We have all become accustomed to making decisions on where to eat, via site like Zomato, what movie to watch via sites like IMDb, or where to stay via sites like Expedia.
But for the last few years, it’s not just restaurants, movies or apps that have been ranked by users.
Employer brands can now be praised and buoyed or trashed and exposed online by employees.
What anyone reads about your business is the perception that they form of your employer brand.
Online employer reputation and branding is becoming increasingly central to the ongoing sustainability of any employer in the future.
Mitch Joel, the author of ‘Six Pixels of Separation’ famously wrote ‘Your brand is not what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is. That’s your digital footprint.’
Joel’s claim increasingly applies to your employer brand and reputation.
Here are some employer review sites you need to know about:
In March 2016, Australia’s largest job board, Seek commenced its online company reviews service. Pitched as ‘read real reviews by real employees’,
Seek sports over 90,000 individual reviews.
Even Seek itself as an employer is open to scrutiny as the following graphic shows.
Still don’t think this is an important issue?
Check out Glassdoor. Their byline is “Get an Inside Look at Companies. Reviews, Salaries, Jobs & More.”
As an informed job seeker if you were going for an interview, you’d check out what sort of questions you might get asked.
Seems logical, right?
Here’s what I found when I Googled ‘Flight Centre interview questions’.
Glassdoor’s website ranked number one. That’s significant. Do you know what it takes to rank number one on Google organically?
It means Glassdoor is a behemoth in Google’s eyes.
When I visited Glassdoor and read about Flight Centre, I also learned also about their employer ranking. And I wasn’t even looking for that piece.
Still don’t think this is going to impact your business?
While in Glassdoor, I randomly chose another employer – News Corporation. Again, Glassdoor ranked number one in Google.
Go on: Try it with your own employer brand.
If it’s not there yet, Glassdoor or Seek, Vault or JobAdvisor will have your brand ranked soon.
Employer brand research
In 2014 and 2015, CareerSupport365 conducted research studies that showed:
- 88 percent of former employees felt more likely to still talk poorly about their employer within 13 weeks of losing their job.
- 89 percent of laid off employees said they would have felt ‘much more positive’ towards their employer had their former employer provided them with outplacement services.
- 40 percent of laid off employees had been provided an offer of outplacement services.
- 65 percent of laid off employees who were not offered a outplacement services program would have accepted one, had they been offered.
- Had they been provided with outplacement services, 95 percent of people would have felt ‘far less inclined’ to post adverse comments about their own former companies.
What are the implications?
An employer’s brand and reputation are no longer the domain of their Executive Leadership.
The internet now provides the opportunity for any employee — regardless of who they are — to have a voice online, impacting any employer brand, reputation and future talent pipeline.
Employers must treat their employees well throughout the whole of the employee life cycle. Not just on-boarding, not just during the employment experience, but upon departure as well.
But if they don’t, then an employer brand and reputation regardless of whoever it is will be at the mercy of employer review and branding platforms that can significantly impact their talent pipeline – for better or for worse.
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