Did you know that your reputation and employer brand are going to get a whole lot harder to manage in the future?
The other day, I typed in to Google “Flight Centre interview questions and answers” while I was coaching someone who was going for an interview with Flight Centre.
The first result was Glassdoor. That’s significant!
Glassdoor encourages any current or former employee, or candidate, to anonymously post insights about your company.
Note the words in bold and italics! Let that sink in.
What’s the implication?
Image management and reputation are no longer the domain of the CEO, CMO or the Chairman.
The internet now provides the opportunity for anyone — regardless of seniority — to have a voice online.
Today, people often place more weight on anonymous rankings (think of iTunes, Google Play, TripAdvisor) than that of the organisation’s official voice — regardless of who that voice is. This can potentially wreak havoc to the organisation’s brand reputation and therefore its sustainability.
There is an old marketing adage, that people are more inclined to complain and moan, than praise. Extend this to today. If you are peeved, you will post. And if you have spare time on your hands, (especially if you are out of work) then you will post more often.
CareerSupport365 conducted research 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 or career transition support.
- Had they been provided with outplacement or career transition services, 95 percent of people would have felt ‘far less inclined’ to post adverse comments about their own former employers.
It’s only a matter of time before your staff and potential talent pool will look to Glassdoor and similar sites to check you out.
What’s the lesson?
You must treat your employees well throughout the whole of the employee life cycle. If you don’t, then your employer brand and reputation will be at the mercy of anyone being their own media channel and having a voice on other internet platforms.
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