Do Glassdoor employee reviews affect your business? Hint: yes.

Glassdoor is an online platform that allows current or former employees to express their views about companies they work (or have worked) for.

It helps job seekers and clients to understand your business. But, it can also help customers gain a deeper insight into your business value and ethics. Look at fast-fashion brands - they're being boycotted because of how they treat their staff.

How your company treats your staff trickles down into the customer's mind - especially when consumers are being more conscious and ethical-focused. Bad Glassdoor reviews affect many things:

• Sales and revenue
• Customer perception of your brand
• Overall reputation, from an internal (employee) and external (customer/investor) perspective
• Productivity (due to affecting quality of candidates or amount of employees your business can retain)
• Recruitment
• Morale
• Investments

Negative Glassdoor reviews have a ripple effect - top-quality candidates will see bad reviews, and then apply elsewhere; you will have to settle for less experienced employees; there might be mistakes; morale will be low; the financial success of the business will dwindle and the overall atmosphere will feel...rubbish. No one wants any of that.

Reviews on the platform are anonymous. This allows former or current employees to give their honest opinions about your company.

Any reviews, positive or negative (even fake ones) can impact your company's reputation - it's also a bit worse when the reviews are anonymous. It means that your business is open to spam reviews, without much evidence such as a name to prove it.

If you're wanting to resolve an issue addressed in the review, it's also going to be a lot harder if you can't figure out who left it.

When you cant edit your reviews, or delete them, here's how to handle your Glassdoor employee reviews.

Why job seekers use Glassdoor

Many Glassdoor users are job hunters looking for:

• Knowledge of company culture
• What's the boss like?
• Information about potential hiring companies
• Insights about work environments
• Whether the salaries are bad, good or excellent

People search on Glassdoor to find reviews about top companies or get insights about potential employers before accepting a job offer.

Therefore, the ratings you get from Glassdoor will affect your hiring process.

How negative reviews can affect your business

Well, you can't please everyone, right? So no matter how good you treat your employees, one or two will have something bad to say.

After all, if all your reviews are positive, it might be a bit suspicious for those seeking jobs. The internet is full of spam and fraudulent behaviour, and people can expect that.

However, too many negative reviews can hurt your business, and here's how.

Impact on your recruiting efforts

If your business has more negative reviews on Glassdoor, it won't attract and retain top talent. A negative review makes it easier for a job seeker to turn down a job proposal from your company.

So, no matter how good your business sounds in a recruitment brochure, if it has many negative reviews, it won't attract the right talent. A single negative review might not cause a prospective employee to turn down a job offer, too many negative reviews will.

Companies with solid employer brands record low costs per hire whilst negative reviews increase a company's hiring costs. If your ratings on Glassdoor aren't glowing, you'll only attract under-qualified candidates, which will affect your business performance.

Impact on company reputation

A negative review presents a bad image of your brand, not only to potential employees but also to customers and clients. Negative reviews from former or current employees can damage a company's reputation.

Consumers and clients often shy away from businesses with many negative reviews. This damages a company's:

• Trustworthiness
• Prestige
• Credibility
• Profitability

Therefore, you should always strive for an excellent overall rating.

How to minimise the impact of negative reviews on your business

If you don't handle your overall rating on Glassdoor, your business will be at risk.

Luckily, there are various tactics you can use to prevent or minimise the impact of bad reviews on your business.

Here are some tips.

1. Adapt based on the reviews

Considering the impact of online ratings on your business, it's essential to have someone manage your Glassdoor account.

While you can flag or hide negative reviews on Glassdoor, more will still come. The best way is to adapt and improve your business based on the ratings.

For instance, look for a pattern in the reviews such as:

• Pay rates
• PTO allowance
• Career advancements
• Internal politics

Try to address the problems in your organisation. When you improve your company culture, your reviews on Glassdoor will start glowing.

2. Respond to reviews

Whether it's a positive or negative review, it's best to provide feedback. However, you should be careful with how you respond to reviews. For negative reviews, react and respond professionally. Always. Regardless if you agree with them or not.

Many Glassdoor users will be looking for your genuine concern to address the problem, so make sure you take time with your responses.

3. Encourage your employees to leave positive reviews

If you have many negative reviews or don't have any at all, you might consider asking your employees to share their experiences and opinions online.  

Do this during crucial moments like when hosting a company celebration, on a bonus day, or after delivering a compensation package. It's tactical, sure, but it's not unethical. It will be more effective than requesting reviews on a Monday, anyway.

Impacts of positive reviews on your business

Thanks to technology and the internet, company reputation management is difficult and complicated. Online sites like Glassdoor provide a platform for former and current employees to voice their opinions anonymously.

The voice is so loud that it reaches a wide audience of people looking for jobs in different parts. Ideally, if you own a business, you should have someone professionally manage your online employee reviews.

Positive reviews offer great benefits to your company's reputation. When everyone has something good to say about your company, your business will have a good reputation.

Hiring process

Positive reviews improve employee recruitment and retention. Your business will attract a large talent pool, making your hiring process seamless.

A positive review proves that your company offers a good working environment for employees, meaning fewer employees will leave.

SEO

Additionally, online reviews are a ranking factor in local search. This means if you have more glowing reviews on Glassdoor or other review sites, your business website is likely to rank high on search engines.

Positive ratings send a good message to potential employees, customers and clients while improving brand awareness. Also, they add credibility and social proof to your business.

All the same, you should strive to be an excellent employer to command excellent employee reviews. Your current or former employees won't praise your company on Glassdoor if you don't treat them well.

However, it's not easy getting positive reviews on Glassdoor or other job boards, and it all boils down to human nature - we tend to write more negative ratings than positive ones. We focus more on what we don't enjoy than on what we do enjoy.

This means satisfied employees (not all) are more likely to keep the satisfaction to themselves rather than share it with others online.

They feel like they have nothing to review because they're content. You need to actually ask them to review you, and try to pinpoint why they're content. But, it's likely you'll need software to help with that, especially one that you can personalise with a video like Cloutly.

Final thoughts

Reviews can impact your company's recruiting efforts, reputation, and overall performance. Positive reviews will draw top talent to your business, simplifying your hiring efforts during the interview process.

Negative experiences will drive away professionals looking for better job opportunities and work environments. However, you can improve your Glassdoor reviews by responding to them and encouraging happy employers to share their experiences.

Cloutly will help you streamline your online reviews on Glassdoor and improve your business's reputation. You can work with us to get more positive reviews and attract more talent.