave), here are a few tips for monitoring your employer reputation:

ONE: Update your profile, or claim it if no one has done so.

TWO: Monitor reviews regularly; this will become part of your response strategy.

THREE: Set up a Google alert. If you haven’t done this before, instead of telling you to Google it, we’re going to tell you how (because GOOD LUCK finding it on your account home page). Go to Google.com/alerts. In the box, enter your company name (CEO’s name, all C-suite level staff, HR director…). Click “create alert” and you’ll get an email with search results for that term. Change settings like frequency of emails or language by clicking on “show options.” Now you’ll get an email with search results for your term so you don’t have to remember to search for it

FOUR: Establish a plan for responses to positive as well as negative feedback. If you think it doesn’t matter, here’s a quick stat: 76% of Glassdoor users agree their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review. (Source: Glassdoor.co.uk U.K. Site Survey, December 2019.)

FIVE: No, you cannot petition a website to remove a negative review. Technically you can, but why not spend your time on creating a strategy for responding to reviews instead? 

Applying these best practices for managing your employer reputation is a surefire way to attract more of the right job candidates and boost recruiting results. Developing a strategy to monitor your employer reputation is a big part of what we do at Talentcare (we see it work every day) and we’re ready to help. Drop us a line or slide into our DMs.